SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Leaders of faith organizations and social justice groups across Sacramento gathered outside City Hall to call out antisemitic comments made by a person attending recent city council meetings.
Standing underneath a banner reading "Not in our town!", one-by-one each local leader took to the podium.
"We need to stand up and say loudly and clearly together in one voice, 'Not in our town, not in Sacramento, not in America, not anywhere ever again'," said the Jewish Federation's Sacramento Region President Barry Broad.
Tuesday's gathering of leaders was sparked by a speaker's antisemitic remarks made during public comment at recent Sacramento City Council meetings.
Video of the May 23 meeting showed a line of police officers in front of the dais as protesters blocked the speaker from reaching the podium.
Self-proclaimed members of the far-right organization Proud Boys also clashed with protesters.
Councilmember Lisa Kaplan told ABC10 the recent meeting was not the first time the speaker made antisemitic remarks at city council meetings.
At the start of Tuesday's meeting, Mayor Darrell Steinberg encouraged people in the audience to hold up "Love Not Hate" signs held up earlier by faith leaders.
Rabbi Evan Rubin of Sacramento's Kenesset Israel Torah Center said he's glad to see leaders from such diverse organizations, including from the LGBTQ community and the Black community, coming out to support the fight against antisemitism.
"We are taught to believe 'love thy neighbor as thyself' and also to believe 'That which is abhorrent to you, you should not do to someone else.' We need to live by those ideals," Rubin said Tuesday. "We need to educate all of our people in those ideals, so that indeed, love can prevail."
Senior rabbi at the Congregation B'nai Islrael, Rabbi Mona Alfi said the goal of the Proud Boys and the goal of white supremacy is to pit people against one another—but thankfully the community sticks together.
"It does not matter which group is being singled out on any given day, we must all stand together. And I am confident that here in Sacramento, we will continue to come together again and again and again and as many times as needed to stand united against all forms of hatred and bigotry," she said.
Sacramento's Tuesday city council meeting proceeded without disruption.
