The first Jewish American Heritage Week was recently observed in the state of Florida.
State Sen. Daphne Campbell (D-Miami) and State Rep. Emily Slosberg (D- Delray Beach ) both filed a resolution declaring the week of Feb. 12 as Jewish American Heritage Week in Florida. This resolution recognizes the rich history and culture in which Jewish Americans have contributed to North America and the State of Florida.
Campbell and Slosberg hosted the first annual Jewish Heritage Breakfast in Tallahassee. Slosberg noted that Jews from Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Tampa Bay, the Panhandle, Miami and across the state showed up in Tallahassee to attend this breakfast.
“It was a terrific turnout,” Slosberg continued. “Let Feb. 12 mark the beginning of a new tradition in the state, one in which we yearly recognize the achievements made by the Jewish people in America.”
Both Slosberg and Campbell have stated they are proud to sponsor the first ever resolution in the state’s House of Representatives and Senate respectively declaring Jewish Heritage Week in the State of Florida from Feb. 12-16.
Campbell noted, “This resolution is important to me because in my district I represent over 20 percent of Jewish Floridians and recognize the positive impact that the Jewish community plays in advancing the state of Florida.”
At the breakfast, three individuals were honored for their outstanding work to the Jewish community. These individuals are: State Rep. Rick Stark (D-Weston), the chair of the state’s Jewish Legislative Caucus; Miriam Klein Kassenoff, education specialist for Holocaust Studies for Miami-Dade County Public Schools and director for the University of Miami Holocaust Teacher Institute; and Rabbi Shneur Zalman Oirechman of Tallahassee.
Stark, whose district includes Pembroke Pines, Southwest Ranches, Weston and Davie, said the recent breakfast was “a nice celebration of Jewish American Heritage Week.”
“We had a great breakfast and it really felt nice to be recognized as I am now going into my sixth year as the chair of the Jewish Legislative Caucus.”
Stark had the opportunity to sing “Hatikvah,” the Israeli national anthem, during the event and thanked his fellow state legislatures for proposing a week to honor Jewish Americans.
Kassenoff is “deeply honored” that Slosberg and Campbell chose her for what she calls “a very meaningful tribute for the first American Jewish History Week initiative.”
“It has been a long journey for me coming from Nazi Occupied Europe as a young Jewish child fleeing, running and hiding from the Nazis clutching my parents’ hands finally to freedom to the United States of America — The “Golden Medina,” as my father the late Rabbi Maurice Klein called America, ‘The Golden Land.’ We fled because of anti-Semitism in 1941 and so it is important that today, as the Holocaust educator for Miami-Dade County Schools and the University of Miami -Holocaust Teacher Institute, that I now speak out against the rising wave of anti-Semitism we Jewish people are once again experiencing.”
Kassenoff continued, “We must never again stand by and let perpetrators of such bigotry and discrimination happen to our people or for that matter to any group of people anywhere.”
“We must always speak out, we must always educate, we must always stand strong together and we thank Rep. Slosberg and Sen. Campbell for initiating American Jewish Heritage Week in the Florida Legislature so that the world will know voices like theirs are being heard as is mine.”
Slosberg noted, “In the district that I represent, a home in Boca Raton was defaced with swastikas, a synagogue in South Palm Beach County was vandalized with fecal matter and swastikas were etched into the door of a bathroom stall at a Boca middle school.”
“Nationally, anti-Semitic incidents rose 67 percent from 2016 to 2017. On the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day [Jan. 27], a legislative body in the country of Poland passed a measure setting up criminal penalties for using the term polish death camps.”
Slosberg continued, “There are more than 650,000 Jewish residents of the state of Florida. As the state rep. of District 91, with one of the largest Jewish constituencies, it is crucial to recognize and celebrate Jewish heritage in Florida in the face of this new wave of anti-Semitism.”
