◆ Discussion of shootings dominates talk on hate in Santa Fe.
On the 75th anniversary of the arrest of Anne Frank and her family by Nazis in Amsterdam, hundreds gathered at James A. Little Theater in Santa Fe on Sunday to hear a lecture by an expert in anti-Semitism. But there was an alltoo-familiar cloud hanging over the event.
Reverberations from the mass shooting in El Paso on Saturday, followed several hours later by another in Dayton, Ohio, were inescapable as author Deborah Lipstadt began her lecture.
Rob Lennick, executive director of the Jewish Federation of New Mexico, said the shootings illustrate the relevance of Anne Frank in the modern world where hate crimes and violence are on the rise.
“Anne Frank, even in the midst of the darkness of her time was a beacon of hope,” Lennick said of the Jewish teenager who died in Nazi concentration camp. The Diary of Anne Frank, Lennick said, “gives the message that we always have to be vigilant in favor of goodness and never become hopeless in the face of hatred.
“And here we are once again, facing this reality of abject hatred, Lennick said. “When this kind of hatred occurs we have a choice of how to react. We can hide, we can change our lifestyles, we can have terror infiltrate our freedom, or we can stand up to hatred in all forms — anti-Semitism, racism. … We can do that in our daily lives and become educated about the nature of it, and we can remain steadfast when looking hate in the face.
“In our community, our nation, our world, there is no place for hate.”
Jews should stand in solidarity with the victims of the gunman in El Paso, Lennick said.
“We of the Jewish community, obviously from history, understand what it feels like to be on the receiving end of racism and hatred,” he said.
Lipstadt, author of the book, Antisemitism: Here and Now, spoke for more than an hour, outlining differences and connecting dots between attacks on Jews and other groups in the U.S. and elsewhere. Her talk received a standing ovation in the nearly full auditorium.
The shock of the shootings, however, was hard to shake. “These are very dark times,” said Rabbi Berel Levertov of the Santa Fe Jewish Center-Chabad, who also attended Lipstadt’s lecture. “The world needs acts of kindness, acts of goodness” to fight racism and anti-Semitisim.
Mayor Alan Webber, who introduced Lipstadt, told the audience: “It is almost unthinkable the rate at which we’re witnessing these dark events that all spring from very similar horrible, hateful instincts.”
Webber said it’s important for people to come together to discuss hate and racism and to “speak out and join hands” in an attempt to keep any form of bigotry from going unchallenged.
In his opening remarks on stage before the lecture, Lennick quoted Frank, who wrote in her diary that she kept her ideals, “because in spite of everything I still believe that people are good at heart.”
Lennick added, “This is a reminder that no matter how much hate attempts to dominate our lives, we all have the choice to stand together on the side of hope and light, like Anne Frank.”