It’s been another tumultuous couple of weeks in the world of Philadelphia Jewry post-Oct. 7. Here’s what happened.
JewBelong Billboards
If you follow Jewish stuff on Instagram, you might know JewBelong, the nonprofit organization with over 93,000 followers. One of its founders is Archie Gottesman, a longtime branding officer for Edison Properties in Newark, New Jersey. Gottesman’s goal with JewBelong is to “rebrand Judaism so it’s easy to get right to the good parts,” according to her LinkedIn.
Post-Oct. 7, the marketing expert is bringing that mission to the Philadelphia area. Three billboards reading, “Let’s be clear: Hamas is your problem too,” now stand above prominent highway spots in the region: 1-76 and Reed Street, 1-95 and Woodhaven Road and 1-95 and Walt Whitman.
“We live in information silos. You and I don’t know the same things,” Gottesman said. “But what happens is we both get into our car and drive places, or we walk down the street.”
The message of the billboards is clear, according to Gottesman.
“They don’t like Americans any more than they like Israelis,” Gottesman said. “The people in the middle, they might be susceptible to ‘free Palestine.’ The other side has very catchy messaging.”
Emailed Bomb Threats to Synagogues
On Dec. 14, the last day of Chanukah, Rabbi Charles Briskin of Shir Ami in Newtown was eating lunch with two rabbinical colleagues from the area, Peter Rigler of Temple Sholom in Broomall and Jason Bonder of Congregation Beth Or in Maple Glen. They all got calls within minutes about bomb threats emailed to their synagogues.
The three men dispersed and drove back to their workplaces. Their shuls were among 13 in the area that faced threats that day, according to 6ABC. Luckily, nothing ended up happening, according to Briskin. Shir Ami was able to reopen by 2 p.m.
“It was awful,” Briskin said. “I spent a good part of the afternoon checking in with teachers making sure they were doing OK. They’re doing better today. But it was a sobering reality that this can happen anywhere.”
Jewish Groups Organize Ceasefire Protest that Shuts Down Traffic at Rush Hour
On Dec. 14, Jewish Voice for Peace and Rabbis for Ceasefire organized a ceasefire protest that “blocked westbound lanes of 1-76 near the Philadelphia Museum of Art,” according to a PhillyVoice report. Protesters also “hung banners from the Spring Garden Street Bridge” and “carried signs that read, ‘Let Gaza Live’ and ‘Ceasefire Now.’”
The protest shut down the Schuylkill Expressway and the Spring Garden Street Bridge for a period, according to PhillyVoice. Thirty-two people were arrested.
“On the last day of Hanukkah, Jewish people are rising up in unprecedented numbers and moral clarity to say: CEASEFIRE NOW, Palestinians should be free. We will make business as usual impossible until the US stops funding and fueling a genocide,” wrote Jewish Voice for Peace in a Facebook post.
Temple Podiatry Student Sends Anti-Israel Email to School Listserv
On Dec. 5, a Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine student named Mohammad Hosain read an open letter to classmates calling Israel’s war actions in Gaza “a genocide.”
“Since Oct. 7, more than 15,200 individuals have been killed with more than 40,000 individuals wounded. Appallingly, 70% of the dead were women and children. The mass displacement of over 1.8 million civilians is a blatant violation of international law and a war crime. Moreover, attacks on healthcare facilities, medical staff and ambulances have reached alarming levels, with over 57 healthcare facilities damaged and more than half of the hospitals inoperable,” Hosain said, according to a copy of the letter sent to the Jewish Exponent by Sam Roth, a Jewish podiatry student.
“In the face of this crisis, we must take action,” he said later.
Hosain also sent an email to the Temple podiatry listserv expressing similar sentiments. John A. Mattiacci Sr., Temple’s dean of podiatry, responded by sending out an email stating that Hosain did not speak for the school.
“We must foster an environment that is open to a diversity of thought, opinion and dialogue. But know that violence and incidents of bias or hate that violate our policies, including our Student Conduct Code, will not be tolerated in our community,” Mattiacci Sr. said.
Calling Jewish Voice for Peace and Rabbis for Ceasefire “Jewish groups” is about as intellectually honest as calling Hannibal Lecter a vegetarian.
These are “progressive groups”. And their “progressive values” are untethered from any semblance of traditional Jewish culture or faith.