Dave Bateman, CEO of Entrata, speaks during StartFEST at the Covey Center for the Arts in Provo on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015. (Stacie Scott/The Deseret News via AP)
Entrata immediately forced David Bateman out, and just pledged “game-changing” sum to a local rabbi in penance.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
A Utah company that forced its co-founder to resign last week over a virulently antisemitic COVID conspiracy theory is going the extra mile to show support for the local Jewish community by taking on the repairs of a Salt Lake City synagogue, the Forward reported Monday.
On Friday, senior Entrata executives asked Rabbi Sam Spector of Congregation Kol Ami to teach them more about Jew hatred. He took them through the long history of antisemitism, focusing especially on ancient conspiracy theories such as the claim that Jews caused the Black Plague in the Middle Ages.
He walked out with a pledge for a six-figure sum that will cover most of his struggling capital campaign to fix his synagogue.
“My synagogue is falling apart, basically,” Spector told the Jewish paper. “They said, ‘We’re going to take care of all that for you,’ and they made the largest donation we’ve ever seen.”
“This is a total game changer for us,” he added.
The contribution will cover a new boiler for the 50-year-old building, new bathrooms, and the repair of damaged Torah scrolls, among other necessities.
He said that the senior personnel were extremely upset about the email former CEO David Bateman had sent some two weeks ago to a group of associates, including Utah Governor Spencer Cox. Using the subject-line “Genocide,” the leading Republican donor in the state had written that “the Jews” were responsible for “a sadistic effort underway to euthanize the American people.”
He believed that Jews were behind the COVID-19 pandemic in order to “exterminate billions of people” with the goal of ruling the world. The vaccines, also the “work of the Jews,” were part of the plot, he said, falsely claiming, “No one is reporting on it, but the Hasidic Jews in the US instituted a law for their people that they are not to be vaccinated for any reason.”
Fox News 13 of Salt Lake City broke the story last Tuesday, and Entrata demanded that Bateman resign from its board the same day, which he promptly did.
The property management software company is also going to have Spector back to speak to its 2,500-strong workforce.
“We are fully committed to continuing to work with Jewish leaders to provide education for not only our company but for the broader community as we work with them directly to fight antisemitism,” CEO Adam Edmunds told the Forward in a statement.
Proposed coalition would also need Shas support, despite its endorsement of Netanyahu.
The agency last estimated Iran held over 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60% purity.
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