What happened to these decades where there was so much conversation about inclusion and social justice for everyone? What happened to the laws against hate crimes? I thought we had progressed beyond anti-semitism.
In March of this year an 85 year old Holocaust survivor in Paris was murdered because she was a Jew.
In May of 2017, the Globe and Mail reported "B'nai Brith Canada, which has been tracking anti-Semitic incidents for 35 years, said 1,728 anti-Semitic incidents were reported across the country last year — a 26 per cent increase from 2015 and the highest number the group has ever recorded."
I had believed that Muslims were more at risk, however, in 2014, the FBI reported 609 incidents of hate crimes against Jews and 154 against Muslims. Even Snopes reports more attacks against Jews than Muslims.
Like bullying everywhere, a division is created and the majority beats up the minority by words or by silence. The after dinner conversation in what I think of as a civilized home is not about how to fix any given social problem. It's about who can be blamed without making anyone in the room feel uncomfortable. It was only much later in my life that I could see this as an acquiescence to prejudice. As one of my relatives said when I expressed concern about racism - well that's life I'm afraid.
Now we talk about injustice on social media which also allows anonymous commenters to harass, abuse and threaten minorities, and women who tackle these issues.
Writing about the recent attack in Toronto where a young man ran down pedestrians in a rented white van - Nora Loreto warns we must not overlook misogyny and social conditions as part of the cause. "We live in a society where our collectivity has been undermined in every way possible, and the Greater Toronto Area is ground zero for how we have been ravaged by forces that seek to drive average people into the ground."
The connection between the different groups who are targeted is the young white man. The previously privileged majority whose future has bottomed out.
But the question remains how can I (a white woman) fight anti-semitism without diminishing the dignity of the Jews who are vastly more educated and engaged in civil society than I am? Can I help or should I let the experts deal with this?
Self interrogation is a start but doesn't keep thugs from defacing synagogues and cemeteries. I can listen to the souls who are homeless and jobless, who can't find a place to belong but that won't help the unarmed women and men who are murdered as they walk home.
I can examine the use and abuse of power to link antisemitism with our systemic habits of expressing contempt for life by glorifying hegemony and war. I can argue respectfully with white supremacists on facebook. I can look strangers in the eye and know they have a right be here just like me. I can support environmental and socially progressive groups with funds. I can eschew those who promote privilege by association and creating class divides.
There is a border that I must defend and it's not against people from different countries but against beliefs that make life a resource to be exploited.
People who cannot earn a living wage, who can't access health services, who have nowhere to live, who are treated like objects, who cannot get justice when they have been harmed, who are marginalized by their sexual orientation, who are judged by their religion or skin colour, are victims of a system which diminishes humanity and although no-one can fix this within one lifetime it is the vigilance we are obliged to keep. It is the duty of all within the human race to fight antisemitism and all the other bigotries.
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