Last Thursday, JFREJ led eight other community organizations for a citywide Day Against Hate — a response to hate violence on a scale that we’ve never attempted before. The NYC Against Hate (formerly the Hate Violence Prevention Initiative) team organized an incredible twenty-five Day Against Hate events all across New York City. And thanks to the hard work of our coalition, and many JFREJ members, it was a huge success!

The goal of the Day Against Hate was to draw attention to the epidemic of hate violence that New York is experiencing right now, and for communities across New York to come together, learn concrete skills, and build the relationships we need to better protect ourselves and each other from hate violence. The core of most Day Against Hate events was an ”upstander” training, coordinated by the experts at The Center for Anti-Violence Education. Learning to be an upstander is a concrete way for all of us to protect each other from hate violence, without making assumptions about what an individual survivor of violence needs, or investing in approaches like policing or surveillance that can make other communities less safe.

You can see photos from the Day Against Hate, workshop materials, and our twitter feed on the NYCAgainstHate.org website. And here is some of the press coverage.

The “day” started on February 12th, with a kick-off press conference at the Museum of Jewish Heritage featuring leaders from the NYC Against Hate coalition and City Council Member Brad Lander, City Council Member Helen Rosenthal, and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. At the press conference, the coalition debuted its new policy platform, which lays out a powerful vision for a more effective response to hate violence. ​

And then, on February 13, the incredible energy that we had been building for weeks was unleashed: a training with 50 Jewish young adults in one room in Manhattan; a training with a half-dozen Muslim women in Bay Ridge; a workshop with Black Jews, and non-Jewish Black allies in Crown Heights; a training with 25 high-engaged interfaith leaders and clergy in Staten Island; a packed CopWatch training; a rapid-response training; a live-streamed panel discussion organized by the Met Council on Housing on antisemitism in the housing justice movement; and an intercultural street canvass in Kensington — and that's just a handful of the events that happened throughout New York on the Day Against Hate!

If you missed out on attending a Day Against Hate event in person, or you just want to continue the conversation, you can download our Discussion Guide and explore the topic with friends and family.

In the coming weeks, we will begin advocating for our policy platform at the city and state level. We're starting with a trip to Albany this coming Tuesday, 2/25. Can you join us? Email leo@jfrej.org if you're interested.

I am eternally grateful to all of the JFREJ members who volunteered as trainers, who helped to reach out to co-sponsors, who drafted materials, who helped coordinate accessibility, and who attended an event. We couldn’t have done this without your partnership.

Onward,

Leo Ferguson and the NYC Against Hate team