SWC, NY and NJ Elected Officials and Interfaith Clergy Leadership Stand Together Against Hatred Following Pittsburgh Shooting

November 1, 2018

L-R - Realf Shermer Office of NJ Assembly Member and Speaker Pro Tempore Gordon Johnson, Bishop Mitchell G. Taylor - Senior Pastor, Center of Hope International/Founder, Urban Upbound – Mobilizing Pastors and Communities, Rabbi Marc Volk Executive Director National Council of Young Israel, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, SWC Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action Agenda (at microphone), NYS Assembly Member Walter Mosley, NYS Assembly Member David Weprin

November 1, 2018

Today the Simon Wiesenthal Center joined with NYS Assembly Member Walter Mosley and NJ Assembly Member Gordon Johnson announcing the introduction of legislation in their respective states to strengthen penalties against those who attack houses of worship.
L-R - Bishop Taylor, Rabbi Cooper, Rabbi Volk, Assembly Member Shermer (at the microphone), Assembly Member Johnson, Assembly Member Mosley, Assembly Member Weprin and Mohammad Razvi, Executive Director, Council of Peoples Organizations

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, SWC Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action Agenda, and Michael Cohen, SWC Eastern Director, were joined by NYS Assembly Member David Weprin and a prestigious array of multi-faith clergy leadership including Bishop Mitchell Taylor, Senior Pastor, Center of Hope International, Mohammad Razvi, Executive Director, Council of Peoples Organizations and Rabbi Marc Volk, Executive Director, National Council of Young Israel in both expressing joint condemnation of the horrific attack in Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue and standing up to make sure that concrete and immediate actions are taken to protect families of all faiths in their sacred houses of worship.

L-R - Rabbi  Cooper, Rabbi Volk, Assembly Member Mosley, Realf Shermer, Assembly Member Johnson, Michael Cohen and Bishop Taylor

The proposed legislation additionally calls for those convicted of murder in religious intuitions to have each aspect or count that they are convicted of only run consecutively and never concurrently to ensure that the maximum length of sentences for those who perpetrate such heinous crimes.

L-R - Michael Cohen, Assembly Member Mosley and Bishop Taylor

L-R - Rabbi Cooper, Assembly Member Mosley (at the microphone), Assembly Member Weprin and Mohammad Razvi

The Simon Wiesenthal Center continues to deeply mourn those who were lost, and is committed to taking such immediate actions to fight back against the hate, anti-Semitism and intolerance that leads to such unspeakable acts.

For more information, please contact the Center's Communications Department, 310-553-9036. join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).