DPJC Position Statement

Assaults and Threats Against American Jewish Communities
February 22, 2017

The Dallas Peace and Justice Center (DPJC) denounces in the strongest terms possible, threats and attacks on Jewish Community Centers and attacks against the Jewish community across the country. According to several media reports <link> hundreds of centers have been threatened with arson.  In a venomous assault on the deceased there are also reports headstones in a Jewish cemetery in St. Louis have been desecrated.

"These are cowardly attempts to instill fear and despair in innocent members of a minority community. It's reprehensible and un-American and must stop," said Aftab Siddiqui, DPJC Board Member and Chair of the DPJC Human Rights and Justice Committee.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center <link>, these attacks are clearly tied to a spike in the formation of hate groups coinciding with the ascendancy of Donald Trump on the American political landscape.

"Nefarious elements that prey on innocent minorities such as American Jews and Muslims represent the worst of American society. Those who are responsible must be apprehended and prosecuted to the full extent of the law," said long time peace and justice activist and former Texas State Representative, Lon Burnam.