Letter from the Director: Condemn antisemitism and the exclusion of Jewish voices Montana

Article featured in the Helena Independent Record's "Guest View" section, written by Executive Director, Rebecca Stanfel

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Dear Majority Leader Vinton:

Many people (Jewish, Christian, and those of other or no faith) got in touch with the Montana Jewish Project (MJP) last week to express their dismay and anger that representative and Rabbi Ed Stafman was not allowed to lead the invocation prayer on the last day of the session, despite having been scheduled to do so on several occasions. Each time he was deferred, a Christian legislator was given this honor instead.

Rebecca Stanfel, executive director of Montana Jewish Project, speaks at Sunday's Hanukkah celebration in Helena as board member Julie Bir stands to her side. Gary Marshall, BMGphotos.com

MJP has been troubled by a sharp increase in antisemitic incidents and attacks across Montana in recent years. Last year had the most such incidents since the data began being collected in the 1970s. When individual members of Jewish communities around the state receive personal threats, when neo-Nazi groups run vicious leafleting campaigns in every Montana city, when Jewish students are bullied and swastikas are painted in their schools — silence to what happened with representative and Rabbi Ed Stafman gives tacit approval (at the very least) to excluding Jewish voices and traditions from the Legislature.

I wrote to Speaker Regier on May 3 asking for an explanation of what happened. In this letter, I did not to accuse him of antisemitism, but asked him to help us, and our Jewish and non-Jewish supporters, understand what happened.

I noted in this letter that even unintentional acts of exclusion can signal exactly that — exclusion and unwelcomeness, which is particularly dangerous in this time of rising anti-Jewish bigotry. Yet Speaker Regier has not responded to that request, nor to the invitation MJP extended to give him a personal tour of Helena’s historic Temple Emanu-El to meet with us, learn more about our work, and understand the realities of being in Jewish in our state in 2023. His silence is unacceptable.

We have great respect — and much gratitude — for our Christian friends and neighbors. Without the support of nearly 2,000 individual small donors and Montana-based businesses, as well as partnerships with Roman Catholic Bishop Vetter, ELCA Bishop Jungling and member churches around the state, Episcopal Bishop Stebbins, and many other Montana Christian churches and their members, we would not have succeeded in buying historic Temple Emanu-El last summer.

We know firsthand that interfaith dialogue can cross political boundaries. Just last month, we welcomed fifteen of your colleagues to an open reception at historic Temple Emanu-El. In our conversations that evening, we strongly felt a mutual sense of welcoming and accepting one another’s faith traditions. We share a common goal: to work for this state we all love.

Receiving no response to our letter to Speaker Regier exacerbates our community’s feeling of exclusion and our concerns about the scale of antisemitism in the Treasure State. We are therefore reiterating our request to Speaker Regier and broadening our request to other legislative leaders like you to use your position to publicly condemn antisemitism and the exclusion of Jewish voices in Montana in the strongest terms possible.

We await your reply.

Thank you,

-Rebecca Stanfel, Director of MJP