Gov. Kathy Hochul’s recent announcement of New York State’s first Anti-Hate in Education Center is a significant step toward the insurmountable goal of putting an end to antisemitism.
The education center is scheduled to open in summer 2024 and it will create a unified working group among its various stakeholders including CUNY, SUNY, the New York State Education Department and The Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities.
Hochul’s creation of the center follows President Joe Biden’s announcement of the U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism in May, condemning hate toward the Jewish community.
According to a statement by The White House, “the strategy outlines a whole-of-society approach to tackle the scourge of antisemitism in America.” It does so by featuring a list of meaningful actions that can be taken by government agencies to tackle the historically challenging issue.
It also encourages leaders and people of all groups to join the fight by recognizing the four fundamental principles written in the proposal and putting them into immediate effect.
The four pillars include increasing awareness and understanding of the threat faced by Jewish Americans, improving safety and security for such affected communities, actively reversing the normalization of antisemitic discrimination and composing a collective community that prioritizes the counteracting of hate.
Hochul recognizes the value of the working collective and its likelihood of success. According to a press release, she has acknowledged the responsibility to protect and uplift Jewish communities in New York City.
The establishment of the education center makes NYS the first state to respond to the Biden-Harris administration’s national strategy. Its initial objectives sharply reflect those highlighted in the White House’s proposal.
Furthermore, the center and its annual meetings will call on experts in both government and the academic community to seek solutions for the very complex issue. In doing so it will build an alliance between a group of experts whose main goal would be the pursuit of equitable policies and the development of the necessary education needed to achieve that goal.
CUNY Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez commended Hochul’s leadership and action which “mobilizes the State’s full capacities and provides clear unity of purpose to counter a pervasive and damaging global threat.”
A detailed action plan is what is needed when dealing with difficult social issues. An academic paper of the brief history on antisemitism displays the lengthy extent of a problem with no rightful case for its present existence.
Antisemitism has been so lasting because of its inability to be defined, much less understood. However, Hochul’s action recognized there is a problem which needs fixing in the first place. A problem with no lack of threat should be met with the same kind of reaction, and that’s exactly what the Anti-Hate in Education Center is.
An unfortunately head-on but quite necessary step aimed at putting a halt to what’s far grown by limiting any chances of its continual growth. This means working from the ground up and there’s no better place to do that than in the way people educate themselves.
