(Jewish Group) Your sympathy isn't enough to stop anti-Semitism

[Behind the Aegis]

Everything was going well until I checked my phone. I had just finished teaching Sunday school at a synagogue in Evanston, Illinois, and was on the bus that would take me back to my apartment on the far north side of Chicago. It was a beautiful day. Sukkot would start in the evening. And then I opened Facebook and found a succession of horrifying posts.

Temple Emanuel, the synagogue I used to teach at in my hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan, had been vandalized some time late Saturday night or Sunday morning. The posts from former co-workers were vague at first and referenced “messages of hate” that were posted on the main doors — the same doors children use when they come to religious school on Sunday mornings.

I tried very hard not to throw up on the bus. I made it to the train station and took the train to the campus library, where I studied for several hours trying not to feverishly check my phone for updates.

The Grand Rapids Jewish community is small, which has its challenges (especially when it’s time to do Passover shopping and families are split between traveling to kosher grocery stores in Detroit and Chicago). Fortunately it’s also extremely close-knit. The Reform and Conservative congregations and the Chabad House frequently collaborate on community events, and everyone goes to each other’s simchas (celebrations).

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[guillaumeb]

1. Recommended.

[irisblue]

2. From the article

Snip--There were well-meaning comments from people saying “this is not West Michigan.”

They are wrong.

This is exactly what West Michigan is. Beyond the facade of “West Michigan Nice” lies a pernicious moral rot that anyone marked as an “other” has encountered. It can be found in the panicked texts that a friend sent me on a Saturday night because an angry driver was so focused on flipping them off on their walk to synagogue that he almost crashed his car. It can be found in how every single one of my queer and trans friends has lasting trauma from the hatred they experienced all through elementary, middle and high school. It can be found in a recent case where a local real estate company filed a restraining order against a black woman who left them a poor review on social media because her rental application was denied — despite following all their application requirements. It can be found in the fact that I didn’t feel comfortable putting a mezuzah on my door when I lived there because a Nazi-friendly bar was in my neighborhood.

Each synagogue in Grand Rapids has had tight security for years, including cameras, locked doors and constant contact with police. We had Sunday school the day after the Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh and the rabbi greeted every family with a team of squad cars parked in the parking lot."



I lived in Grand Rapids for 15 years, that is *exactly* what West Michigan is.

[JudyM]

3. Good article. Captures the impact with brevity.