HMREC ignores JCPA talking points about BLM

Dear Editor:

In Roz Fuchs’s, “Holocaust Center is continuing the work Tess Wise started” opinion piece (Jan. 15, 2021), I feel compelled to respond.

The problem so many people from around the country are having with the “Uprooting Prejudice” exhibit at the HMREC is it’s glorifying a riot instigated by the BLM Movement, which is anti-Semitic. The HMREC’s mission is Holocaust education and to fight the evils of anti-Semitism, not promote anti-Semitic groups inside their hallowed halls.

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs wrote in a talking points memo, “the Movement for Black Lives, opposes U.S. military aid toward Israel. In 2016, it (BLM) issued a charter that leveled ugly accusations against

Israel. We agree that should this issue creep back into Black Lives Matter movement, the Jewish community relations field should strongly oppose it.” 

These JCPA concerns are uniformly accepted by both the politically liberal and conservative Orlando Jewish community in this one case. Yet, the HMREC’s leadership has been tone-deaf to these JCPA talking points and hostile to their detractors locally and nationally.

The national negative pushback our Maitland Holocaust Center has gotten from this ‘Uprooting Prejudice’ exhibit is an indicator there is a problem in our community.

The problem is this highly controversial Marxist Social Justice education track the Holocaust Center’s leadership has embarked on is divisive and problematic.

We are stronger together than we are apart.  

Alan Kornman 

Chuluota, Fla.