Surfside is out of Sister Cities International, and the exit was not scheduled for a polite later date. Late Tuesday night the town voted to terminate the membership after a Palestine-U.S. roundtable the mayor called deeply offensive to residents.
Mayor Shlomo Danzinger put the decision in a letter to Sheri Capehart, chair of the organization's board, VINnews reported. He said the resolution passed, formally notified the group, and said the membership ended effective immediately.
The Mayor's Case, in His Own Letter
Danzinger described Surfside as one of Florida's most prominent Jewish communities and wrote that the roundtable and its promotional materials were deeply offensive. He accused organizer Professor John Dabeet of a strong anti-Israel bias, pointing to Dabeet's biography, public statements and social media posts, and criticized the event's Palestinian symbols and its association with Dabeet. Those are the mayor's characterizations, as reported from the letter, not independent findings.
He questioned presenting the event as a Palestine-U.S. discussion and argued that the format amounted to taking sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He also criticized the Palestinian flag and the slogan "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," arguing that they represent a call for Israel's elimination. He said supporters of the slogan have offered differing interpretations of its meaning.
The line he wanted on the record was blunt: "Surfside will not partner with any organization that directly or indirectly spreads a message of hate, bigotry, or antisemitism." He said the vote was meant to protect the town's Jewish community from what he characterized as antisemitic messaging, and he urged Sister Cities International's leadership to understand the roundtable's impact on those residents. Supporting documentation and references, he said, were attached.
He regretted that the vote was not unanimous and attributed the opposition to a lack of understanding of the issue. A termination framed as moral clarity, with the no votes filed under a comprehension problem.
He Was Already Asking Other Cities to Leave
Tuesday's vote followed a campaign Danzinger had already taken outside town limits. In late October, VINnews reported that he was urging municipalities across the United States to withdraw over the U.S.–Palestine Sister Cities Roundtable, an online member event scheduled for 1 p.m. Eastern on Oct. 23.
He said Surfside maintains a sister-city partnership with Israel's Shomron region, and he encouraged other cities to leave the national organization while continuing existing partnerships directly. In that telling, the membership is the problem. The town-to-town relationship can stay.
A National Network, Minus One Town
Sister Cities International describes itself as the national membership organization for sister-city programs in more than 400 communities, with more than 1,800 partnerships in more than 140 countries. Surfside has now taken itself out of that membership. On the mayor's account, it has not walked away from Shomron.
VINnews described Surfside as believed to be the first U.S. municipality to sever ties over the roundtable. That is the outlet's belief, not a verified ranking of what other cities have or have not done.
The practical split is already in effect. Surfside's membership is terminated, the mayor has asked the board chair to see the roundtable through the experience of the town's Jewish residents, and his advice to everyone else is to keep the sister-city ties and drop the organization that hosted the conversation.
