What to Do?

  Yesterday afternoon, I received an email from my rabbi that our synagogue had a swastika painted over a sign that displayed the synagogue's commitment to the State of Israel.  It was the second time that the sign had been defaced.  For those who have been reading this blog, you know that I am confused by hatred.  I cannot comprehend what the perpetrator hoped to accomplish.  I have a similar reaction to a protest that blocked traffic in Philadelphia calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.

I understand the power of protest.  I see it in the Book of Esther where Mordechai refused to bow to Haman as a protest.  Mordechai went through the streets of Shushan, crying out about the injustice of the policies of Haman calling for the genocide of the Jewish subjects of Persia.  I myself participated in protests against the War in Viet Nam.  I joined the Women's March protesting against the election of Donald Trump.  

Protesting seems to be one of the means of trying to effect policy.  I also write letters to my representative explaining why I would like them to know my point of view.  Do any of these actions work?  I don't know.  I think the protests did have an impact on the War in Viet Nam.  If there will be protests against Trump during the election period, I will join them.  

There have been many protests both in the United States and abroad against Israel's strategy in Gaza.  I have discussed by feeling in a previous blog and will come back to it.  I am not going to get into the question of whether anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. Is the call for a Palestinian state "from the river to the sea" a call for Genocide?  There are protests against the treatment of Israeli Arabs as second-class citizens, yet Jews have always been second-class citizens in Arab lands.  In the proposed secular, democratic state of Palestine, from the river to the sea, what would be the status of the Jewish population.  But, as I said, this is a topic for another time.

So what was the graffiti of a swastika meant to accomplish?  Was it meant to make me afraid to attend synagogue?  It is a warning that armed neo-Nazis are ready to attack?  Is it to tell me that only Aryans are welcome in America and that I should pack my bags and leave?  I protested our involvement in Viet Nam because I thought it was an unjust war.  What is being protested by the swastika?  That Jews rule the world?  That Jews are the enemies of humanity?  Are we back in the Middle Ages when the Jews were the instruments of the Devil?  

The neo-Nazis proclaimed in Charlottesville that "the Jews will not replace us".  I am not sure what that means.  What are they going to lose?  Since I am Jewish, I am clearly one of their Jews.  I bought a condo.  Did I drive a Neo-Nazi out of it?  I taught for 27 years at a Jewish day school.  Did I deprive a neo-Nazi of a teaching position there?  If I am committing some wrong by replacing them, I would like to know what it is so that I can make amends.  

Protests must be directed at something.  Without expressing what that something is, what is the value of the protest?  I would have much preferred that instead of graffiti, our perpetrator would have written a manifesto of his complaints.  Maybe some of them are legitimate.  The only way we can resolve them is through dialogue.  A wordless swastika tells me nothing.  If there is a complaint against me, let me hear it.  And I don't want to hear it in stereotypes.  I am not trying to control the world.  I am not an owner of a bank.  I do not own a movie studio, tv network, or multi-media empire.  I did not work on lasers to start forest fires in California.

I want to know specifically what I did to earn condemnation.  If I am guilty of something, I am willing to pay the price of my actions.  I just need to know what they are.


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