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April 20, 2007
Silence? Not anymore
Editorial
A grotesque attack on Beth Tikvah Synagogue in Richmond last weekend
was an incident of both anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. The
graffiti left on the shul made specific reference to the Holocaust
just hours after our community's Yom Hashoah (Holocaust
Remembrance Day) commemorative concert Sunday night.
Perhaps most disturbing about this incident and others like it is
how not random they are. Last November, the day after the
community's Kristallnacht commemoration, two boulders were thrown
through the windows of Hillel House at the University of British
Columbia. Coincidence?
The correlation between these vandalism incidents and the commemoration
of the Holocaust should cause us to wonder: What are they trying
to tell us? Anti-Semitism is a tenacious and mutating virus. It
metastasizes in bizarre and unpredictable ways. Holocaust denial
is one of many ways in which this ancient hatred emerges, but why?
How does denial of the Holocaust advance the agenda, however appalling,
of any movement or ideology?
If such cruel attacks benefit these vandals and their worldview,
it is probably through some sadistic pleasure gained from the pain
such incidents inflict on our community. Incidents like these cause
pain far, far beyond what a can of spray paint or a magic marker
should. By attacking the legitimacy of the Holocaust, these incidents
reopen the most painful of old wounds. They also remind us that
all our troubles are not in the past. Life is comparatively good
for North American Jews, but we learn from history and we know that
good times and bad times are cyclical. On Monday, Tel-Aviv University
released figures showing a sharp rise in acts of anti-Semitism around
the world. In our own community, there have been three recorded
anti-Semitic attacks within the last six months, including one directed
at a Richmond doctor who lost relatives in the Shoah.
Reminding people of the Holocaust's history is a step toward building
sensitivity to the historical experience of the Jewish people
and for those who hate us, this is enough to make undermining Holocaust
awareness a worthwhile endeavor. By attacking our community on days
when we commemorate the 20th-century catastrophe, perhaps they think
they can shut us up. If commemorating the Holocaust brings attacks
upon our community, the disordered thinking of these violent individuals
might go, we will stop commemorating it, history will subsume its
memory and any residual sympathy for the Jewish experience will
be diminished. It makes as much sense as anything in this crazy
situation.
So we must not be silent. We must stand up as a community, with
all the allies we can muster, and rededicate ourselves to spreading
understanding and empathy for our historical experience.
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