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December 8, 2024
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The ‘Message’ Tells Only Half the Story

In David Hes’ letter (“Clearing up the Message,” June 25, 2020), he asks that by not aligning with BLM (Black Lives Matter), is he to be considered a racist or bigot? The answer is NO. However, singling out one race as a target of your animosity, to the exclusion of all others, might very well be considered to be racist or bigoted. I agree with much of what he said, although in less pejorative terms. The truth is that he only told half a story. He conveniently left out the flipside of this odious coin, namely the white supremacists.

They are an equal if not greater threat to the Jewish community than BLM. Let’s remember the shooter at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh that killed 12 Jews, the largest single mass killing of Jews in this country. The shooter is an avowed white supremacist. The attack on the Poway Chabad Synagogue, killing one, was also committed by a white supremacist. Let’s not forget the march in Charlottesville, Virginia, where hundreds of white supremacists marched through the streets with torches, Nazi salutes, swastika flags and proclaiming “Seig Heil” and “The Jews will not replace us.” An innocent person was murdered there also when one of the white supremacist protesters ran his car into a peaceful crowd of counter-protesters. Afterward, President Trump said “there are good people on both sides.” In 2019, a white supremacist gunned down 22 people shopping at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. Last year, according to the FBI, two members of a neo-Nazi group called The Base were arrested in Georgia and charged with vandalizing and painting swastikas on synagogues in Wisconsin, Maryland and Georgia. Another member was arrested after planning to vandalize Jewish-owned businesses in an attack called “Operation Kristallnacht.” According to the ADL, there are threats to Jews and Jewish institutions every day. I could cite many more examples, but I think we get the point.

So while BLM is an anti-Semitic group and incites hatred and violent acts toward Jews, they are by no means the only ones. Mr. Hes would do well to also bring this to people’s attention and confront another real enemy that many of us see looming before us.

David Twersky
Elizabeth
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