Thread by @ErinSchrode

A Jewish woman was murdered in California today, simply for being a Jew celebrating Passover. I’m a Jewish woman celebrating Passover in California today too—so I raise my voice for her + every soul who has been gunned down in a hate crime, anti-Semitism… facebook.com/erinschrode/po…

I raise my voice for her and for every soul who has been gunned down in a hate crime, lost their life for daring to live their truth or faced deadly anti-Semitism, white supremacy, discrimination or bigotry of any kind. May their memory be a blessing.

A 19-year-old American man walked into a synagogue today, shouting hateful slurs and opened fired with an assault rifle, killing her and wounding a child and two more Jews who were celebrating the end of one our holiest festivals.

During PASSOVER, the holiday commemorating liberation + freedom from unbearable horror in a sequence of miracles
During SHABBAT, our sacred day of rest
During YIZKOR, when we honor the memories of loved ones lost
During the week of YOM HA’SHOAH, when we remember Holocaust victims

6 months to the day after the deadliest massacre of Jews in USA, when 11 were murdered in the Tree of Life synagogue, it's happened again. Thoughts/prayers do nothing. Promises to combat anti-Semitism are empty. Cries to stop hate fall on deaf ears. Assault rifle bans go nowhere.

This anti-semitic attack is far from isolated, amid a climate of rising hate crimes, which spiked 17% in a year, per FBI report detailing attacks against religious/racial minorities. Those targeting Jews jumped 57% to 1986 incidents, the largest uptick in a single year per @ADL.

Anti-semitism is real. Anti-semitism kills. Anti-semitism threatens Jews every single day. Anti-semitism is seen all across the political spectrum — and we do not and should not have to prove it, not to those on the left, not to those on the right.

On the left, anti-Semitism often manifests as poorly-masked threats to or direct attacks on the Jewish right to self-determination.On the right, we see repeated extremist claims that Jews are attempting to destroy the white race through nefarious mechanisms + secretive channels…

… like that which the San Diego shooter posted to radical online forum 8chan earlier today, received with widespread praise and cheers of infamy.

Toxic rhetoric is pervasive. Just yesterday, Trump doubled down on his indefensible claim of “very fine people on both sides” at the Charlottesville rally where neo-Nazis + white supremacists marched w KKK torches shouting “Jews will not replace us” + Nazi slogan “Blood + soil.”

Like politicians, the media perpetuates anti-Semitism, seemingly without second thought or remorse. Just yesterday, The @NYTimes ran a blatantly anti-Semitic cartoon that used unmistakable and unforgivable tropes…

The @NYTimes put the face of the Prime Minister of the Jewish State on a dog, a Star of David on his collar, with a leash being held by Trump (with an offensively placed yarmulke), insinuating that the United States is being “blindly” led by Jews and/or the Jewish state.

While a @NYTimes Editors’ Note stated the image was “offensive” and an “error of judgment,” there was zero apology, explanation of how it happened or what concrete changes have been implemented to ensure nothing like this ever happens again, targeting Jews or any other group.

Words, tweets, caricatures, demonstrations + chatrooms have consequences, fallout, victims. We must address the insidious hate that plagues not only our country, not only Jews, but the world over + peoples of all faiths— Muslims in NZ, Christians in Sri Lanka, Jews in California.

I do not believe that government, law enforcement, media companies or digital platforms are taking adequate action to protect me, to protect Jews, to protect “the other" in America from being a target of violence, terror, racism, hatred, anti-Semitism, white supremacy, all of it.

What more can I say? What more must we do to combat anti-Semitism? How must more loudly must we scream out, cry out, call it out?

As anti-Semitism continues to rear its ugly head as an eternally shape-shifting virus, ongoing silence, dismissal, apathy and inaction on this age-old evil are inexcusable — and not only increasingly hurtful and detrimental to the moral fabric of this country, but acutely deadly.

While persecuted, scared, exposed and targeted, we Jews will not back down, cower in fear, give in to hatred, succumb at attempts to divide us or choose indifference (🙏🏾 Elie Wiesel); we will stay strong, united, brave + proud, no matter how hard it may be in the current climate.

Am Yisrael Chai. We, the Jewish people, still live— despite thousands of years of persecution, despite being less than .1% of the global pop, despite 6 million Jews being systematically killed in an unparalleled genocide, despite expulsions from innumerable nations past/present…

…despite countless attempts to wipe Jews off the face of the earth, despite ongoing + rising physical/political/religious/national/digital hatred from all sides. Our mere survival is a miracle—our successes, triumphs + ability to thrive beyond our ancestors' wildest imagination.

I'm grateful to be alive, ever proud to be a Jew, humbled by our rich history, honored to carry on traditions, deeply committed to our future, but now even more terrified to be a Jewish woman celebrating Passover in California, to be a Jewish woman in America in this day + age.//