After bomb threats, rally supports Siegel Jewish center

In her 18 years at the Siegel Jewish Community Center, Executive Director Ivy Harlev has never seen the amount of anti-Semitism directed at the center as over the past 2½ months.

But the hatred spewed by a few are not the feelings of many, Harlev said. The hundreds of Delawareans who filled the parking lot outside the Talleyville community center on Sunday were evidence of that, she said. And despite five bomb threats — three by phone and two in emails — Harlev said the community will persevere.

"It's been an awful experience with the threats," she said, "but it's been an amazing experience of coming together. ... I just think we're a better community together."

So do many other Delaware churches, nonprofits and community groups who spent the afternoon at the Unity Rally, organized by the The United Way of Delaware and others to show support for the center. Political leaders and clergy, standing on the back of a truck bed doubling as an outdoor stage, repeated emphatically that these threats to the Jewish community and to others would not be tolerated or accepted in Delaware.

Yet the ill intentions of those who made the threats have permeated the community center since the threats began, disrupting toddlers during morning activities and sending seniors participating in pool activities outside into the cold. Paul Calistro, executive director of West End Neighborhood House in Wilmington and one of the rally organizers, said he has seen firsthand parents struggling to explain the disruption to their children as their community center becomes overrun by "bullies."

"We will not allow the Jewish Community Center to stand alone," Calistro said. "Today is about teaching our children love."

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That's why the First State must continue to be a place for all people, said Rabbi Michael S. Beals, with Wilmington's Congregation Beth Shalom, and those attempting to breed fear will not be welcomed.

No one has been charged with making the threats to the JCC. More than 100 threats have been made to Jewish facilities across the country this year.

Those who live in these communities, whether directly impacted by these threats or not, need to "move from sympathy to radical empathy and love," Beals said. The "bullies and cowards" cannot win, he said.

The way to beat them?  "A potent blend of justice and of love," Beals said.

And religion can't be the dividing line either, said Imam Abdul Hadi Shehata with the Islamic Society of Delaware, eliciting cheers from the crowd. He stressed that in attacking one religion, those looking to cause fear and concern among communities — especially those making bomb threats — were attacking all people.

"Peace and justice must be the agenda for all of us," he said.

Shehata's message resonated with Lynn Hanna, the only non-Jewish executive board member for the JCC. Hanna became deeply entrenched in the community center after joining the gym and making many friends within the community, eventually sending her children to the center for preschool and other activities.

Now, she feels the direct effects of the threats to the place she volunteers at and trusts with her children. Hanna was even in the building with U.S. Sen. Tom Carper and others when a bomb threat was received by phone a few weeks ago. The surreal moment, Hanna said, got the reaction those making the calls want, spiking her adrenaline and admittedly some fear.

But unity, even with diversity, is possible, Hanna said. A rally that brought together the governor, state leaders, Wilmington's mayor and community activists — along with hundreds of community members set on supporting targeted groups — was proof of this, she said.

"It's a very proud moment," Hanna said.

And even as these phone calls and emails threatening violence against the Jewish community may continue, they can not be the loudest voice in the room, said New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer.

"We live in such an extraordinary time where anyone that has a phone has a megaphone," Meyer said. "They have a TV station. They can broadcast around the world and we can use that for hate or we can use it for love. It's up to us, each one of us individually and together as a community, more than ever before in human history, to determine our own futures."

"The things we see and hear on TV, the phone calls that come right here into the JCC," Meyer added, "they're not us and they will not be us."

Contact Brittany Horn at (302) 324-2771 or bhorn@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter at @brittanyhorn.