Grappling with a history of oppression

Editorial by lily SchrodEr HUB Staff

As a white American Jew, I struggle to reconcile my people’s history of oppression with my experience in Davis as someone whose success is not impeded by religious persecution.

In sixth grade, my classmate threatened to show me the Hitler salute because he thought it was funny. He didn’t say that to me because he hated Jews or because he supported Hitler, he just didn’t understand how hurtful of an action it was.

That was the first time I had directly experienced antisemitism, and despite knowing it was a bad thing, I did not feel especially affected by it.

A large part of Judaism is celebrating the times when Jews have overcome oppression. We have an old joke about it that says “they tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat,” and that is what a majority of our holidays consist of.

It’s hard to grow up when most of what I’ve learned about being Jewish is centered around people hating us, although I myself have never experienced that kind of oppression.

Sometimes in the Jewish community there is a message sent out that we as Jews must be wary of nonJewish people, based on our history. And although this message is not wrong, many Jews in America do not relate.

“I don’t feel particularly scared when I’m around (non-Jewish) people… because of being Jewish,” sophomore Shai Kol said.

In America, Jews have had a generally positive experience.

“Jews have been more successful in America than essentially anywhere else in Jewish history,” said Jeremy Simons, Rabbi at Congregation Bet Haverim (CBH) in Davis.

Yet, it feels like American Jews continue to focus on all the negative parts of being Jewish and Jewish history. “There’s a sense of (being) happy to be here and not have others discriminate against us, rather than lifting each other up in a way that’s only positive,” Kol said. our campus used to have ... let’s tap into that as well, as long as we have the staffing and the means,” Geigle continued. tion spots would certainly have a positive effect on the wait times we experience, and is

And there’s a reason why Jewish communities focus on negativity. Antisemitism can be a serious danger to Jews, as seen in the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in 2018 and the firebombings of three synagogues in Sacramento in 1999.

“We have to all take (antisemitic acts) seriously and act as if it could be our own (community),” Simons said.

The recent antisemitic views that have been very publicly expressed by Kanye West and Kyrie Irving raise concern in Jewish communities for the future of Jews in American society.

These comments themselves will not initiate the oppression of Jews in America, but this hate incites more hate, and it is important to be aware of all the different forms of antisemitism that may continue to appear.

My sixth grade classmate, for instance, was not aware of the harm of his comments, and his ignorance created an opportunity for him to learn.

When my parents reported the incident to the principal, she asked me if I wanted an apology from him, but what I wanted was for him to learn why his action was wrong and for more education on antisemitism to be implemented into the curriculum.

Yet it is also important to remember all the positive moments in Jewish history.

“It’s walking a very fine line between not losing that sense of (the history of persicution) but also not letting the bad things define us,” CBH Rabbi emeritus Greg Wolfe said.

In my own Jewish identity, I acknowledge my privilege that I live in modern America and that when I learn about the oppression of Jews— it is history. I try to focus on the love that my Jewish community gives me and the beauty of this culture I am a part of.

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“I think one way to mitigate that ... we could have a student volunteer program that

This would be an attractive solution

If such a program were implemented, tion stations feasible, but it would also