Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah

November 11, 2016

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Shabbat shalom.

Audience: Shabbat shalom.

Mayor: Rabbi, I’m glad you prepared this wonderful congregation over months, not knowing what the future would bring, but I will listen carefully, and I deeply appreciate it the way you made us think about how to deal with the times we’re living in now. 

I’ll be very brief, but I will start by saying that many of us in the room along the way experienced times of – although not exactly comparable – we’ve experienced times of let down and even defeat. Having said that, we know we don’t minimize them, we don’t explain them away, we don’t dismiss the fear and the dangers. But we also have to look at the arch of history, because we know how many times we’ve overcome them. We know how many times we took that setback and turned it into a platform for even greater progress ahead. 

At the same time, I think there are so many people in this room who know history, in another sense, that we must retain [inaudible] never minimize the danger, never explain it away, or act that it couldn’t happen here, because it could happen here. 

Audience: Yes.

Mayor: The best way to make sure it doesn’t happen here is to know it could happen here. Rabbi, thank you for your leadership not just to this congregation – you are a voice of conscience for all of New York City, and we thank you. We thank you deeply.

The rhetoric we’ve heard, the division, the heath speech, it wasn’t some fiction in our minds – that happened. And we have to, at this moment, strike an extraordinary balance as righteous people, understanding we simultaneously have to be ready for [inaudible] and we have to be ready for it to be seen as a crass use of language and use of political tactics. We don’t know yet which it will be or what combination. We do know that millions of us in the City are disappointed – we’re hurt, and so many are afraid. We’re afraid for perfectly fair reasons. 

It is a challenging balance to simultaneously say that the pain and fear are real, and, somehow, at the same time, particularly for those of use in leadership, we have to keep an open mind, and an open heart, and an open hand because we don’t know what comes next. We have to look for every opportunity to somehow find good and we have to be ready on a moment’s notice to stand up and address people. 

In this city, we have a particular strength though at this moment. We have a tradition of our own. We have a history, a consistency, and it’s extraordinarily deep-seated. This place, for generations, has believed in an openness and a tolerance – never perfect, I won’t sugar coat [inaudible] – but certainly compared to so much of the rest of this world, long before it became at all common for their to be a multi-cultural, multi-faith society, New York City was practicing that reality on a daily basis – imperfectly, but still in a very meaningful way. 

This city believes that everyone needs to be [inaudible]. We have held that going back to the times of Al Smith, and Franklyn Roosevelt, and Fiorello LaGuardia, and so many unnamed labor organizers and feminists, civil rights activists, those who made history that night at Stonewall – all of that is part of our DNA, and that can never be taken away from us. Literally, there’s no government, there’s no force that can take that away from us. We live in a society that recognizes that the strongest foundations of who we are, are those that are most vocal – our community, our family, our house of worship. A lot of that reality is baked into our founding documents. Those who might choose to practice division will find the very vision of this republic stands in their way, because it’s [inaudible] multi-cultural, tolerant society [inaudible] respect [inaudible] protest are enshrined in the foundational documents of this nation.

So, because we are clear in our values and resolute by nature, we will stand up. If the LGBT community is affronted, we will stand up, and we will use all the power of this city to protect the rights that are so [inaudible] deeply, deeply deserved and so hard-fought and won. 

The Jewish community is affronted. Here in the City with the largest Jewish population of any city in the globe, we will stand up. Remember that intolerance breeds more intolerance. If we see anti-Semitism, it will be our obligation as the City of New York to stand against it.

If our Muslim brothers and sister are affronted, we will stand up. We have a special obligation to this nation to show the people of this entire country that this city, with so many proud Muslim New Yorkers who make up the fabric of our society. This positive, successful city, the city that [inaudible] and works – it’s because of our great Muslim community, as well as our great Jewish community, as well as our great Christian community, as well as those who don’t practice a religious faith, and all the other faiths that make up this place. We will, through our example, show this country a better way. 

Wherever I go, I like to remind people of a beautiful reality in this city that puts the lie to so much of the hatred. The 900 members of the NYPD who are Muslim and protect us all – Jews, Christians, people of all backgrounds – that’s who we are. 

So, it isn’t easy. I’m not here to sooth, I’m here to remind us that what we have is stronger than anything that’s happening at the current moment. I’m here to remind us all that the future is unwritten. We still get to write it.

Someone asked me if the dangers we face will follow in some automatic and sequential order, and I reminded them that the voice of the people has not yet factored into this equation. And despite the reality of a single election where intolerance and division come near our daily lives, people will react, people will stand up, governments will stand up all over this country. The equation will change rapidly and in our favor. 

So, Rabbi, you reminded us in good times and bad. I remind this wonderful congregation that I feel such kinship with – and I remind you of the beautiful element guiding so much of Jewish thought – tikkun olam. Even in the face of not only adversity, but hatred, we have to be healers, we have to be the examples, we have to be agents of change and transcendence. No one said that is easy. No one said that progress is always linear. But it’s there for us. We’ve all experienced it before. We’ve all been there on those days of victory and celebration. We have to build that path again.

And one thing is for certain, we will protect the values we cherish and we will protect all the people of this city no matter who they are and no matter where they come from.

Thank you.