Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on June 2, 2022

First and foremost, the Jewish Federation leadership expresses our heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of those murdered in Buffalo, NY. Our hearts are also with those injured and we wish them a refuah shlemaha full and speedy recovery.

We praise local, state and federal law enforcement professionals who responded to the incident and are pursuing justice in what has been identified as a hate crime.

As I write, I have no idea how many other mass shootings senseless loss of life and injuries to othersmay occur between this moment and the publication of this article in two weeks. It has become a normal way of life in our country to expect these incidents; it shouldnt be normal.

The Buffalo alleged perpetrator, whose name I will not use, posted a 180-page document fixated on whats known as replacement theorythe idea that white people are being slowly and intentionally replaced by minorities and immigrants. It is a hateful ideology held by many extremists that somehow immutable characteristics determine our personal thoughts or actions and/or worth as human beings. It is an abhorrent ideology that goes against all that America is supposed to be and against the value of Btzelem Elohim, that we have a responsibility to treat each person with dignity and respect because we are each created in Gods image.

There is no justification for what happened in Buffalo, where members of the African American community appeared to have been specifically targeted. Or in Atlanta, where members of the Asian community were specifically targeted. Or in El Paso, where members of the Latino community were specifically targeted. Or in New Zealand where members of the Muslim community were specifically targeted. Or in Colleyville, Pittsburgh, Poway, and so many other locations where Jews were targeted. There are too many evil and hateful attacks in recent years to list in this short article.

We may never know what the Buffalo perpetrator was thinking but it appears that this vicious attack stemmed from well-established racist thoughts. We also know he espoused anti-Semitic thoughts; those who hate so viciously regularly hate anyone who they perceive as different.

Our world seems to be increasingly spewing hatethrough words and too often through violent actions. We each, regardless of our immutable characteristics, our professions, our socio-economic status, where we live, or any other aspect of our liveswe each have the right to live in a safe environment and to be treated with dignity and respect.

When we treat those with whom we disagree as the other or less than equalwe create an environment where hateful words and actions somehow become justified. Our personal politics, religious views or other perspectives should never be more important than human life. Ever.

How do we, members of our community, strive to make a difference in the wake of this tragedy? We must start with ourselves. How we speak toand aboutother people matters. We must strive to disagree respectfully and not to demonize those we disagree with; especially if we disagree passionately. We must remember that hateful words do cause painand that hateful words all too often lead to hateful actions. And we must find our individual and collective voices to appropriately speak out against all forms of hatred.

Our Jewish Federation office reached out to the Atlantic City NAACP office following the shooting to express our condolences and horror, and to let them know we stand with their community as their friends and allies. I let them know we stand ready to show support in any way they need us to. Members of the Jewish community know all too well how meaningful it is to have other community members and organizations reach out to us after instances of anti-Semitism; we must do the same for our entire community. We are better together, and we are stronger together.

We each have a role and responsibility to make our world a better place for every person. We need to not only act when hatred impacts us personally, we must take action when hatred impacts anyone, anywhere.

See the original post:

How we should respond to hatred - Jewish Community Voice

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