Hundreds Gather In Westport For Discussion On Antisemitism & Jewish Identity

News release from The Westport Library:

WESTPORT, CT — Those who approached the microphone were thoughtful, compassionate, and at times emotional, a wide cross-section of the Westport community gathered together to discuss one of the pressing issues of our time: antisemitism.

In all, nearly 400 people packed The Westport Library’s Trefz Forum on Thursday, November 13, for a special Westport Library Common Ground Initiative event focused on understanding Jewish identity, antisemitism, and allyship.

“The program was an important first step to opening up the conversation about antisemitism,” said Rabbi Jeremy Wiederhorn, the spiritual leader of The Community Synagogue (TCS) in Westport. “While many of us may not have agreed on every aspect of the approach, that's the beauty of Common Ground — a multiplicity of viewpoints listening and learning from each other.”

That community conversation was at the very heart of the evening — a one-hour presentation and 30-minute Q&A hosted by Eli Cohn-Postell and Kara Wilson of Project Shema, a training and support organization focused on addressing contemporary antisemitism.

“No doubt this is a complicated topic that triggers emotion and does not have a single point of view,” said event attendee Mark Altschuler. “But I thought the people from Project Shema were talented, committed, and prepared with slides that made a point and were supported by thoughtful comments. I especially liked the historical slides and education, and they managed the questions with sensitivity and respect. It was evident to me that they put a lot of time and thinking into the work.”

The focus for the evening: Creating a space for open conversation and respectful dialogue on issues of importance to the community. In that regard, the event was a resounding success.

“We live in a culture where people avoid hard conversations,” Westport Library Executive Director Bill Harmer said during the evening’s opening remarks. “That avoidance makes it harder to talk honestly, harder to recognize it when it appears, and harder to respond with clarity when it matters most.

“The challenge is fear, uncertainty, and a lack of shared language. When people do not feel confident or informed, they step back. And when we step back, misunderstanding grows in the space we leave behind. The purpose [of the antisemitism forum] is to help close that gap ... to move our community from hesitation to understanding, from intention to action, and from the comfort of silence to the courage of real dialogue.”

The presentation by Project Shema was far-reaching, centering on Jewish identity as cultural, national, and religious, as well as elucidating the historical context behind antisemitism and how it continues to plague our society, and discussing allyship and recognizing — and combatting, as a community — anti-Jewish harm.

At times in very personal ways, the conversation struck a chord with the audience — who represented the breadth of Westport, both Jewish community members and friends and allies — who stayed engaged throughout.

“Project Shema — inviting us to truly hear one another — provided me another building block for the Common Ground Initiative and its purpose: creating space for honest, respectful dialogue on difficult issues,” said Dennis Wong, chair of the Westport Sunrise Rotary Peace Committee and Rotary Peacebuilder Club. “By better understanding the slippery slope from dehumanization to violence, I am more committed than ever to being a Rotarian Peacebuilder — working to ensure that every person, every community, and every nation can live in safety, dignity, and well-being.”

Empathy and understanding were key topics of the evening — and also of the four-hour workshop the Library hosted earlier in the day, attended by town officials, civic leaders, business leaders, Library staff, and members of the Library’s board of trustees and Common Ground Initiative committee.

In both settings, Cohn-Postell and Wilson encouraged participants to move past binary thinking to transition from debate to dialogue: “How do you have a conversation not to agree,” said Wilson, “but to understand.”

“The workshop was a model of what The Westport Library’s Common Ground Initiative is designed to achieve: It encouraged attendees to engage in constructive, respectful conversation about a sensitive topic,” said Westport Library trustee Bruce Gaylord, who attended both sessions. “Getting people with potentially different perspectives together to talk about a difficult or sensitive issue is always helpful. Attendees get to hear thoughts from others that may challenge their own ideas, or they may learn things they had never thought of.”

The event was sponsored by Jon and Bobbi Roth and presented by the Library’s Common Ground Initiative, the Library’s forum for public dialogue on topical issues of importance to the community.

The Common Ground Initiative endeavors to host positive, productive conversations on how we work together to move forward as a civil society; encourage respectful, constructive dialogue; and tackle challenging and controversial issues.

“The Common Ground Initiative has been working toward the evolution of a framework by which Westporters and others with different perspectives on issues with significant nuance and complexity can discuss them in such a way that they reach common understanding of those different perspectives with civility and respect — even if they do not reach common agreement,” said Harold Bailey, chair of TEAM Westport and a Common Ground Initiative committee member. “Such understanding is critical to any progress toward fostering an engaged community and any ultimate resolution.”

Past Common Ground events have focused on bridging divides, social change, civil discourse, communicating to open minds, and global trade policy, and have included such guests as former Missouri Senator Roy Blunt, Pfizer Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Sally Susman, conflict resolution expert Ken Feinberg, author and CEO Fred Hochberg, and Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Tony La Russa.

To learn more about the Library’s Common Ground Initiative, including resources, news, and recordings of past events, please visit westportlibrary.org/about/common-ground-initiative.