Fight Antisemitism - engage in acts of friendship: a Pennsylvania echo editorial

Be free to pray in peace....

This editorial echo was published in the Reading Eagle, a Pennsylvania newspaper:

Hanukkah was usually a time when newspapers wrote editorials in the spirit of celebration. Unfortunately, this year’s Hanukkah festivities took place amid troubling developments.

The nation and world are in the midst of an alarming stretch of open anti-Semitism, often expressed with shocking violence. In a little over a year there have been deadly shootings at synagogues in Pittsburgh and Southern California and the recent attack on a kosher market in Jersey City, N.J., part of a shooting spree that left three civilians and one policeman dead.

Meanwhile there’s been a steady series of incidents involving crimes such as harassment and vandalism that don’t get the same amount of attention as shootings but greatly increase anxiety among Jewish communities.

The Anti-Defamation League recorded 1,879 anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. in 2018, the third-highest year on record. The organization said there were 780 such cases during the first six months of this year. The worst year for anti-Semitic acts was 2017, with nearly 2000 cases of assaults, vandalism, bomb threats and other incidents, according to the ADL.

Hanukkah

One might think that the New York metropolitan area, home to some 1.7 million Jews, would be seen as a safe harbor from anti-Semitism. The Jersey City violence reminds us that is hardly the case. And New York City police reported 163 anti-Semitic incidents in the five boroughs in the first nine months of the year. That’s a 50 percent increase over the same period in 2018.

People whose clothing or personal appearance make them readily identifiable as Jews are particularly susceptible to harassment or worse.

Hanukkah has great relevance to these current troubles.

The eight-day Hannakhah celebration tells the story about Jews in ancient times. They fought back against their persecutors. It celebrates the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Maccabees, after a three-year rebellion resulted in their victory over the Syrians in 170 BC.

Jews rebelled because they had been prohibited from practicing their religion and were being forced to worship Greek gods. The Syrians defiled the sacred Temple, calling for an altar to Zeus to be constructed there and for pigs to be slaughtered on the site in violation of Jewish law.

During Hanukkah, Jews express joy at their ancestors’ victory but understand that the conflict itself was the result of the kind of persecution the Jewish people have endured for thousands of years.

Recent events remind us that though Jews have become accustomed to acceptance in America, vigilance on the part of Jews and their friends in the larger community is essential if we are to keep things that way. That means engaging in acts of friendship and refusing to tolerate hateful acts or commentary on the part of others.

We are fortunate that interfaith relations are strong in our communities. Jews here are involved in activities with people of other religions and practice their faith openly. That’s an important part of Hanukkah. Part of the holiday’s tradition calls on Jews to place menorahs in their windows so the lights may be seen by passers-by. It’s an expression of pride in one’s faith and defiance against bigots. It also symbolizes the desire to bring light into a world all too often afflicted by darkness

Many Jewish communities take the tradition a step further by holding menorah lightings in popular public places. One takes place annually at the Berkshire Mall, attracting the attention of plenty of Christmas shoppers and adding to the holiday festivities. It reinforces the idea that American Jews will not give in to fear or let recent events interfere with a time of celebration.

May people of all faiths unite behind the idea that we should all be free to pray in peace. And may the Hanukkah candles help to bring lasting light and enlightenment to the world.

Sympathy to the Jewish communities everywhere - Jersey City New Jersey mourning

Jersey City shooting is just outside of New York City, the massacre of innocents is another ugly moment of anti-Semitism that needs to stop | Opinion echo published in NorthNewJersey.com

The casket of Moshe Hirsch Deutsch is carried to a hearse as thousands of Orthodox Jewish men crowded Rodney Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn Wednesday night for the funeral Deutch, one of the victims of the fatal shooting in Jersey City. (Photo: Seth Harrison/lohud.com)

Anti-Semitism  (the evil harboring of hostility to or prejudice against Jews) has been a torment that Jews have been forced to reckon with for centuries. Unfortunately, anti-semitism's manifestations both in the United States and abroad are alarming for a new reason: the degree to which the mainstream of civil society — politicians, media, academics, public intellectuals — has seemingly tolerated, without loud and sustained outcry, the most blatant acts of intolerance.

Not a day goes by without the report of anti-Semitic incidents in communities throughout America:
Swastikas have been painted on, and in, school buildings and playgrounds.   In multiple Brooklyn neighborhoods, acts of anti-Semitic violence against Orthodox Jews have become commonplace — synagogue windows are smashed, and pedestrians are violently assaulted;

Hate-filled messages are spewed across multiple social media channels.

Jews — like the members of every religious group — are entitled to practice their religion without fear. We should feel safe walking to synagogue, sending our children to school or shopping at the local kosher supermarket without fear of being attacked. Civil society has, by its actions or its failures to act, enabled anti-Semitic conduct to slowly work its way beyond the fringes of our society, both left and right, and infiltrate the mainstream of our social fabric.

Pittsburgh and Poway, and now Jersey City, are perhaps the most terrifying and repugnant examples of a manifesting anti-Semitism that is engulfing our country.

According to a recent survey conducted by the American Jewish Committee, nearly nine out of 10 American Jews (88-percent) say anti-Semitism is a problem in the U.S. today — almost 40-percent call it a very serious problem. Nearly a third of the Jews polled have avoided publicly wearing, carrying or displaying things that might identify them as Jews; a quarter have avoided places or events out of concern for their safety; a third reported that Jewish institutions with which they are affiliated have been targeted by anti-Semitic attacks, graffiti or threats.

But what of the rest of America? Do Americans see anti-Semitism as a blight on our cultural and societal ideals and values?

Our American democratic tradition, rooted in First Amendment values, has seemingly placed the right to speak freely above all other societal norms. But one must question whether such a hierarchy of principles in fact fosters the democratic and pluralistic ideals that we aspire to, or whether it simply legitimizes conduct that carries with it the seeds of the ultimate demise of democracy itself.

Have we made way for a new form of anti-Semitism, one that is much more subtle and allows for seemingly reasonable political debate to blend easily into anti-Semitic tropes, providing cover to those who peddle vilification and animus in the guise of wholesome and legitimate discourse.

Unregulated and easily accessible social media has fueled the fires of hatred and bigotry. We laud the efforts of the Anti-Defamation League which is working closely with major social media platforms, like Facebook and YouTube, to mitigate the organization and recruiting capacity that they offer to extremists of all stripes. Precisely because social media platforms are unregulated, they serve as accelerants for hatred, and allow for free and the immediate dissemination of anti-Semitic and racist ideology to the mainstream public. The threats from open access to social media are real; truth is far less of an antiseptic than we care to imagine. We need to recognize these dangers and learn to balance our concern for free and open speech with an equivalent recognition of the clear and present threat of vile and racist falsehoods.

The only way that anti-Semitism, and all forms of hatred, can be eliminated is when we all, collectively, refuse to allow it.

We need everyone, inlcuding our politicians, journalists, academics and public intellectuals — and decent citizens everywhere — to call anti-Semitism by its proper name wherever and whenever it rears its evil and ugly head.