Solidarity needed following recent anti-Semitic incidents
Neo-Nazis shouldn't be welcome in Texas, nor should we have to reiterate that. And yet, we do, after a spate of anti-Semitic incidents in Austin, San Antonio and San Marcos in the past two weeks.
“There's absolutely no question in my mind that this is going to grow and it's going to show its ugly head in the next couple of years,” said Rabbi Ebrahim Yaghobian of Congregation Torah Vachesed in Houston on Thursday, when I called to check in.
“Whenever you have enemies, you also have friends become better friends,” he continued. “At the same time, there is a sense of forbearing.”
First there was the vandalism reported at Anderson High School in Austin.Students showed up on Oct. 22 to find swastikas painted on their school, along with racist and homophobic slurs. The next day, a group hung a banner proclaiming “Vax the Jews” from a nearby overpass, before proceeding to the capital city's downtown entertainment district, where they continued to spread their hateful message via posters and sweatshirts under the cover of darkness.
“They were calling themselves Nazis and ‘offering hugs,' ” reported a Reddit user in an Austin forum who encountered the group. “What the hell is going on?! I feel disturbed and speechless. Did anyone else witness this tonight?”
Many Austinites had.
“I am heartbroken to see antiSemitic hatred in Austin, a welcoming and respectful place,” tweeted Mayor Steve Adler. “Hatred of any kind has no place in our city.”
These hateful acts come at a time of year that carries painful memories for many, particularly in the Jewish community: the third anniversary of the killing of 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh on Oct. 27, 2018.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, the perpetrators in Central Texas appear to be affiliated with a small but active national hate group — which won't be named here, since there's no reason to give people like this the publicity they crave.
Within days, the poison had traveled down the Interstate 35 corridor to San Antonio, where the group distributed anti-Semitic flyers in several neighborhoods and demonstrated outside a Holocaust remembrance event at the city's Jewish Community Center on Oct. 26.
That weekend, some Texans in San Marcos woke up to find Nazi flyers on their doorsteps, according to state Rep. Erin Zweiner, a Democrat who represents parts of Hays and Blanco counties.
“There has been a disturbing resurgence of neo-Nazism and anti-Semitism in the last few years,” she said on Oct. 30. “Not only is this ideology disturbing, it is dangerous.”
“The anti-Semitism that has appeared in Austin and San Antonio in recent days is appalling,” tweeted former Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, who, at the time of his retirement, was the highest-ranking Republican Jewish official in the state, and arguably the country. “It's not what Texas is about and it should be swiftly condemned by all who hold positions of public trust.”
Then, on Halloween night — as the Houston Astros were rallying to win the fifth game of the
World Series — there was an apparent act of arson at Congregation Beth Israel, a synagogue in Austin. No one was injured, but the damage to the property was significant, and temple members likely will be displaced for weeks. Investigators are asking for help identifying the suspect, a man captured on security footage carrying a five-gallon container.
None of these incidents has attracted much attention from the national media. Indeed, the nation's commentariat has arguably been casting a more critical eye on anti-racism than racism itself this week, as a result of the off-year elections that took place on Tuesday.
Some pundits have posited that Republicans did well by focusing on issues such as education and inflation and trying to keep former President Donald Trump at arm's length, while Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans took a different approach.
In the days leading up to Election Day for example, the Lincoln Project, a group of ex-Republicans that targeted Trump last year, sent five actors wearing khakis and carrying tiki torches to demonstrate outside a campaign event for Glenn Youngkin, the Republican candidate for governor. The stunt was meant to remind Virginians of the infamous neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville in August 2017 in which a counter-protester was killed, but instead confused many voters and rubbed others the wrong way.
Here, though, the anti-Semitic incidents in Central Texas have the Jewish community on guard, and community leaders calling for solidarity — with Jewish people, and against all forms of bigotry.
“My understanding is there haven't been any incidents (here) like what have occurred in San Antonio and Austin,” said Randall Czarlinsky, the regional director for AJC Houston, on Friday. But, he added: “There is an awareness among the community institutions and the community at large.”
There's also an understanding, he continued, that the Jewish community is not alone in being targeted: a recent report from the U.S. Department of Justice suggests an increase in hate crimes agaisnst Blacks, Latinos, Asian-Americans and Muslims as well as Jewish people in recent years.
“An attack against one group is an attack against all of us,” Czarlinsky said of the need for solidarity. “I think it sends a message that the community is not alone.”
That afternoon, Yaghobian — who had been bracing for unpleasantness just the day before — said that one of his congregants had experienced an adverse interaction with two strangers at a Walmart near the synagogue, which left her intimidated. She suspected it was motivated by anti-Semitism.
“Even if this really wasn't, to live in that fear — that's not a way that anyone in this country should feel,” he said. “It's not exactly the happiest atmosphere right now.”