What do I, a White American Christian woman, know about anti-Semitism and hate?
Sadly, I am learning more all the time, and I am angry.
On the evening of October 27, 2018, I received the 2018 Polish Heritage Award from the Polish American Congress of Arizona for my “contribution to the documentation of the suffering inflicted on Polish people during the Holocaust.” This award stands as an honored and public acknowledgment that when I wrote my book HENRY: A Polish Swimmer’s True Story of Friendship from Auschwitz to America, and teach on Poland and the Holocaust, I “got it right.” Did I mention I am neither Polish or Jewish?
So, what is the irony? The next morning, I woke up to realize that the same day I received my award eleven people were murdered in the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh for one reason only: Someone who wanted to kill Jews.
This episode hit me in the gut even more than other shootings. Why is it that random shootings have become so common that by October 27 there had been 287? That’s almost one a day as October 27 is the 300th day in 2018. As of mid-November there have been fifteen more. We ask ourselves “who is next?” knowing it is near impossible to defend against random, unless we begin to make our homes, schools and venues fortresses of security — and then we have all lost.
What made this one different? A random shooter in a synagogue may be random, but anti-Semitism is not random and has been with us for centuries. Anti-Semitic acts are on the rise and it is an easy prediction more incidents will occur.
Anti-Semitism is a scourge on society and isn’t just about Jews. If it becomes tolerated or passively accepted, or is not roundly condemned from the very top, as happened after a group of White Nationalists marched in Charlottesville Virginia marched in unison to the chant of “Jews will not replace us,” more will rise again, and more ugly incidents will surely follow.
I am a White American Christian woman, born in the United States. I have enjoyed all the privileges that confers on me. I am educated. I speak English as my first language. I grew up middle-class in sheltered American suburbia with no experience or concept of want or need, ignorant of what a hate crime was. I never had to worry about being deported, face a “Blacks Only” restriction, or need to pretend not to be who I was. Contrast that with the experience of many of my Jewish friends and the lessons of history.
My friend Lana woke up one morning when she was ten years old to find swastikas painted on her house. Her family painted over and moved on. There was no such thing as a hate crime back then. But, she of course never forgot it and rarely mentions she is Jewish.
My friend Helen’s mother always told her that when she travels to never let anyone know she was Jewish. She would never know where or who she was truly safe with.
My friend Monica warned me ever since the debacle of Charleston, and refusal of the highest office in the country to roundly condemn the White Supremacists, it was only a matter of time before something like the synagogue shooting would occur. She lost one hundred family members in the Holocaust, each murdered for one reason only: They were Jewish. When I called her after the synagogue shooting, she could only say her entire family was personally devastated, unable to discuss the incident.
When I posted a video on YouTube condemning anti-Semitism, my friend Debbie wrote me a personal note of thanks, but noted she was afraid to comment online, for fear of being identified as Jewish on the Internet. Personal safety must come first.
My Jewish friends are afraid and convinced these acts of anti-Semitism will continue to increase in frequency. They already have. I am extremely well-researched on Poland and Germany during World War II, including the rise of Nazism and the Holocaust. I have visited Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps and felt the ghosts of more than a million murdered souls. And yes, I do see history repeating itself in the rise of hate against “others” or “them”, meaning anyone or group who is different, be it Latino immigrants, Muslims, Jews, Blacks or others. Tribalism separates people while tolerance builds bonds and communication between different groups.
I am encouraged the Muslim community has embraced the synagogue in Pittsburgh and raised huge sums of money. I am encouraged by the inter-faith service I attended three days after the shooting, with two US senators and clergy from almost every denomination in attendance and support. It was one of four simultaneous services across Phoenix Arizona where I live. As I chatted with a Jewish woman on my left and said I knew no one there but came in support anyway, she hugged me as tears welled up to thank me, a total stranger, for being there.
But here’s the problem. There is nothing I can truly do to make my Jewish friends safer or make them feel safe from another incident. I can’t tell my Jewish friends it will never happen again or that they no longer need guards at their community centers and synagogues. I can’t undo the memories of centuries of anti-Semitism and negative stereotypes, and all the pain and loss that entails for many.
But I can and will stand by my Jewish friends and their families.
I can and will denounce anti-Semitism publicly, vehemently, and loudly.
I can and will let my Jewish friends and communities know that to the extent I can, I have their backs and will not stand by in silent assent.
Anti-Semitism and hate need to be condemned loudly, constantly and by all of us. Tolerance is proactive, vigilant and more necessary than ever.
