I am a child survivor of the Holocaust and owe my life to a Dutch-Indonesian family and their Muslim nanny, who risked their lives to shelter a 9-month-old Jewish baby. My mother survived slave labor in 12 concentration camps. But my father and sisters were killed by the Nazis. Sixty years ago, my mother and I immigrated to the United States hoping to escape the anti-Semitism that persisted in Europe. But Charlottesville last year, pipe bombs this month and Pittsburgh on Saturday make me wonder whether there is any place of refuge from prejudice and hate.
In July 2012, I heard a speech[1] by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum that now seems sadly prophetic: “Those in power begin to dehumanize particular groups or scapegoat them for their country’s problems. Hatred not only becomes acceptable; it is even encouraged. It’s like stacking dry firewood before striking the match. Then there is a moment of ignition. The permission to hate becomes permission to kill.”
Alfred Munzer, Washington
Regarding the Oct. 28 front-page article “11 killed in shooting at Pittsburgh synagogue[2]”:
On Saturday, a lone shooter carried out a vicious attack at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh celebrating Shabbat, taking the lives of 11 people. This deadly attack on the Jewish community came after the shooter reportedly made anti-Semitic proclamations such as “All Jews must die.”
The rise of lone-wolf hate crimes following divisive politics in our country is extremely alarming and arguably the gravest challenge we face. In this case, the attack was not directly perpetrated by our leadership, but it is clear that seditious rhetoric has created an atmosphere that is influencing lone-wolf attacks.
