What happened in Pittsburgh was very sad but sadly unsurprising. There has been no generation
in the last two thousand years when someone in the world was not trying to kill
Jews. It keeps on keeping on. This longest hatred gets longer, and I am not
convinced we can stop it.
But we can do something.
We can raise our voices again and again and again and speak out against
it. Christian pastors and priests can stand up in their pulpits and point out
those texts in the New Testament, especially John 8, Matthew 27 and the parts
of the Holy Week passion story which condemn “the Jews” for their participation
in Jesus’ death. These stories should not be taken out of context as a license
to hate all Jews everywhere and anywhere.
Most of the people sitting in Christian pews are not a
threat to Jews but they need to hear about these toxic texts in the Christian
scriptures. Some clergy have been speaking out. Others need to begin. The rest of us need to be vigilant, to speak
up when someone takes a shot against all Jews, to refuse to be quiet when
hatred of Jews is being declared.
We will never be able to get rid of extremists and
haters. But we can resist and isolate
their hatred.
Thank you to all those who contacted me or stopped me in the
hallway to say they were sorry this happened.
It meant more than you know.
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