To the Editor:

I am writing to support all those millions of people who renew their private and public pledges to name and call the hate crimes rising in our society each time they occur. Just this past weekend, an email threat that mentioned a bomb was sent to the Jewish Community Center on Whitehall Road in Albany. Eighteen other such emails were received by Jewish Community Centers across the nation.

This is not the first time the JCC in Albany has endured such verbal violence. In 2017, another similar incident occurred when threats were made. At that time, there was a huge groundswell of condemnation from Capital Region residents against that act and, more broadly, anti-Semitism wherever and whenever its ugly head emerges.

Such incidents have not been experienced in Altamont, to my knowledge, but acts of violent prejudice against any one group threaten to spread any time they occur and the perpetrators need to be identified and held accountable.

These acts threaten the very underpinnings of the necessity to honor and respect those with beliefs different from one’s own, a basic tenet of living in a pluralistic society such as the United States.

A functioning democracy has to embrace the right of others to religious freedom. Actions like those this past weekend rip at that fabric of communal trust and respect that holds us all together.

I expect any number of us in Altamont have Jewish friends or relatives who are Jewish. We need to assure those who have been attacked in our midst that we stand with them.

Betty Head

Altamont