Wisconsin interfaith group condemns anti-Semitic acts | Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle

Wisconsin interfaith group condemns anti-Semitic acts

MILWAUKEE  — The leaders of the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee issued a statement to “strongly condemn the recent series of bomb threats and other anti-Semitic acts that have besieged Jewish community centers and schools here and across the country.”

“Diverse leaders of good will and strong faith must stand side by side to oppose a shadowy rise of what must be termed evil,” according to the statement. “Hate and intolerance are rearing up like emboldened specters, threatening both our core, shared values and the well-being of a nation whose freedoms and opportunities have been a beacon that must not be dimmed.”

“With equal vigor, we abhor similar hate acts directed against Muslims and others who are seen as ‘different.’  The gunshots from a hate-driven assailant who slayed six Sikhs at a temple in Oak Creek nearly five years ago still echo in our collective consciousness. Images from a mass shooting of African Americans two years ago at a church in Charleston, S.C., remain vivid.”

The statement calls for individuals to live up to the teachings of their faiths and to the ideals that are essential to a free and stable democratic society.

For 47 years, the Interfaith Conference – whose member faiths and denominations now reach across southern and southeastern Wisconsin – has upheld the sacred dignity of every person, according to the statement.

“We call upon people of all faiths and philosophies to stand even taller with us now.”