Showing solidarity with a Jewish community under attack

For the last year, as anti-Jewish attacks have increased in the United States, I have tried to do something admittedly symbolic and small but still rooted in support and solidarity: Donate a minimum $18 to many of the synagogues and centers of Jewish life that have come under attack in California and around the country.

Chai, the Hebrew word for life, also refers to the number 18. Thus, the $18 donations are my quiet way of emotionally responding each time hate strikes and tries to terrorize Jews, to deny them — us — freedom, equality, safety and dignity. The donations are my affirmation of belonging, my insistence on our rights and freedoms, my effort at symbolic repair in the face of injustice and persecution.

There is a sadness that accompanies these donations, especially because of their increasing frequency. The pattern of anti-Jewish hate crimes has become evident over the last several years and particularly disturbing as it has grown violent and lethal.

There have been massacres of Jews at prayer in a Pittsburgh synagogue and at the Chabad Jewish Center of Poway. There have been attacks on Jews at a kosher supermarket in New Jersey and celebrating Hanukkah in Monsey, New York.

My sense of comfort and safety in celebrating Jewish life, gathering in community for Shabbat and holidays, was damaged by these attacks. America was and is less safe for Jews than it was just four or five years ago. In the last three months, Jews have found themselves under violent attack again, with assaults taking place in New York, Miami and Los Angeles, and most recently multiple stabbings of a rabbi in Boston.

For many people these attacks and violence are distant and abstract. For me they are immediate and intimate. My communities, my spaces of prayer, meditation, celebration and unity are increasingly threatened.

In the Bay Area, there have been attacks on Jewish facilities and individuals, including antiJewish graffiti scrawled on restaurants and community centers owned and run by Jews. Many Jewish students — including some of my own at various universities — have struggled with anti-Jewish discrimination, bullying, bigotry and exclusion.

Hate speech on social media has skyrocketed with ugly stereotypes of Jews. Conspiracy theories about Jews are often accompanied by attacks on their human rights and freedoms and by denial of the Holocaust.

There are many reasons for the rise in anti-Jewish attacks and hate in the United States. But, here, I want to simply ask if you could help break through some of the silence and indifference about the attacks and express your support for and solidarity with the Jewish community in the Bay Area.

Speak to Jewish friends and acquaintances. Ask them about their own experiences with antiJewish discrimination and hate and about how you can help them and show constructive allyship. Visit kosher restaurants and stores serving the Jewish community and show your support in other public ways. Perhaps, visit a local synagogue or Jewish Community Center or call your senators and congressional representatives and ask them to speak out against anti-Jewish racism and to stand with the Jewish community.

Whatever your way of doing so — however humble — I can assure you that reaching out and expressing solidarity will be of meaningful and real assistance to Jewish people everywhere and will be met with our appreciation and a sense of hope.