Anti-semitism must be strongly opposed

A man walked into the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh on Oct. 27 armed with three handguns, a rifle and seething hatred toward Jews. We know, following Robert Bowers’ alleged hate-inspired murder spree where he reportedly yelled “All Jews must die,” that 11 innocent worshipers died, four police officers were injured, that he was taken to hospital having been riddled with police bullets, but survived and faces 29 charges. We know before the accused allegedly stormed the synagogue during a Jewish Shabbat religious service, he frequently contributed toxic posts on “free speech” chat site Gab. com, where he called Jews “the children of Satan” and accused Jewish people of attempting genocide against “his people” by bringing “evil” Muslims into the U.S. His final post on Gab.com read “I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in.” Bowers’ alleged attack on innocent worshipers in Pittsburgh was an evil, irrational and unjustified act of savagery motivated by hatred against Jews, and part of an unmistakable trend of growing anti-semitism in the U.S., Canada and around the world. Anti-semitic incidents and assaults increased in Canada for the fifth straight year in 2018, the Jewish advocacy group B’nai Brith reports. Shamefully, few of the hundreds of incidents reported annually are ever prosecuted. Meanwhile, hatred against Jews is flourishing, disguised as “new anti-semitism.” It’s coming from the growing numbers of groups and individuals that mask hatred as legitimate criticism of Israel. We’ve seen rallies — particularly around the Israel/palestinian conflict that demonize Israel and “Zionists” — that question Israel’s right to exist and even promote genocide against Jews. We’ve seen academics in this country use the cover of that conflict to demonize Israel and Jews, and the University of Winnipeg apologized recently after anti-semitic tropes were expressed at a faculty-sponsored event earlier this year. Jewish students have increasingly been targeted for hate on university and college campuses, and rather than take steps to protect them, administrators have largely ignored them. There’s a difference between fair criticism of Israel and hatred, but that line increasingly is getting blurred by those motivated by hate or who use the cover of divisive times to express hate. It’s far past time we got serious about anti-semitism.