"Day of Hate" vs. "Shabbat shalom" - JAFFA Wire no. 4
Their goal is to spread their misery to us. Can we deny them success?
Over the past few days media across the country (in particular Chicago) have made it known that various racial hate groups have declared that Saturday Feb. 25 will be a "National Day of Hate". I can confirm from my own research, available by request, that this is being advertised among those circles. The "Day of Hate" is being billed by racial activists as a particularly focused activity of spreading literature, signs, memes, and graffiti in public spaces in order to further an anti-Jewish agenda. However they are not calling for or promoting acts of violence. On that day many of these groups will drop fliers, display banners on highway overpasses or project images onto buildings in order to further hateful messages about Jews and call on passersby to participate in their activities. If that is all it is limited to, none of those activities are criminal unless they violate other laws in the process. On the same day Jewish worshipers will be at synagogue to read Parashat Terumah and celebrate the Sabbath just like every other week.
What does this mean? Calling the police will not lead to their arrest, but often these individuals crave the spectacle of a confrontation in order to validate their viewpoint of being contrary to society’s convention. This past week neo-Nazi demonstrators picketed a showing of the Broadway show Parade about the trial and lynching of Jewish Atlanta businessman Leo Frank, owner of National Pencil and its factory. He had been accused of the rape and murder of 13 year-old Mary Phagan, and was convicted after a trial that was widely criticized for irregularities such as jury intimidation that forced a conviction. Attempts to appeal and overturn his conviction also yielded a campaign of terroristic threats and offers of favours to Georgia Governor John Slaton in order to steer him toward upholding the conviction. One of the results of the Frank trial was the founding of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in order to advocate for the civil rights and liberties of Jewish Americans. While I’m very critical and opposed to its modern day version, it is important to recognize the circumstances that caused the ADL to come into existence: The senseless hatred and lack of due process that led to the death of a prominent and successful Jewish citizen.
The Frank Trial and the ADL is also a crucial link to why the play was picketed by one of the groups promoting the “Day of Hate”. They all hold on to the perspective that Frank was guilty and that all of the procedural irregularities in his trial were mere technicalities that do not change the underlying truth.
Day of Hate methodology
Most of the groups promoting the “Day of Hate” skirt any legal problems through the use of disparaging innuendos while not advocating for violence itself. What they typically do is emphasize the role of Jews in whatever social calamity is happening, or fabricate one if needed. For example the flyer below attempts to paint the entire Biden Administration as a cabal of Jews. There are several inaccuracies however: David Cohen is the deputy director of the CIA, not the director and Eric Lander was forced out of the administration on charges of bullying within less than a year of taking office. Jennifer Pritzker (born James) is not even in the administration, and has been retired from the military since 2001, but is the cousin of Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. Accuracy of the information is not the point, it is a meme and it’s purpose is to provoke a certain mental process in the reader causing them to attribute the problems associated with these individuals to the Jews as a whole. The “Day of Hate” is a promotional campaign, not an academic study and the its activists are hype men (or women), not lecturers.
What to do?
I always have an internal debate over how much to amplify an incident of Jew hatred, because the objective of the perpetrator is to cause fear and anxiety that is vastly out of proportion of their true reach and power. That being stated, here is the best advice if encountering some of these lowlifes out and about:
Most of their activity is limited to distribution of literature. If you see them doing leaflet drops, collect the leaflets up and drop them in the trash.
Strength is in numbers. If they are looking to target someone, they are more apt to harass a person alone without friends or bystanders present.
Keep the company of the elderly, women, and children if they are walking from place to place. They would be vulnerable targets for “Day of Hate” provocateurs.
Try not to respond to verbal provocations.
Do not proactively engage with them as that is exactly what they are seeking.
If a person does move to physically assault someone or damage property, do not hesitate to call the police or defend yourself. This is no longer a freedom of speech issue, but one of physical safety.
There are numerous incidents already in our rearview of anti-Jewish violence, such as an incident from earlier this year when a man attempted to firebomb a Reform Jewish temple in Bloomfield Township, NJ. His botched attack was one of several he had planned to do in his local area. This is why it is essential that congregation members should take it upon themselves to report incidents and threats, secure their own safety by learning self-defense or owning a weapon legally, and be prepared in the event of an emergency to act in the defense of themselves and others or assist others that have been harmed (G-d forbid).
“A Day of Hate” in Ancient Persia
Modern media attributes anti-Semitism (which I call anti-Judaism) as one more element of regressive prejudice along with racism, sexism, and a host of other social ills. That interpretation really lacks the depth needed to connect it not just to the Jewish social experience but the biblical roots of the struggle with our haters. I don’t see it as a coincidence that the “Day of Hate” is coming ahead of Purim in which we commemorate an evil plot to have the ancient Jews of the Persian Empire killed by imperial decree through the plot of the wicked Haman. We link this story to Parashat Zakhor that falls March 4 (11 Adar) this year. This is the passage in which we commemorate the ambush set by the Amalekites during the Exodus from Egypt. Amalek’s name is synonymous in Jewish tradition with blind hatred and the profaning of the holy. The phrase used to describe the Amalekites meeting the Children of Israel in Deuteronomy 25:18 is אשר קרך בדרך, (asher karkha baderekh) which is translated to mean that they “happened upon you on the way”. Some interpret this to be that Amalek “cooled” the Israelites after they had been spiritually “heated” by the miracles in Egypt. Looking even further ahead is the holiday of Passover (sorry for those hoping to take their minds off cleaning) when we say in the Haggadah (narration of the Exodus story for Passover) that “אלא אלא שבכל דור ודור
עומדים עלינו לכלותנו”, meaning “Rather every generation they try to destroy” us. They denotes every adversary of the Children of Israel throughout the generations, from Jacob’s father-in-law Laban in Genesis up until the present day. Nowadays the Jew hater often refers to us as they whenever he wants to point the finger of blame. “They rig the economy”, “they spread perversion”, “they deceive us into thinking we are alike”, “they like to play the victim”.
In closing, this is not a simple situation for anyone, especially parents having to decide whether to explain this threat to their children, and how much details to relate. I’ve proposed the Jewish Alliance for the First Amendment to stand for the free speech rights of not just Jewish American citizen but our haters too, because I believe we all deserve to be treated equally under the law. That does not mean I ignore their terrible character or the threat they present to all of us.
Shabbat Shalom.