(Originally published in Moms Don’t Have Time to Write.)
We can’t let antisemitism back in.
A few years ago, I became increasingly concerned as minor antisemitic incidents began to pop up. Then others, major.
After the Pittsburgh synagogue murders, I grew frantic. I wrote an article for Scary Mommy called, “I’m Jewish and I Refuse to Let Fear Stop Me From Celebrating.”
As any avid Holocaust scholar like me knows, this is how it all started: with one small thing after another snowballing almost imperceptibly until it grew too big to stop.
This week as hate crimes have escalated, I’ve been sick about it. I’ve gotten DMs on Instagram from bookloving fans in Israel hiding in bomb shelters urging me to post about it. To help. All week I’ve been adding the wise words of Rabbi Steve Leder to my stories. Posting. Talking about it. It isn’t enough.
I didn’t think things could escalate like this in my lifetime. And now that they have, I’m even more terrified that the issue is being ignored and that so many others — others whose mission is to lift up the oppressed and targeted — are turning their backs on our group. Why?
Is this the beginning? I pray that it isn’t. I pray that no group is targeted based on race, religion, sexuality, or anything else, including my own.
Eighty years ago, we all committed to never forget the mass execution and attempted extermination of our people. Since then, as a community, we’ve been understandably on edge. And now this resurgence, for which we’ve stood on high alert.
So now I beg everyone: Never forget. Never forget. Never forget. This is not okay. This can’t be the beginning again.