The Power of Violence

Writing today's post was not easy.

I've only recently begun to scratch the surface of my Jewish heritage. My great-grandparents fled Odessa in 1917 to escape Jewish oppression. My grandfather and parents rarely talked about it.

Although I was raised in a Jewish household, it was not until I read "Pirkei Avot: The Ethics of the Fathers" and spent a summer in Israel in 1968, that I began to understand and appreciate my Jewish heritage.

According to conservative Jewish columnist, Bret Stephens, "In 2020, the F.B.I. reports that Jews, who constitute about 2.4 percent of the total adult population in the United States, were on the receiving end of 54.9 percent of all religiously motivated hate crimes. Many nights in New York City, Hasidic or Orthodox Jews are being shoved, harangued, and beaten".

I proudly wear a mezuzah with a silver chain daily. It is a beautiful piece of jewelry, and it receives many compliments. I tell people about its spiritual significance. There is a scroll inside with a message written in Hebrew, and its purpose is to keep you close to God. Given the random and planned violence against Jews in my country, I am now questioning whether it is safe to wear it and be recognized as a Jew.

Open violence against people different from us has become a daily occurrence.

As noted by Jeff Greenfield, "we have reached a point where one in three American say violence is sometimes justified against the government. When Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene proclaimed at a rally that Speaker Pelosi is “guilty of treason,” she made sure to tell her audience that the penalty for treason is death.?

Greenfield continues, "The reason why [violence] is so dangerous is that it often works. The day after his memorable extemporaneous speech announcing [Martin Luther] King's death, Robert Kennedy gave a prepared address in Cleveland. In it, he spoke what now seem to be prophetic words:

"When you teach a man:

to hate and to fear his brother,

when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies that he pursues,

when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom

or your job or your home or your family,

then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies —

to be met not with cooperation but with conquest, to be subjugated and mastered."

"But he also asked: "What has violence ever accomplished?" His death eight weeks later was one of many unhappy examples where violence "accomplished" much.

"Yitzhak Rabin's assassination in Israel may have murdered the best chance for lasting peace in the region. Robert Kennedy's assassination deprived millions of the opportunity to vote for him, possibly preventing America from becoming a very different county."

Violence has taken Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, J.F.K., and recently hundreds of Jews, Muslims, blacks, Hispanics, and innocent children in schools throughout the U.S.A.

"Beyond individual deaths, violence and intimidation helped deprive southern Blacks of their rights for generations. Violence keeps rulers in power in Iran and suppresses dissent against war in Russia; if there is violence and intimidation in and around polling places on Election Day, that could very well alter the outcome of key midterm races."

We have recently heard a tide of anti-semitic statements from Donald Trump, Ye, and Elon Musk. This weekend, messages were posted throughout Jacksonville, Florida, that Ye is right about the Jews.?

It's now safe to be out in the open about antisemitism, but is it safe to be a Jew in America?

We cannot let violence win the day.

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