Antisemitism

 It’s always been with us.  But .,.

Here’s what I  wrote four years ago:

It was the 1990's.  I was a single mother with two young children, living in my parents' home.  I wanted my daughters to have a proper Jewish education, so I joined the synagogue where my parents had been members when I was a child.  It was a warm, welcoming, vibrant congregation.  It felt like home.

And then, on August 10, 1999 a neo-Nazi walked into a Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles and shot 3 children and two adults.

And the Board of Trustees of the synagogue decided that we should take some safety precautions.  The doors to the synagogue and to the nursery school would be locked during the day.  A buzzer system was installed; you'd use the intercom to call the office, and the staff would unlock the doors and let you into the building. Our police department stationed an officer outside our building during the High Holy Days. It was scary yet comforting to see a police officer guarding our synagogue.

The folloiwng year, the Board decided that during the High Holy days we would have a couple of security guards in the parking lot "just in case". It only made sense.

And then, in 2008, our synagogue was vandalized.  Some time after Saturday afternoon Sabbath prayers  and before our Sunday morning weekday service, some "lovely soul" spray painted nasty slogans all over our building. On Sunday afternoon I had an encounter in the synagogue parking lot with the person who the Hate Crimes detectives believed to be the perpetrator.  He said some nasty things to me, but fled when he saw me reaching for my cell phone.

And the Board thought security cameras would be helpful, that an alarm system would be useful.

And then it was 2017.  Jewish Community Centers and other Jewish institutions were in crisis mode, because someone was calling in bomb threats.  In just a few weeks, there were over 70 threats made.  And suddenly all my normal life activities felt like acts of bravery. 

The JCC in Plainview, not too far from where I live, was one of the targets.  We held a candlelight vigil there, vowing "Not here, not now".

And suddenly there were security guards in the lobby of the synagogue at night and on weekends, any time that there'd be a lot of people around.

And then it was October 2018....

A beautiful Saturday morning at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.The peace of the Sabbath was shattered when a white  supremacist shot and killed 11 innocent souls.

And I thought my heart would break.

16 synagogues (Conservative, Reform, even the Chabad) and several other Jewish organizations sponsored a vigil.  We mourned.we sang, we prayed.  We called upon our leaders to take action, to do something about the senseless violence that resulted in this tragedy, and so many other, similar tragedies.

And the Board of the synagogue decided to to impose an assessment on the membership, each family would have 

to pay $100 "for enhanced security", whatever that means.  It's the first time, in all the years I've been a member, that the congregation didn't complain about an assessment imposed by the Board.

And then this weekend...on the Sabbath/last day of Passover ... Chabad of Poway. Another white supremacist, another assaut rifle.  One dead, three wounded.

And emails from the Rabbi and the President of the congregation.  We are safe.  We are safe.

But we know we are not.  

The ADL recorded a total of 1,879 anti-Semitic incidents across the country in 2018, the third-highest year on record since the New York-based Jewish organization began tracking such data in the 1970s. Those incidents included cases of assaults, harassment and vandalism.

So we pray in a synagogue with locked doors, under the watchful eye of an armed security guard.  And we wonder how to keep this fortress feeling like a warm, welcoming, vibrant community, like home...

When I wrote that four years ago I could not have imagined how much worse things could become.  When Drew and I question whether decorating for Hanukkah is wise…when our college campuses have become unsafe for Jewish students …when a Jewish man is killed at a pro Israel rally …

Well, I did hear some good news.  The local jewelers can’t keep up with the demand for Judaica, more specifically for Jewish stars necklaces.

Sigh…