(JEWISH GROUP) When safety becomes personal for Tampa Bay's Jewish community
Although much of my family was murdered during the Holocaust, my grandparents survived because a neighbor hid them in defiance of the Nazis — and was killed for it. Upon immigrating to America, they rebuilt their lives, determined to contribute to the communities that welcomed them and hopeful that the world had learned something from the catastrophe they endured.
That hope is now being tested.
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It means listening when Jews say they feel unsafe. It means rejecting stereotypes and misinformation whenever and wherever they surface. And it means recognizing that Jewish families in Tampa Bay are not an abstraction but people who live, work and raise our children alongside you.
Jewish safety cannot be dismissed as a narrow concern. Our entire community must meet this moment with the seriousness and resolve it demands, before fear becomes normalized and threats become tragedies.
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