Rabbi decries removal of polling site status from Florida mosque

Rabbi Barry Jacobs of Boynton Beach said churches and synagogues should not serve as polling places if mosques are disallowed.

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(JTA) — A South Florida rabbi spoke up for a mosque that was delisted as a polling station.

Palm Beach County removed the Islamic Center of Boca Raton as a polling site after receiving complaints from voters, WPTV reported Monday.

That didn’t sit well with Rabbi Barry Silver of Congregation L’Dor Va-Dor in neighboring Boynton Beach.

“There’s a lot of violent Muslims around, and we need to be aware of that and we need to be on guard about that,” Silver told the TV station. “But to suggest that every mosque is pure evil and every other religious institution is pure good is just not accurate, and it’s prejudice and it’s wrong.”

Silver said if the mosque was decommissioned as a polling site, so should churches and synagogues.

County officials said the move to a local library was because of complaints from the public, WPTV said.

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