Today, May 2, 2019, is Yom HaShoah. In English, that's Holocaust Memorial Day. For Jews such as myself, it is an important day because millions of Jews, Roma, homosexuals, and people with disabilities were systematically destroyed by Nazis. Jews were not the only group that were targeted by the Nazis, but as a people we make sure to remember the Holocaust and all the lives lost to hatred, xenophobia, and white supremacy. I am writing this blog post in part because even as we remember the lives lost in the Holocaust today, we also are dealing with rising levels of antisemitism, racism, and xenophobia throughout the world. A piece of evidence supporting this is the shooting at the Poway Chabad in California on Saturday, April 27. While this shooting did not result in as many fatalities as another recent synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, life was still lost. One of the underlying reasons for the shooting was antisemitism. Another was white-supremacy. These were also two reasons the Jews were targeted during the Holocaust.
On Monday I was having a conversation with a few other young Jews in my community about how this shooting and antisemitism affected us. One of the topics revolved around how we as Jews can communicate to our friends how an event like Poway affects us even when it's "small." After all, "only" one person died and a few others were injured. It wasn't like Pittsburgh when 11 people died, or the shooting at the Mosque in Christchurch New Zealand when 51 people died, or the bombs at Catholic churches in Sri Lanka where hundreds died. So Poway, in some ways, is not as big a tragedy and does not get as much media coverage and so people who are not in a Jewish community may not be speaking of it. But it is still very important to our lives. Every shooting or violent act against us is. So how can we communicate this to others without seeming whiny. Because it may not be a big deal to them, but it is very important to us. I suggested writing a blog where you don't just post about tragedies but use the blog to share your truth. Which is what I am trying to do with this blog. I am trying to share my truth through the books I read, the days I live, and the research/writing that I do. And since I gave such a lovely suggestion to a friend, I decided to take my own advice and write a blog. Especially since what happened at Poway is actually relevant to Yom HaShoah. The second topic that stuck with me from my conversation with other young Jews about Poway is the following question: do you feel safe or scared? And my answer for this question was, do I ever feel safe? I didn't go through the Holocaust. None of my immediate family did. All my grandparents, and even great grandparents were safely in the U.S. when the Holocaust happened. I have no personal stories (removed by a few generations) about the antisemitism, the ghettos, the concentration camps, the underground, the death. But I've read books, I've attended classes, I've met others whose grandparents lived through the Holocaust, or maybe didn't. And I grew up in a place where there were very few Jews in a town that was not necessarily Jew friendly. A few of the other people I was speaking with on Friday mentioned that they don't necessarily feel unsafe except when they go to synagogue and see the armed guards there. That's when they're reminded of the shootings. Or sometimes there's a phrase people say that's antisemitic and they're triggered. They don't really notice feeling unsafe. When I grew up, every high holiday there was a cop car at our synagogue. My parents taught me that I don't mention my Judaism unless its with friends. Friends who are established. As I grew older, this changed somewhat. But I almost always laughed off the antisemitic comments people made. It's safer that way. And when people start throwing up "Heil Hitlers" you just keep walking. I don't want you to think it was dangerous back then. It really wasn't. Incidents were very few and very far between. But while sometimes a small thing will trigger me now (it may not have meant anything, but if I see a shirt with a stormtrooper helmet on it saying "Support Our Troops" I'm going to walk in the other direction, maybe jog if it won't be conspicuous), I don't feel any more unsafe being a Jew, and happy to be a Jew, than I ever did. And after thinking about it, it is partly because I have always been afraid. Jews are white, and therefore don't have it as badly as other minorities in the U.S. We are still a minority and still victims of white-supremacy, but because many of us also have white skin (no, not all of us, and internal prejudice is still a major problem unfortunately) many of us also don't worry as much about being shot by the police. Right now. We don't necessarily fear that gentrification will push us out of our homes. We don't usually fear that someone will call the cops on us only because of the color of our skin. We still fear that someone is going to get it into their head that Jews have too much money. That Jews run the state through a grand conspiracy. That "if only the Jews were gone things would be better for us." Antisemitism is an interesting form of prejudice because it relies on the victims not looking like victims. If the Jews look like scapegoats, a people who are privileged but not quite privileged enough, then we can take the blame of everyone's problems. It has been like this since medieval times. It was key to the Pittsburgh shooting. And so we are still afraid. Balanced between privilege and prejudice we never know when the scales will tip. And so we are always afraid. Violence is on the rise. Terrorism based on white supremacy is becoming more blatant (it's always been high, we just didn't want to recognize it). And the overt trends in the U.S. are looking more and more like Nazi Germany. The U.S. has always had issues. The country was built on the attempted genocide of indigenous peoples and the slavery of African nations. It has benefited from the exploitation of non-whites at every point in its history and we sweep that fact under the rug. But now the U.S. is letting those actions become acceptable, even celebrated, with no attempt to cushion the blows. Now, the U.S. is scapegoating immigrants and asylum seekers. The Latinx communities are bearing the brunt of this now. Soon it may change. Scapegoats might once again be Jews. Or Muslims. Or Blacks. Or Indigenous Nations. Or Asians. Or Pacific Islanders. Or homosexuals. Anyone that doesn't fit with white-supremacy. It happened before. It seems to be happening again. And so we are always afraid. These have been my thoughts this week. And I hope that my truth has made you uncomfortable. Because discomfort inspires action. Think about what you see and hear around you. Be kind. Stand up to authority to take care of your neighbors. Do not be complacent. And maybe we will be able to be less afraid.
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AuthorThe author is a librarian who reads "too much" (is there such a thing?) and talks just as much. As an aspiring author she gets bogged down by grammar rules when she just wants to forget them to make a sentence flow, but never seems to be able to. She appreciates thoughtful comments and constructive criticism, but internet trolls beware, she's read enough fantasy novels to know how to defeat the monsters. Archives
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