Why Antisemitism?

Why does it go on from day to day, month to month, year to year, and generation to generation?  Jews are assaulted or killed, a synagogue or temple is attacked by a gunman, all sadly unsurprising.   Why?


The answer is not so hard; the remedy is more problematic. The answer is fear through ignorance, undergirded by obsessive hatred and conspiratorial thinking, exploding with violence by readily available weapons.


The remedy is not so easy to come by.  We have tried and are trying education, cultural pressure, emphasis on love being more powerful than hate, religious interfaith dialogues, Holocaust studies, and a myriad of other attempts to stop the killing.  While there has been some success, the hatred and murder go on.  Again, Why???


Because in our brains, fear and hate are more powerful than all the attempts to stop it.  Whether you or I like it or not, some people continue to believe there are a group of Jews sitting somewhere, meeting and plotting to control the world.  It’s a belief, a faith, a trust they think is true despite anything else being reported.  And in an era of “fake news”, some are skeptical of anything reported or taught. 


Antisemitism is indeed “the longest hatred.”  Despite the fact the killings go on, we must do all we can to teach, to preach, and to educate.  There may not be much hope of completely stopping the fear and hatred.  We may feel helpless.   But that is precisely why we must do whatever we can.
  

I will keep teaching, you do what you can where you are; speak out, refuse to keep silent.  The potential for evil in our hearts and brains may not be eradicable, but we must struggle to keep it at bay. Human beings have the capacity for evil, but they also have the capacity for good.  Do what you can where you live.