Anti-Semitism lives
The hate that will not die
Anti-Semitism is not gone. In fact, this ancient expression of hate, which at some points of human history has been developed into a full-blown ideology of hate, is making a comeback.
The spate of unprovoked attacks on Jews in and around New York City in recent weeks has shown this to be so.
The knife attacks that occurred at the home of a rabbi celebrating Hanukkah came about two weeks after two shooters targeted employees and patrons of a kosher grocery store in Jersey City, N.J.
There have been more than a dozen anti-Jewish hate crimes in New York City since Dec. 8.
And all of this has occurred in the shadow of Tree of Life. Eleven human beings were gunned down in Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in October 2018 — because they were Jews.
Hanukkah celebrates a historical Hebrew liberation and the rededication of the Temple with the relighting of the the Temple lamp. It is both ironic and tragic that the festival of lights has been marred by this rising darkness — the return of an evil we have still not defeated.
The Anti-Defamation League notes a December 2018 European Union survey that found that 80% of European Jews believe anti-Semitism in their country has increased over the past five years, and 40% live in daily fear of being physically attacked.
The recent spate of attacks are a wake-up call to Americans who may have assumed that anti-Semitism was a thing of the past, a vestige of darker times we have outgrown.
No, the monster lives and it seeks both victims and executioners — brainwashed assassins who will act upon the hate that has consumed them. And it poisons our collective psyche.
We must be honest with ourselves and face this thing. We must resist it. We must avoid the lesser but enabling temptations to name call and stereotype and categorize people.
But we must begin by calling hatred by its name.