From an English Jew
I have been grateful for the postings following the Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania, USA) shooting. I had been numb and “indifferent” to the situation, justifying my “indifference” by saying that many people were dying in the collapse of capitalism, not just Jews. I had refused to engage with the event any more than with all the others.
Then I read what Cherie Brown (the International Liberation Reference Person for Jews) wrote to the RC e-mail discussion lists. That woke me up! Particularly the words “massacre” and “the cycle is turning.”
I think my resistance to feeling my feelings has come from hearing the panic of English Jews that this is 1930s Germany over again. The conditions are very different now, but what’s true is that the mechanisms of anti-Semitism remain the same. Genocide follows the same stages of dehumanization, starting with blame and separation and escalating to massacre.
Jews are being publicly demonised here in England. Recently an unpopular Jewish businessman had his Jewish identity revealed along with being accused of bullying and sexual harassment. The only local Jewish politician where I live has been viciously attacked for financial fraud—a classic anti-Semitic accusation. Whether or not these men are guilty, it feels like the climate of blame is heating up.
Folkestone, Kent, England
Reprinted from the RC e-mail
discussion list for leaders of Jews