Cuomo to Visit Israel This Weekend In Support of Jewish Community

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday he will be traveling to Israel this weekend in a gesture of solidarity as violence against Jewish institutions spreads across the nation.

Cuomo announced the trip during a speech to the Orthodox Union student rally, where Jewish students, parents and teachers advocated at the state Capitol for increased funding for religious schools.

Cuomo said the visit will send a message of support to the Jewish community. It will focus on technology and security collaboration with Israeli leaders.

“I want to say to the people of Israel and I want to say to the Jewish community, ‘In New York, you are not alone, and every person in the state of New York with any decency and understanding of what it means to be a New Yorker stands with you at this moment,’” Cuomo said.

Cuomo has previously visited Israel four times.

The governor also denounced local and national incidents of vandalism and threats in Jewish cemeteries, college campuses and community centers as “repugnant,” and said a special task force is working to hunt down those responsible.

“The old equation still exists — anger plus ignorance equals ugliness,” he said. “And that’s what you’re seeing now. People are angry. Angry at the economy, angry at their job situation, angry at the threats that they’re feeling from other countries — they’re angry. And they’re ignorant.”

Cuomo shared a similar message earlier in the morning at Albany’s Jewish Community Center.

This article appeared in print on page 5 of the March 2nd, 2017 edition of Hamodia.