Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

EDITORIAL:

Fighting surge of antisemitism begins with everyday Americans

In the hostage crisis at the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Texas, the world once again saw the deadly consequences that arise when racist rhetoric and conspiracy theories spread unchallenged.

The incident should serve as a reminder to all moral, responsible people that it’s incumbent upon us to speak truth to anti-Jewish hate speech when we encounter it, and stand as one against antisemitism in all of its forms. The same goes for hatred aimed at any other group whom racists wish to marginalize, vilify and victimize.

Unfortunately, in our modern culture it’s far too easy for racist remarks and antisemitic tropes to be posted, shared, broadcast and amplified. Too often, bigotry is spilling forth in politics, in punditry and in social media, including from public leaders who seize upon primal hatred of “the other” for political gain.

That brings a heightened risk of someone — a mentally ill person, a racist, a sociopath, all the above — internalizing this messaging and taking action based on their hatred. 

This is clearly what happened in Texas, where the gunman involved “literally thought that Jews control the world,” according to Congregation Beth Israel Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker. He added that the gunman’s first demand was to speak to Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, the leader of New York City’s Central Synagogue, out of a belief that Buchdahl could order the release of imprisoned Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui. Siddiqui is being held on terrorism charges in a facility near Beth Israel.

“He (the gunman) thought he could come into a synagogue, and we could get on the phone with the ‘Chief Rabbi of America’ and he would get what he needed,” Cytron-Walker said.

An 11-hour ordeal followed. Although one of the four hostages was released in the afternoon, the situation became increasingly tense as evening set in and the prospects for a peaceful resolution grew dim.

Amazingly, it ended with no congregation members being harmed. Instead Cytron-Walker, relying on security training he’d received from the FBI and the Anti-Defamation League, seized on a moment when the gunman was distracted to throw a chair at him while the group was near an exit. Cytron-Walker and the congregation members ran out, and the crisis ended with authorities shooting and killing the gunman.

But it’s completely unacceptable that members of any faith congregation should have to live in fear of worshiping. And while it’s commendable of faith leaders like Cytron-Walker to undergo security training, it’s also a shameful statement about our society that this training is needed and is becoming commonplace.

For Jewish Americans, the threat of violence has skyrocketed in recent years, as shown in the mass shootings at synagogues in Pittsburgh in 2018 and Poway, Calif., in 2019, as well as racist-fueled mass shootings at a kosher grocery store in Jersey City, N.J., in 2019, and the deadly machete assault of a New York rabbi in his home late that year.

“Unfortunately, the crisis in Colleyville is just the latest event to show that being on edge and being vigilant is now very much part of the American Jewish experience,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the ADL, in an emailed statement. “In the past few years, as antisemitism has reached a high-water mark in the United States, our polls have shown that Americans have become increasingly concerned about antisemitism and their personal and communal security.”

This is where responsible people — the vast bulk of our society — come in. We must push bigotry back into the shadows where it belongs by shining the light of truth against racist lies, countering conspiracy theories with facts, responding to hate speech with messages of support for those targeted, reporting threats of violence, and so on.

With so much of this toxic messaging happening in electronic communication — email pushes, online forums, social media — we must monitor those communications vigilantly and challenge racist tropes online when we encounter them. 

And we share a responsibility to do all of this regardless of whether it’s politically convenient for our purposes.

We are not helpless against the rising tide of antisemitism and other forms of racism in our country. Our morality, our voices and our compassion are our tools for defending against it, and we must put them to use.