A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
We're going to hear now from a representative of the Jewish community in Washington about the fatal shooting of two Israeli Embassy staff members. Ron Halber is the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington. Ron, thank you for taking a few minutes today to join us.
RON HALBER: Thank you for the opportunity.
MARTÍNEZ: So I want to start by how - what you thought when you first heard of this. What happened?
HALBER: You know, we had our own annual meeting last night in D.C., and I was just thinking about how it could've been at our event or any other of the multiple Jewish communal events being held. And the first thing I thought was, my God, what a senseless, horrific act of political violence directed against this young, loving couple that was about to be engaged, who were simply literally assassinated on the streets of Washington because they are Jewish and/or Israeli.
MARTÍNEZ: You mentioned you had your own event. Is something like this maybe going to make you reconsider having events in the short term?
HALBER: Oh, God, no, the exact opposite. We are - we will never recoil. Never, never, never recoil from having - from living proud Jewish lives and living openly, although it does mean we'll step up security. And we already are used to having armed security. There certainly are at my events. There certainly was at the American Jewish Committee event. But you can't hermetically protect everybody. But clearly, there's going to be a need to increase security even more. And, frankly, the federal government and state and local government makes money available for capital improvements, and we need more of that. But there really needs to be a bill put through Congress immediately that's going to provide billions and billions of dollars to Jewish and other institutions that are at risk of hate crimes so they can hire off-duty police officers and armed security so they can enlarge the perimeters and better protect Jews who go to pray and gather.
MARTÍNEZ: Wondering if there's a chance that you might have known the couple at all?
HALBER: No, I didn't.
MARTÍNEZ: No? OK.
HALBER: I know the woman they worked for.
MARTÍNEZ: OK.
HALBER: Yeah - who's a good friend. Yeah.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. Wondering also, then, what have you heard from the broader Jewish community so far this morning?
HALBER: Just, you know, outrage. I've been up since last night doing interviews and speaking. People are just aghast, stunned. You know, I've been working in the Jewish community for 30 years, and I've always been stunned that we've never had an incident of this time. You know, we're in D.C. We're the third-largest Jewish community in the United States. We have Israeli institutions here, and I've always said we're lucky that nothing's happened. Well, it has happened, and it's terrible. You know, these two young people who were getting ready to go to Jerusalem. They were getting ready to get engaged. They had - they're a beautiful couple getting ready to spend their lives together. And instead of going to their weddings, we're going to be attending their funerals.
I will say that I really believe this is a result, even though we're still - people are still investigating, I think it's a result of the uptick in antisemitic rhetoric around the country and around the world. But I also have to say one very important, clear thing. It also has to do with the increase in anti-Israel rhetoric. And I know there can be different opinions, and what's going on in Gaza has been, you know, a humanitarian disaster for Palestinians, and it's been a terrible thing for the Israelis, as well. But when people start using words like ethnic cleansing and genocide, which are absolutely false and unsubstantiated, it provides an opportunity to radicalize individuals and to make them act out. So not only do we have to condemn just general anti-Jewish language, but when people use words like Zionists in a pejorative term, or they say Israel's guilty of ethnic cleansing or genocide, they're help fomenting this stuff because those words get people crazy and radicalize them. And then also, they have - and they have no truth to them.
MARTÍNEZ: You mentioned that your organization is going to continue doing events - maybe with more security - but do you see what happened as an isolated event?
HALBER: No, I think that there's been a growing pattern. I mean, I think the event itself is isolated, but it's part of an overall pattern. I mean, all you have to do is go back to Pittsburgh in the shooting at the synagogue in 2018, and there's been an uptick in violence. It used to be - you know, five years ago, it was, you know, vandalism, but now violence against Jews, whether Israelis, American Jews being assaulted is becoming more commonplace, and it's something we just can't put up with as a society or as a community, and won't put up with.
MARTÍNEZ: That's Ron Halber, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington. Ron, thank you for sharing your thoughts with us.
HALBER: Thank you very much.
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