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By Eytan Saenger
At approximately 9:40 AM on Saturday morning, January 15th, Michelle Alyssa Go, an Asian American woman who worked for the notable financial firm Deloitte, was pushed in front of an oncoming train, leading to her death. Barely an hour later, four members of Congregation Beth Israel, including Rabbi Charlie Cytron Walker, were taken hostage in the middle of their services at their synagogue in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Colleyville, Texas.
Though seemingly unrelated, these cross-country events have one thing in common: the collective pain and exhaustion from the consistent hatred and discrimination that minority communities in the United States are currently experiencing.
While the death of Michelle Go has been called a “random incident” by the New York Police Department (NYPD), the incident adds to the insurmountable pain that the Asian American community has been experiencing since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. As of August 2021, there had been over 9,000 reports of Xenophobic acts specifically related to anti-Asian hatred, a number that has unfortunately continued to grow in the months since. In New York City alone, the NYPD reported in December that there was a 361% increase in anti-Asian hate crimes since the previous year. Members of the Asian American community are currently living in fear of hearing about another attack on one of their own or being attacked themselves.
The Jewish community is similarly reeling after multiple attacks in recent weeks on Jews in the United States and beyond, the most notable incident being the hostage situation in Colleyville, Texas. There has been an alarming rise in anti-semitic incidents in recent years and many Jews live with the fear that they could be the next target of an Antisemitic attack. There have been high-profile incidents such as the tragic 2018 shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, the 2019 stabbing at a Channukah party in Monsey, NY, and an attack on a Kosher Supermarket in New Jersey in the same year, to name a few. But there have also been many lesser-known accounts on which Jews have been verbally harassed, swastikas have been drawn on Jewish sites, or Jewish people have been physically beaten for simply being Jewish. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Jews, who only make up about 2.5% of the US population, were the targets of close to 58% of religiously motivated hate crimes in the US in 2020, and 11% of overall hate crimes in the last 5 years have been against Jews. According to the Anti Defamation League, there have been an alarming number of more than 8,000 Antisemitic incidents over the last two years.
Jews have consistently been the victims of attacks dating back many centuries. Whether it be pogroms in Russia, the Holocaust, or the Antisemitic attacks of recent years, persecution has always been at the center of Jewish history. Jews, are weary of constantly hearing about how a member of the Jewish people was the victim of an Antisemitic incident. This past Thursday, January 27th, was International Holocaust Remembrance Day, marking 77 years since the liberation of Auschwitz. From a broad perspective, there has been a significant decrease in Antisemitism and an increase in the acceptance of Jews the Holocaust ended 77 years ago. However, society has still not been fully liberated from Antisemitism and other pervasive forms of hatred which should have no place in modern-day civilization.
The agony and unease that both the Jewish and Asian American communities, along with other minority groups, have been feeling are unacceptable. There are kids who currently have to grow up with the fear that their schools, houses of worship, or they themselves will be targeted.
The recent trends are indeed disheartening. It is imperative upon all of us to recognize the progress that has been made since the darkest chapters of discrimination and prejudice while also recognizing that we are still ways to go from being in a world that is free of hate. While there is no doubt that hate breeds hate, we must remember that love also breeds love. As Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously said "Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."
People should not and can not act to add to the spate of hatred but rather should carry themselves in a way that embraces others and counteract the pervasive hatred in the world.
Any opinions or views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of SAR High School, nor does it speak for the entire EPG student body.