Never Forget

So I woke up this morning to this in my inbox.  Some person or persons has decided to vandalize a synagogue, Shaarey Tefilla , in Carmel, IN, a suburb of Indianapolis and about 4 miles from my house.  This is the Conservative synagogue where Noah became Bar Mitzvah.  A place that that is part of our greater Indianapolis Jewish community and an established synagogue that in recent years moved north to area where more Jewish people live.  This is a disgusting display of hate and I believe a form of terrorism.  I can't begin to understand the reasoning behind it.  But frankly it appears that this is becoming more common around the country.

Indiana has had a reputation of hate in the past.  The KKK was founded just 2 hours north of Carmel.  But in Indianapolis there has been a real effort to be more interfaith than many places I have lived.  I personally belong to at least 3 specifically interfaith organizations and there are many more in town that our synagogue has been part of for decades.  The interfaith community has included our Rabbis for over 30 years, and Sha'arey Tefillah has been part of a growing interfaith community in Carmel and the community has embraced the synagogue as a part of the city.  Yet hate grows in the dark corners of every place in America.

Hate grows out of fear.  We continue to live in a country where the other is seen not as an opportunity to expand who we are but as something to frightened of attacking our life and life style.  The immigrant, Muslims, People of Color, and yes even the Jews.  Recently on a west coast political appearance the President of the United States said something about "New York money".  That is a dog whistle heard by bigots as Jewish money.  The White Supremacists who are planning a rally in the Nation's Capital, who rallied last year in Charlottesville chanted "Jews will not replace us"  and used Nazi slogans like "Blue and Soil".  We can't ignore these kinds of antisemitism, and we must work to purge it from our culture.  We must stand against any expression hate in this country, against anyone, anywhere.  There are more people in Carmel, in greater Indianapolis, in Indiana and in the country who want to live in peace and community with those who believe differently, come from different nations, cultures and ethnicities.  We are stronger and have the numbers to continue the tradition of the United States of being a welcoming place to all.  We have not always been perfect and we have a long way to go, but as a culture these expressions of hate are known to be wrong.  So we must work to fight back against this and all hate.

In Indiana this should add to the push for a hate crimes or more accurately a bias crime law.  Something that has failed many times in our state government.  Some feel like it criminalizes thought.  So when caught the people who did the vandalism will be charged with a property crime.  But this is a form of terror on the Jewish community.  Many Jews will feel the fear that has been part of Jewish history.  It is not an attack a building it is an attack on a community and I would argue the entire community, Jews and those who welcome Jews.  A bias crime law would make this crime worse than egging a house.  This most certainly is worse than that. It isn't about the cost of cleaning it up, it is about what this means to those who encounter it.   The majority of people in Indiana stand against hate.   I also think the government should stand with that majority.

Today, we live in a world where every day brings a new bomb shell story in the news both on the national and local level.  But this is moment we can use to talk about the issue of the growth of hate in the country.  We need to remember that hate, left unchecked escalates.  We need to remember that if you have a neighbor who is part of a minority group, don't be scared of them, get to know them.  We need to remember that our country's greatness comes from our diversity.  Attacks on immigration was recently met with a quote, "Imagine London without Indian food".  Homogeneity is only good for milk.

Chances are we will find out who painted these walls with symbols of hate.  We may learn why they chose to do it.  But they are symptom and the disease is currently in a stage where we can expunge it.  Let's see if we can work together to do that.