I am a Jewish woman who planned to attend the Chomp the Oligarchy event (with Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan) before The Venue was pressured into cancelling it. I support candidates because of where they stand on issues including their willingness to say plainly that what’s happening in Gaza has gone too far, and their independence from AIPAC money.
That is a political judgment. It is one a lot of Jewish voters share, whether or not it is comfortable for the incumbents being challenged.
Disagreeing with a candidate on Israel, or asking where their campaign money comes from, is not antisemitism. Being Jewish does not commit me to any position on the war and I resent being told otherwise. People who never spoke to us forced us to back out of a lawfully permitted gathering, days before an election.
That is an attempt to shut down speech and assembly, not to compete with it. The First Amendment protects our right to hold an event as much as it protects the right to criticize it. I don’t take it lightly when that right is steamrolled by people confident enough in their own righteousness to skip the part where they ask us anything.
Candidates on the other side should be glad to make their case in the open. Trying to make sure we never got the chance to speak says the opposite.
— Arlene Marcus, Fort Lauderdale
Demanding acquiescence
So politicians who support Israel’s genocide successfully bully supporters of Palestinian human rights from using a selected venue for a political rally, and everyone acquiesces.
Now that is chutzpah.
— Michael McPherrin, Fort Lauderdale
A troubling pattern
The cancellation of Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s campaign event following a complaint from state Rep. Michael Gottlieb is part of a pattern of Jewish leaders and groups to silence free speech.
A similar situation occurred in May when Hunters nightclub, also in Wilton Manors, cancelled an event by Lady Bunny after a complaint from Drew Tabatchnick, vice chair of the Broward County Jewish Federation.
In both cases, Jewish leaders gave no concrete evidence of antisemitism, just a vague idea that anyone who does not completely support Israel is antisemitic. This censoring of anyone with a different viewpoint on Israel is only serving to make people more hostile to Israel and more determined to assert their freedom of speech.
Jewish leaders who think they are helping by silencing speech are actually undermining their own cause. It is likely to increase antisemitism. We all know the harm that the libel “Jews control the world” has done through centuries. By giving in to powerful people’s complaints to muzzle dissenting voices, it only serves to reify the very libel that should be dispelled.
The people trying to silence our voices are the same people who will demand that we vote for them in November.
— Randy Fair, Wilton Manors
Censorship is not fighting fair
We were trying to put a spotlight on things we hear about every day, about rent that people cannot afford and wages that haven’t increased while everything else has. Helping working families is not a fringe idea. It’s the same message Democratic candidates everywhere are running on this year.
What happened instead is that people who never reached out to us directly pressured The Venue until it dropped us, based on assumptions about who would show up and what would be said. Days before a primary, we were told to lose the headliner or lose the room.
That’s not what a fair fight looks like.
Pushing a private venue to cancel a lawful, permitted event isn’t how political disagreements are supposed to be settled. Free speech and free assembly are rights both sides of this argument claim to believe in.
The answer is, show up and make your case — not to make sure the other side never gets to the microphone.
We’re glad to answer real questions about what we organized and why. What we won’t accept is being painted as extremists or antisemites, just for caring about different things than some of the incumbents in our party. Disagreeing on Israel-Gaza policy isn’t hate. It only makes it harder to have the conversation Democrats actually need to have before Tuesday’s primary.
— John McNeice, Coconut Creek
Please submit a letter to the editor by email to letterstotheeditor@sunsentinel.com or fill out the online form below. Letters may be up to 200 words and must include your email address, city of residence and daytime phone number for verification. Letters will be edited for clarity and length.