Amid a controversial boycott by the Jewish Heritage Museum, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis spoke on Sunday at the Jewish Leadership Conference in New York.
The conference, organized by the Tikvah Fund, took place amid the campaign to cancel the conference after a refusal early last month by the Museum of Jewish Heritage to host the event. The Museum of Jewish Heritage informed Tikvah leaders that DeSantis’ position on LGBT issues did “not align with its values of inclusivity,” according to Eric Cohen, Tikvah’s chief executive.
“Institutions like our state universities are treating antisemitism the same way they would treat racism. We are not going to let that run rampant,” stated DeSantis in his remarks.
“Every year I’ve been Governor we’ve provided millions of dollars for security at our state’s Jewish day schools. When I became Governor, it was just on the heels of Airbnb deciding to discriminate against certain Israeli citizens in Judea and Samaria. We immediately put them on our anti-BDS list and Airbnb backed down,” added DeSantis.
He noted the Holocaust education requirements in Florida schools, and how Florida authorized United Hatzalah to be able to provide emergency services.
“In 2019, I led the largest trade mission in the history of the State of Florida, my first one as governor, and that trade mission was to the State of Israel, and we’ve seen huge benefits from that trip,” said DeSantis, who then quipped, “That’s a pretty good record. Apparently that’s the type of record that gets you banned from speaking at a Holocaust museum.”