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Charlottesville As Reminder

Our Shared Values

A

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bout two decades ago, I drove
and Nazi flags. They carried posters
from my childhood home
depicting a hammer smashing a Star
in suburban Detroit to East
of David. Armed white supremacists
Lansing, Mich., to begin my under-
congregated outside of a synagogue.
graduate studies at Michigan State
Anti-Semitism is alive and well and
University. The two places are only
many white Jews are justifiably
about 70 miles apart. But my experi-
scared right now.
ence growing up Jewish in Metro
I’m scared, too. But I also know
Steve Bocknek
Detroit did not begin to prepare me
that the violence and hatred that
for what it would be like to be Jewish
white Jews are being reminded of by
a mere hour drive away.
the horrific events in Charlottesville
Growing up, my family was proud
are what people of color have been
of and felt safe in our Jewish iden-
experiencing all along, with a rise in
tity. I can’t recall a single instance from my
hate crimes since the election last November.
youth of feeling threatened or hated because
White supremacists have been emboldened
of my Judaism. So the series of anti-Semitic
by the events in Charlottesville and the
incidents that I experienced while at college
administration’s deplorable response thereto.
shook me to my core: a swastika carved into
As a result, people of color are unquestion-
a friend’s dorm room door; a brick painted
ably more vulnerable today than they have
with anti-Semitic graffiti thrown through
been in the recent past and white Jews must
the window of our Hillel building; claims of
act. Instead of turning inward and focusing
responsibility for an act of arson by a militia
only on our own vulnerability, let’s leverage
group calling itself the “Nazi Fourth Reich”
our historic experience with confronting anti-
that burned down half of the Hillel building.
Semitism. Let’s redouble our efforts to fight
These experiences caused me to reconsider for racial justice in this country. Let’s call out
what I thought I understood about my place
bigotry, racism and hatred wherever we see
in the world. On one hand, as a white Jew, I
them. Let’s amplify the voices of the most vul-
probably wasn’t actually less secure than I
nerable communities. Let’s commit ourselves
had been before. I had benefited immeasur-
and our institutions to forming or strengthen-
ably from white privilege and from living
ing alliances with communities of color and
at a time and in a place in which Jews were
organizations led by people of color.
thriving in America. And notwithstanding the
Now is when each of us must decide what
acts of hate that I had observed on my college kind of future, what kind of country, we want
campus, I would continue to benefit in those
for ourselves and our children. With the ter-
ways. On the other hand, what I experienced
rible images from Charlottesville fresh in
as a college student forever fractured my
our minds, let’s band together with people of
sense of immunity from hate and anti-Semitic color and fight the scourge of hatred and big-
violence.
otry together. •
For many white Jews, the events in
Steve Bocknek is the senior director of external rela-
Charlottesville similarly shattered their sense
tions for Avodah, a national organization that works to
of security in this country. The neo-Nazis
who descended on the city chanted “Jews will strengthen the Jewish community’s fight against poverty.
He grew up in Farmington Hills and now lives with his
not replace us” while marching with torches
wife and children in Brooklyn, New York.

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ore than 3,000
Elie Wiesel said, “I
years ago,
swore never to be silent
a group of
whenever and wherever
Hebrew slaves, made
human beings endure
up of people from many
suffering and humilia-
races, languages and
tion. We must always
cultures, fled the oppres-
take sides. Neutrality
sion and hatred of Egypt.
helps the oppres-
Rabbi Aaron
They were inspired by
sor, never the victim.
Bergman
an idea so radical that
Silence encourages the
it helped create the
tormentor, never the
American Revolution.
tormented. Sometimes
These Hebrews, our
we must interfere.
ancestors, said that there is
When human lives are endan-
only one God, that no human
gered, when human dignity is in
is God and, most importantly,
jeopardy, national borders and
that all people are created in
sensitivities become irrelevant.
God’s image, and are, therefore,
Wherever men or women are
beloved and indispensable.
persecuted because of their
They said that the world that
race, religion or political views,
they would create would pro-
that place must — at that
tect the widow, the orphan and
moment — become the center
the stranger. No one would live
of the universe.”
in fear just because they were a
We as a people have survived
minority.
the worst of atrocities because
There is no Declaration of
we refuse to give in to hate
Independence without their
and fear. We have flourished
courage and insight. As it says,
because we carry the values of
“We hold these truths to be self- those Hebrew slaves into the
evident, that all men are created world, in every generation. We
equal, that they are endowed
have kept our promise to them.
by their Creator with certain
We cannot abandon that prom-
unalienable Rights, that among
ise now. Each of us has to find
these are Life, Liberty and the
our own way stand up to hate,
pursuit of Happiness.”
and replace it with love, respect
America is not America
and appreciation. •
unless we embrace fully the idea
that all people are created in
Aaron Bergman is a rabbi at Adat Shalom
God’s image. We cannot stand
Synagogue in Farmington Hills. He sent
by when one group asserts
this message to his congregants last
week.
superiority over all others and
demonizes and terrorizes them.

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