BROOKLYN, NY, February 12, 2016: Today,
Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams announced that he will be leaving
tomorrow for Israel to lead a five-day mission focused on developing
transatlantic partnership in public safety and economic development, traveling
with a 11-person delegation of current and former NYPD officials as well as
local business leaders. Highlights of the trip, sponsored by the Jewish
Community Relations Council of New York, Inc. (JCRC), will include a visit to
an Israel Defense Forces base in the Golan Heights, a counterterrorism briefing
with intelligence officials in the Israeli National Security Council, a meeting
with the chair of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, and a tour of the Yad Vashem
Holocaust Memorial and Museum. Borough President Adams underscored the
importance of this mission for strengthening the critical ties between Brooklyn
and Israel, particularly in the midst of rising extremism in the Middle East
that also threatens American security.
“The State of Israel will find no better
friend than the borough of Brooklyn, and strengthening our partnership is vital
to advancing that friendship in the name of mutual benefit for our
communities,” said Borough President Adams. “As Brooklynites, we are not only
proud to be home to the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, we are
reflective of their religious, ethnic, and ideological diversity and a model
for greater cultural harmony. Our interests in public safety and economic
development are best enhanced when we work hand-in-hand with our allies, and I
am excited about the work we will accomplish on this trip with our Israeli
counterparts on these important issues.”
Borough President Adams’s itinerary
includes meetings with Efrat Mayor Oded Ravivi and Sdreot Mayor Alon Davidi;
Knesset members Hilik Bar, Avi Dichter, and Avi Gabai; Al-Qassemi College of
Engineering and Science President Dr. Dalia Fadila; IDF officials Lieutenant
Colonel Peter Lerner and Major Kobi Harush; as well as NYPD Detective Charlie
Ben-Naim, who is stationed in Israel. With an interest in promoting community
models that develop diversity, he will visit Bialak-Rogozin School in Tel Aviv,
where refugees and children of migrant workers are integrated into Israeli
society with special education programs, and Olim Beyachad in Herzliya, a
non-governmental organization working with Ethiopian immigrants. In Jerusalem,
Borough President Adams will see the Old City, including the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre, Western Wall, and Via Dolorosa. Other sites that he and his
delegation will tour in Israel include the Sea of Galilee, the Church of
Beatitudes in Tabgha, and Mount Bental, which overlooks Lebanon and Syria.
Borough President Adams’s delegation to
Israel includes retired NYPD Chief of Department Phillip Banks, III, NYPD
Inspector and 90th Precinct Commanding Officer Mark DiPaolo, United
Jewish Appeal (UJA)-Federation of New York Managing Director of Government and
External Relations Jeff Leb, JCRC Executive Vice President & CEO Michael S.
Miller, retired NYPD Inspector and current National Organization of Black Law
Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) President Timothy Pearson, NYPD Captain and 66th
Precinct Commanding Officer Kenneth Quick, and NYPD Patrol Borough Brooklyn
North Deputy Chief Jack Trabitz. Members of his office that will also traveling
with him include his special counsel Ama Dwimoh, special assistant Joel
Eisdorfer, and director of intergovernmental affairs Abe Friedman.