On September 16, 2020, the Jewish Voters League of America (JVLA) hosted a Zoom Question and Answer videoconference with Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams to discuss the recent uptick in bigotry, race, and religious-based attacks across the country. Mr. Adams is currently the Borough President of Brooklyn, New York City. He formerly served as an officer in the New York City Transit Police and then the New York City Police Department for 22 years. And in 2013, Mr. Adams was elected Brooklyn borough president with 90.8 percent of the vote.
Pictured is a screenshot of the first page of the JVLA meeting with Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams.
Organized and hosted by current JVLA president Michael Oved, the hour long conference consisted of close to fifty prominent Jewish and African American leaders from all over Brooklyn. After Mr. Oved’s opening remarks introducing the Brooklyn president, Mr. Adams began the night detailing the tremendous threat to our democracy that antisemitism and racism poses. He stated, “As criminality engulfs [New York City], our leadership has failed. Our democracy is dying.”
Furthering this point, Mr. Adams recommended that New York City drastically convert some NYPD units to an 80% civilian workforce and conduct forensic audits of the department’s “notoriously opaque” budget and reduce overtime, thus reducing the police budget by $1 billion or more. Adams said he aims to convert more uniformed NYPD jobs to civilian positions through targeting the department’s press office; its barrier division, which puts up barricades for events like parades; and its CompStat unit, which is responsible for compiling crime statistics. Forensic audits should focus on finding savings in equipment expenditures, such as for guns and vehicles, as well as data aggregation, facial recognition and gunshot detection software, the report states. And overtime could be reduced by limiting officers’ time spent in court through conducting some of those proceedings digitally — a matter Adams believes the city should push for with state lawmakers. Cutting the NYPD’s budget in those ways, he said, would allow the city to better prioritize areas like health care, early childhood development and summer youth employment. After all, according to Adams, “Diverting wasteful spending from the third-largest agency operating budget in our city is essential to combating our deficit, and ensuring that budgetary waste is redirected toward black, brown [and Jewish] communities.”
Eric Adams also touted his work in doubling the funding for the ADL’s “No Place For Hate” project. This program ensures that schools meet certain standards to be designated “no place for hate.” Once designated as such, according to the ADL and Adams, the schools would have built an inclusive and safe community where all students can thrive and learn in the safest environment. Furthering this idea of building safe environments for minorities, Adams discussed his joint initiative with US Representative Hakeem Jeffries in December of 2019 called “Breaking Bread, Building Bonds.” This program, intended to combat anti-Semitic hate crimes, brings together people of different races, ethnicities, and religions to promote intersectional unity.
In addition to discussing his efforts in fighting bigotry and hatred of all forms, Adams spoke to the attendees of the conference, Jewish and black community leaders, encouraging and informing them how they can get involved in stopping bigotry and hate crimes.
“It’s simple,” Adams says. “Call our hate when you see it and always, always stand up for what’s right.” Join local initiatives, contact local politicians, and volunteer for local organizations.
Because, after all, no one should fear for their safety or be victimized because of their religious beliefs or race. But since extremist, hate-filled rhetoric has become awakened and stoked across this country, this unacceptable behavior is increasingly becoming the norm for some. And our children become indoctrinated and tainted in the process.
Pictured is the official JVLA flyer sent to the invitees of this conference.
According to Adams, “We must stand in support of any efforts or curriculums designed to promote tolerance and inclusion, in all of its facets. Our youth are our society’s most capable change agents, and they are never too young to learn that hate speech or any other forms of intolerant expression are wrong, and must always be denounced when it is encountered.”
And while we all acknowledged that we may not rid the country of hate by virtue of this one conference, educating others about the importance of this goal and about efforts to fight bigotry when we see it is certainly the first step toward a brighter future.
Through other JVLA events in tandem with our biweekly newsletters, we are committed to keeping the conversation surrounding racism and antisemitism brewing. We are dedicated toward ensuring that our members are educated about these topics so they can easily vote when election time comes. After all, all change begins at the ballot box. And if we elect the right politicians that represent our values, “bigotry be gone,” as Mr. Adams put it.
