Honor JCC Staff for Bravery

Senate Resolution No. 612 BY: Senator BRESLIN COMMENDING the staff and teachers at the Sidney Albert Albany Jewish Community Center for their brave and professional actions keeping their young students safe during two recent bomb threats WHEREAS, The quality and sanctity of community life are cherished values, worthy of safeguarding, and this Legislative Body is moved to honor those individuals who serve to preserve and protect such values, lauding particularly their unwavering courage and dedication in the daily performence of their duties; and WHEREAS, This Legislative Body is justly proud to commend the staff and teachers at the Sidney Albert Albany Jewish Community Center for their brave and professional actions keeping their young students safe during two recent bomb threats; and WHEREAS, For over a century, the Sidney Albert Albany Jewish Community Center (JCC) has provided a nurturing environment where individuals and families can grow and develop in mind, body and spirit; the Center serves the spectrum of family life, from infants through seniors, through programs related to education, physical fitness, and communal life; and WHEREAS, Within the month of January, several Jewish community centers on the East Coast have received bomb threats; on January 18,

2017, and then again on January 31, 2017, hostile bomb threats were called into the Sidney Albert Albany Jewish Community Center; and WHEREAS, Trained to deal with these perilous situations, the dedicated staff and teachers at the Sidney Albert Albany JCC swiftly and appropriately carried out practiced security protocols, ensuring the safety and well-being of each and every student who is entrusted to their care on a daily basis; and WHEREAS, Due to the brave and commendable actions of the men and women of the Sidney Albert Albany JCC, nearly 300 children, staff and members were successfully evacuated from the building; and WHEREAS, Realizing there are people who want to create fear, the Sidney Albert Albany JCC, through its core Jewish values, continues to remain true to its mission of peace, by providing a safe haven for local families; and WHEREAS, Our society is greatly strengthened by people like the faculty of the Sidney Albert Albany JCC, who, through their astute and skilled actions, prove that the power of hope endures and inspires even in the darkest of circumstances; and WHEREAS, This Legislative Body wishes to express its highest admiration to the exceptional staff and teachers at the Sidney Albert Albany JCC who, in the face of danger, nobly demonstrated their character and compassion for the welfare of their students, personifying, by virtue of their actions, the collective concern of ordinary citizens across the community of the State of New York who swiftly respond when others are in need of help; now, therefore, be it RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to commend and thank the staff and teachers at the Sidney Albert Albany Jewish Community Center for their brave and professional actions in keeping their young students safe during two recent bomb threats; and be it further RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be transmitted to the Sidney Albert Albany Jewish Community Center.