Tonight I am writing as not only an American but as a Jewish woman who grew up in a town with a very small Jewish population. The Jewish Community Center in York, PA operates with a large majority of members not being Jewish. Even still, our JCC follows the observance of Jewish holidays and has Purim Festivals and Chanukah events despite the fact that not all of its members observ these holidays. My family and I are not members of the JCC but we were involved in many activities that took place there.
The York JCC is a place I consider to be an extension of my home. It was where I had my first job in high school and it is a place that so many of my happiest memories took place in when I was in middle and high school. I felt safe and like I belonged there.
Today, for so many that feeling is gone. In the past several weeks so many Jewish Community Centers all across the nation have been evacuated because of bomb threats that have been called in. With each new article I was devastated and impacted if only because I thought of my own JCC and how important of a place it was in my life as a teen. Today though, today I got angry. My JCC in York, Pennsylvania was one of those JCC's. The JCC in Harrisburg, one I have been to a few times because of the youth group I was in during high school was also among those with threats called in. And now it is personal! I have no words, this is not the world that I want to live in, one where anti-semitism is so prevalent. This is not the world that those who came before me--the millions of Jews whose lives were taken because they were discriminated against for being Jewish--wanted.
There have been many anti-semetic actions that have taken place since Donald Trump has taken office. Headstones in Jewish cemeteries being destroyed, at this point too many bomb threats at Jewish Community Centers across the nation to even count (my understanding is that today alone there were 19 across the country and this has been going on since January). Not to mention when President Trump was asked about these attacks he not only dodged the question from the Jewish reporter but he also very rudely basically told him to sit down and shut up. See the clip below.
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I find it kind of sickening that even after this reporter stated "I don't believe you are anti-semetic, I know you have Jewish grandchildren" that he has to further explain himself by saying that he is not anti-semetic and not racist (I greatly disagree but that's a different story) and then refuses to answer the question. There is no easy answer necessarily as to why anti-semetism is on the rise. I believe that it is because of the tone of this presidency and the way that Trump has made statements about minorities of all types, but there is no hard and fast evidence to support this opinion (yet). All I know is that in my 27 years of life, there has only been one time that I remember there being any type of anti-Semitic acts in my hometown, and I was very young. I know that this does not mean it didn't exist anywhere because surely it has in the past and obviously still does but it was not nearly this bad. I have no solutions tonight, tonight I have anger and frustration as I watch a nation that I love and am proud to be a part of being taken down a path that I don't like. Tonight I have prayers to the 11 states and probably 20 or so centers that have been impacted by these threats. I think about the children who attend preschool at these centers, the young children who take dance class, or soccer classes or art classes at these JCC's, I think about the people who go there to work out, and I think about the teenagers who like me consider their JCC to be a safe place, a place they call home. For so many being Jewish is something that alienates them at school because there are far fewer Jews in most schools than non-Jews and being able to go to a JCC and be around other Jewish kids in a place you feel safe in is so comforting, today that safety has been shaken. But as the regional director of my BBYO region (shout out to Liberty Region) said "These threats on the Jewish community and beyond hurt my heart but will not break my spirit! All religions and ethnicities will band together to fight this hate!" The time is now, we must start fighting back against the acts of hatred impacting all minority groups!
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