I got in one really big fight in grade school. I was a Catholic kid living in a pleasant, mostly Jewish neighborhood. One day I saw some Jewish classmates picking on a very small Orthodox boy for wearing his yarmulke. My friends and I stepped in to defend him. Punches flew.
The aftermath, when everyone was cooling their heels in detention, involved us comically confused Christian kids asking the Orthodox boy what the yarmulke was, why he wore it to school, and why the heck would other Jewish kids give him a hard time about it.
We didn't know what was going on that day. We just saw a little guy getting shoved around by a bunch of big guys. We learned a lot that day, and made a new friend who was part of our little outcast crew ever afterward. (Everything feels like forever when you're that age.)
I think of that long-ago incident whenever I see suggestions that Jews should just hide their faith and symbols of their identity if they want to avoid violence. Same goes for everyone else. I said "not on my watch" when I was eight years old, and I still mean it. /end
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