Anti-Semitism, other hate must be confronted
This past weekend, someone draped a sign over a Holocaust memorial at a synagogue in Lakewood saying: “Heebs will not divide us.” Fliers with other messages attacking Jews were distributed on cars.
This was presumably in response to recent news coverage of welfare fraud and arrests within the Lakewood Jewish community.
I knew that New Jersey had the fourth-highest number of hate groups in the country — not bad for such a small state — so I wasn’t terribly surprised by this turn of events, especially when I recall several other recent anti-Semitic events in our area.
However, as I looked back over these and other recent news articles concerning the Jewish community, I was shocked at the number of blatantly anti-Semitic and hateful comments posted online and on Facebook — often without any response or rebuttal. As someone who grew up in New Jersey and is a proud resident, I didn’t realize how much fertile ground for hate and anti-Semitism existed in our own backyards.
For example:
•“Jews usually trick you through knowledge of how to trick you…a regular criminal will just rob you straight away – Jews have finesse about doing it…like doctors and lawyers”
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