Two Years Later

Today marks two years since the horrific shooting at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue. I shared my thoughts and feelings immediately after the tragedy and tried to put things in perspective one year ago. Seeing videos and reading articles about this day have stirred up all types of emotions. It certainly doesn't help that we're a week away from the presidential election. So yes this post is going to be political.

Last month, I wrote a post about Donald Trump and the Jewish vote. My conclusion was that Jewish voters who see Israel as the top reason to vote for Trump should reconsider. Even last week, when Trump should have celebrated a peace deal between Israel and Sudan, he tried to get Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to insult Biden. 

Trump has Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on speaker phone to discuss a deal normalizing relations between Israel and Sudan. He asks: "Do you think Sleepy Joe could have made this deal?"

Netanyahu: "We appreciate the help for peace from anyone in America" pic.twitter.com/OtCAL37m8e

— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 23, 2020

Therefore, I commend Washington Jewish Week, not exactly a liberal publication, for endorsing Joe Biden. I'm getting way, way off topic here.

As a Jew in America, I feel less safe than I did 4 years ago. Yes, this is a rather simplistic statement that has a lot to do with the fact that I attended Tree of Life for the first 16 years of my life. Still, you can't ignore the significant increase in anti-Semitic activities and violence over the last 4 years including in Poway, Jersey City, and Charlottesville. Now, is Donald Trump responsible for the violence? Of course not. Sadly, this is a trend that's occurring in other parts of the world too. However, Trump has certainly empowered, or at a minimum emboldened, white supremacists in the United States. Please check out the 12:55 mark of this PBS' Frontline video. That's Donald Trump after Charlottesville. That's not what you expect to hear from a leader trying to unite the country.  

Trump's "stand back and stand by" line was only a few weeks ago too, so it's not like he's grown into the position or changed his views on anything. Look, I know that voting Trump out of office isn't going to stop anti-Semitism. And this brings me back to Tree of Life. How do we make sure that this doesn't happen again? I don't have the answer. As I mentioned last year, religious institutions of all faiths now have increased security and police at every function. I guess that makes most people feel safer, but that's not how people should live. 

Education and trying to understand each other couldn't hurt. Of course, that Frontline video shows plenty of people in Charlottesville who had no interest in conversation or learning. How about not saying that Biden is a "die-hard globalist" like a particular person who currently resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is currently doing on the campaign trial? There is a history of anti-Semitism with the words globalist and globalism. That only helps to spread hate.

So I'm just going to try to spend a few quiet minutes today to remember the people who lost their lives two years ago and hope that our country is in a better place soon. We are and need to be stronger than hate!

As a slight tangent, Integrity First For America is leading a lawsuit against the neo-Nazis responsible for the Charlottesville violence. I'm just sharing this here since I think it's an interesting case.