Columns

Suffolk Closeup: A lifetime of fighting hatred

KARL GROSSMAN
KARL GROSSMAN

“Fortunately here in Suffolk County you and we have the power. No one should feel powerless,” the long-time chairman of the Suffolk County Human Rights Commission (SCHRC), Rabbi Steven Moss, declared recently on the East End about combatting acts of discrimination including hate crimes in Suffolk.

And he explained how, as of this year, the Human Rights Commission — where people can seek action if bias occurs — has substantially expanded power.

A new law introduced by County Executive Steve Bellone and passed 18-to-0 by the Suffolk County Legislature, broadens the SCHRC’s hearing process from handling not just bias in housing but discrimination in employment and public accommodation, the sources of 70 percent of complaints to the commission. An administrative judge presides at these hearings and the penalties for those found guilty are tough. The new law took effect on January 21.

Meanwhile, new categories have been added to targets of bias including being a military veteran. This also resulted from a unanimous legislative vote. Other categories include race, disability, age, gender, sexual orientation, pregnancy and familial status.

Rabbi Moss, chairman of the SCHRC since 1992, spoke about these changes and discrimination in general, including hate crimes in the county, at Sag Harbor’s Temple Adas Israel on March 15.

He has been a pioneer and leading figure in fighting bias and fostering human relations in Suffolk. Not only has he long been SCHRC, but for more than two decades he has co-chaired the Suffolk County Interfaith Anti-Bias Task Force and has worked for the creation of anti-bias task forces in the individual towns of Suffolk.

He’s director and founder of STOPBIAS, an extraordinary educational program for convicted bias/hate crime offenders organized through the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office in 1994. He has personally dealt with more than 500 individuals who have been through that program. Holding a doctorate in counseling, he’s the longest serving rabbi at the same pulpit in Suffolk County, logging 43 years at B’nai Israel Reform Temple in Oakdale.

Among his congregants has been the new congressman from Suffolk, Lee Zeldin, who he bar mitzvahed and who describes Rabbi Moss as “an inspiration, a teacher” with an “amazing ability to connect with everyone.”

Moreover, he is the chief of chaplains for the Suffolk County Police Department and serves as a chaplain at various hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Suffolk. He is president of the Suffolk County Board of Rabbis and vice chair of the Center for the Holocaust, Diversity and Human Understanding based at Suffolk County Community College.

The focus of the SCHRC, established in 1963, was for many years limited to attempting “conciliation” when acts of discrimination happened. Then, in 2006, a county law was enacted allowing the commission to have a hearing process covering bias in housing. Last year came passage of the law to expand this to discrimination in employment and public accommodation.

This measure starts with a declaration that in “Suffolk with its diverse population there is no greater danger to the health, safety and welfare of the county and its inhabitants than the existence of groups and individuals reflecting prejudice and antagonism toward each other because of actual or perceived differences.”

It states “that acts of prejudice, intolerance, bigotry and discrimination deny opportunities to persons, threaten the fundamental rights and privileges of the inhabitants of the County of Suffolk and undermine the foundations of a free democratic state and the economic stability of the region.”

Penalties that can be imposed by the administrative judge upon a finding of bias range up to $50,000 plus damages, and for what is found to be a “wanton, malicious act of discrimination,” damages and a fine of up to $100,000 can be imposed.

Persons wanting to bring a complaint of discrimination to the Suffolk County Human Rights Commission can call its office at 853-5480 or email [email protected].

In speaking about hate crimes in Suffolk, Rabbi Moss displayed photos of some of the instruments of the biased — burning crosses, swastikas, racist graffiti — and told the ugly stories of several of those convicted of hate crimes.

There is a Hate Crimes Unit of the Suffolk County Police Department composed of six highly skilled detectives. They handle all hate crimes in western Suffolk and, emphasized Rabbi Moss, police departments on the East End can call in the county Hate Crimes Unit upon finding any such activities in their jurisdictions.