FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) — Gov. Andy Beshear announced a new task force to combat increasing antisemitism in Kentucky.
"There is no place for hate of any kind in Kentucky," said Beshear.
"The Kentucky Antisemitism Task Force will help guide this Administration and our entire Commonwealth and make sure we're getting it right," he added.
According to Beshear, the 18-member task force will be a part of the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives. Its responsibilities will include assessing the state of antisemitism within Kentucky, looking into Holocaust education, and advising on hate crime training for law enforcement.
"I think the work of this task force and the individuals on it will be special and will help all of us to do better," said Beshear.
Those who pushed for the creation of this group, like Rep. Daniel Grossberg, believe the task force has tough, but important, work to do.
"Kentucky has had an absolute crisis," said Grossberg. "We had a 300% rise in antisemitism since 2015 and recently, since October 7th, a 400% rise on top of that."
In Kentucky, several synagogues received a bomb threat last week, part of a national wave of similar threats.
"Nobody should ever have to go through that," said Beshear. "A lot of us out there have been through a bomb threat and they can be really scary. Now think about one in your house of worship, where you believe you are targeted because of your religion."
"There are more eyes on it [now because] there's been an increase, but we had already had Nazi fliers distributed under windshield wipers outside of synagogues during services. There were other Nazi fliers being posted on light poles in Northern Kentucky. There have been death threats for Rabbis, bomb threats of the synagogue, Holocaust-minimizing opinion pieces in our two major papers, even some of my colleagues saying truly antisemitic things in the General Assembly," said Grossberg.
“Jews are not crying wolf about antisemitism," he added.
Beshear believes the work that the task forces will do will make a difference in Kentucky. And Grossberg agrees.
"We're going to make concrete policy recommendations for what more the Commonwealth can do to address antisemitism," said Grossberg.
