'Speaking boldly' against hate: Palm Beach Synagogue to host antisemitism summit Tuesday at Colony

As antisemitic incidents continue to proliferate in communities around the country, local officials are urging residents to speak out against hate.

Tuesday's second annual Palm Beach Summit on Countering Antisemitism will provide a meaningful opportunity.

The event, which includes a morning session at The Colony hotel and an evening session at Palm Beach Synagogue, will feature more than two dozen community leaders, scholars and elected officials hosting discussion panels on a variety of topics including "Extremism on Campus," "Antisemitism Overseas" and "Discussing Antisemitism With Your Children."

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Panels begin at 8 a.m. and conclude at 2 p.m. at The Colony. An evening dinner reception at Palm Beach Synagogue also will include a panel discussion, Rabbi Moshe Scheiner said.

Scheiner, who helped organize the summit along with co-chairs Nolan and Michael Greenwald, will offer opening and closing remarks during the event, which is expected to draw 200 people to the daytime session and 150 for the evening session.

"We're trying to generate awareness of antisemitism," Scheiner said. "The first thing about any problem is to understand it and educate ourselves, to learn about it and shed light on it."

Tuesday's summit comes at a particularly worrisome time for Jewish people in the United States, Scheiner said.

Locally, a spate of antisemitic incidents earlier this year have put the Jewish community on edge.

In January, antisemitic flyers were placed in the front yards and driveways of homes in Boca Raton, Lake Worth, Atlantis and West Palm Beach.

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Also that month, West Palm Beach police received calls about hateful images and messages projected onto the side of an AT&T building at 325 Gardenia St. And in Palm Beach, four men were issued littering citations for distributing antisemitic flyers to private residences Jan. 28 on the island.

Mayor Danielle Moore, who will attend Tuesday's Palm Beach Summit along with West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James, Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg and other community leaders and scholars, expressed her outrage over the incidents in a letter to Scheiner, and vowed to stand in solidarity against behavior that "so clearly violates our town's values and standards."

"Such hatred and bigotry will not and should not be tolerated ever," she wrote.

Scheiner said he hopes that message will be shared widely, particularly at the grassroots level.

"The only way antisemitism is going to be defeated is if everyone feels a responsibility to speak out against it and to do everything in their power to stop it," he said. "We want the experts to speak to the general public and share what they can do to defeat antisemitism. We're only going to defeat hate if everyone joins together and are not afraid to speak boldly against it."

The second annual Palm Beach Summit is open to the public. Cost is $100 for the daytime event, which includes breakfast, and $50 for the evening event, which includes a dinner reception.

Register online at palmbeachsynagogue.org.

Jodie Wagner is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at jwagner@pbdailynews.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Local officials hope to raise awareness of antisemitism at Palm Beach event