Simon Wiesenthal Center Conducts Hate Crime Prevention Forums Across New York City

Left to right: Rick Eaton, Director of Research, SWC; Emily Thompson, Associate Director of Research, SWC; New York City Council Majority Whip Selvena Brooks-Powers; Jeff Schoep; and Michael Cohen, Director, Eastern Region, SWC.

This week the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) conducted three community forums across New York City as part of the Hate Crime Prevention Initiative, which was generously funded by the New York City Council. The forums were co-hosted in East Harlem by New York City Council Majority Leader Diana Ayala, in Rosedale by Council Majority Whip Selvena Brooks-Powers, and in Kew Gardens Hills by the Queens Jewish Community Council, along with New York State Senator Leroy Comrie, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, New York State Assemblymember Andrew Hevesi, and New York City Councilmember Lynn Schulman. 

The highlight of the forums was a presentation by Jeff Schoep, former Commander of the National Socialist Movement, who left the movement a number of years ago. Schoep now travels the country and passionately speaks out against anti-Semitism, racism and hate. In the process, he explains how hate groups target and attract susceptible youth and what we can do to stop them.

Eaton, Thompson, and Schoep are pictured with New York State Senator Leroy Comrie; Rabbi Mayer Waxman, Executive Director of the Queens Jewish Community Council; and Mr. Cohen.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center also opened the forum with a presentation on the Combat Hate Program, which was also sponsored by the City Council. The program educated over 25,000 public school students in nearly 700 workshops across the city in 2023. The center’s national experts shared segments of the Annual Report on Digital Terror and Hate with attendees, which notes the good and bad actors on various social media platforms and interactive gaming systems. The center also explained how diligent and effective it has been at removing hateful and offensive content from the sites. 

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams

The Simon Wiesenthal Center thanks all of our partners in the City Council, especially City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, for their leadership and assistance. Moreover, we thank them for ensuring that we have the resources and tools necessary to not only combat hate, but enhance the center’s capacity to educate future generations and communities across the city on these vital issues.

Source: The Simon Wiesenthal Center