Anti-Semitism hit too close to home and now I feel like stranger in the South | Opinion
Hatred of groups such as Jewish people builds up momentum gradually. Casual comments lead to prejudice; prejudice leads to hate speech and hate crimes; and hate leads to systematic persecution.
- Owen Averbuch, a native of Huntsville, Alabama, is a 2019 graduate of Vanderbilt University and resides in Nashville.
On the first night of Passover, I couldn’t help but smile and feel pride as I scrolled through pictures and videos on social media of my friends celebrating with their families, both at home and over Zoom.
An intense pride and overwhelming sense of community that, after over 3,000 years and in amid a global pandemic, we still celebrate our Exodus from slavery in Egypt around the world.
That great feeling I had the night before was completely shattered the morning after with sadness and anger when I learned that our sister synagogue, in my hometown of Huntsville, Alabama, was vandalized with hate speech and symbols while I slept only a couple of miles away.
There are no words to describe the feeling when your community and a central part of your identity are so blatantly and carelessly attacked. This feeling was compounded when on the morning after the second night of Passover, we found out that a second hate crime was committed on the synagogue and personal residence of Huntsville’s Chabad Rabbi and his family.
This second crime, the night after the first, sent an even deeper shock wave of fear and helplessness through our community.
This is why we feel we are under attack
Many of my Jewish friends from college, who are not from the South, were always surprised to learn that I was from Alabama: “There are Jews in Alabama?!” was the exclamation I received every time. I often inferred from that question the judgement that Alabama is seen as a prejudiced place across the country, and I always disagreed from my standpoint, feeling that I had (almost) always felt welcome as a Jew in Alabama.
But today, I don’t. I can’t help but feel like a stranger, just as my ancestors did when they were in the land of Egypt. But the difference is: this is my home, and I have rarely felt like a stranger here before.
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In an unprecedented time in our lives where we have seen the immense love and support of which the human race is capable, I feel like this attack of burning hate hits that much harder.
It is sad that the Jewish people — my people — now have so many examples that continue to occur which point to why we feel that we are under attack across our country and the world. Casual comments and a lazy society lead to injustices such as this one.
To school classmates who made the occasional Jewish or Holocaust joke, or argued with me about the relevance of an event that happened 80 years ago and why I should still be so “torn up about it,” this message is for you. And really, this message is for everyone, because we all play a part in creating an environment in which hate exists.
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We must work to protect the right of people to exist and live without fear
Hatred of groups of people builds up momentum gradually, and at least for the Jewish people, has ebbed and flowed over thousands of years, in countries across the world. Casual comments lead to prejudice; prejudice leads to hate speech and hate crimes; and hate leads to systematic disenfranchisement and persecution.
For those who say that something like the Holocaust could never happen again to the Jewish people, think again. Recent atrocities in this country have exhibited otherwise; members of our community have been killed for simply being Jewish.
Look around you, look at your community, and your actions, and ask yourself, are you part of the problem? I’ll certainly be scrutinizing myself in the coming days and weeks, ensuring I do more going forward to promote the right of our community, and every other persecuted community, to exist freely and without fear.
We live in the year 2020, a present where many believe we live in a tolerant and accepting world, unlike that of the antiquated generations of our forebears, but thanks to hate, our community can’t even satisfy the basic needs of security and safety.
I’m angered and devastated by these acts, but am comforted in knowing that the Jewish community is one that will always persevere in the midst of hate, and will never be defeated. Let us all work towards a more tolerant and loving world. I know we have it in us.
Owen Averbuch, a native of Huntsville, Alabama, is a 2019 graduate of Vanderbilt University and resides in Nashville.