SWAMPSCOTT — The Swampscott Select Board addressed the antisemitic incident that occurred in town on Jan. 6. At a meeting Wednesday, the Board endorsed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, declared January to be Holocaust Education Month and declared Jan. 27 as Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“On Friday last week, as we are all now aware, somebody spray-painted a swastika on the sidewalk on Reddington Street here in Swampscott,” Chair Neal Duffy said.
The Select Board was already planning to discuss agenda topics about antisemitism, Holocaust Remembrance Day and Education Month at the meeting, he said. It was a “sad but profound coincidence” that the Friday incident occurred less than a week before the meeting.
“These incidents are so frequent and commonplace that I think we’ve become numb to them and the impact that they have and the harm and the hurt that they cause,” Duffy said. “But we certainly can’t ignore them, and it is important for us to recognize that antisemitism, racism, discrimination, hatred and hate speech do exist and do happen in our community, and we need to be vocal in our opposition to them.”
Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald said this is the most important thing for the Board to be doing right now. He wants residents to know that they live in “a wonderful town full of wonderful people that truly do care about the values of our democracy.”
“It’s so important that we aren’t just issuing a proclamation today, but really live these words and build these relationships and really continue to support all the things that we truly care about,” Fitzgerald said at the meeting.
The entire Select Board and Fitzgerald went around and read the proclamation, which defined antisemitism and proclaimed Holocaust Remembrance Day as Jan. 27 and January as Holocaust Education Month.
“On behalf of the entire Select Board, we do hereby … encourage all faith-based nonprofit organizations, residents, businesses and public institutions to acknowledge, honor and value Jewish people’s historic and current contributions locally and beyond, while also recognizing the ongoing interconnected struggles of all Jewish communities locally and beyond,” the proclamation also read.
Rabbi Michael Ragozin of the Congregation Shirat Hayam in Swampscott expressed his gratitude to the board and to Fitzgerald for the proclamation. He noted his scriptural reading for this week talked about the first-ever recorded incident of antisemitism.
“So as I sit here and witness what the Town of Swampscott has just done, I think of the concept of a repair, that at this very moment in ancient times, how antisemitism was rising,” Ragozin said. “I now witnessed that I live in a town that says we as the organized leaders of this community take a very strong stand — a full and encompassing proclamation — not only with a definition of antisemitism, but also of dedication to Holocaust awareness and so much more.”
