Rabbi Cooper's Letters

April 28, 2022 / 29 Nisan 5782

Dear Friends,

The ADL points out that, nationwide, there has been a 34% increase in Antisemitic hate-crimes since last year. We have, or at least I have, become a bit “unmoved” by reports of Antisemitic acts when reported. When it visits you in your own backyard, one can neither ignore nor overlook its arrival.

The report of Antisemitic flyers being put on the lawns of several homes in Ardmore, to me is more infuriating than intimidating. After all, we live in an area with a high percentage of Jewish families. To target Jews in this area is like shooting fish in a barrel. The flyers, therefore, were meant, not only to increase non-Jewish support for their cause. It was, as well, an attempt to reach us directly.

And here, if I can complement those hateful, little people who have committed this crime, their choice of Yom HaShoah as a time to renew their Antisemitism shows a bit of knowledge of Judaism. Yom HaShoah is the date on the Jewish calendar set aside by the Government of Israel to remember the victims of the Holocaust. Our local Antisemites chose this day as a way of conveying that tired canard about “finishing the job”. As we remember the six million who were murdered, the flyer-crowd wants to make Jews in this country unsettled and wondering when the reign of the Nazis will return.

We, of course, are not afraid of an emerging, organized movement of Antisemites preparing to return us to Concentration and Death Camps. A Holocaust-redo is nowhere on the horizon of this country. But there is here reason to look aggressively to find the culprits. It is crucial for us to make known that they are not welcome in Lower Merion, not to publicize their hate, not to live here as our neighbors. I expect the Lower Merion Police to investigate thoroughly, arrest the perpetrators and scare those likeminded individuals to return to the rocks beneath which they do, or should, reside. I look forward to learning of their apprehension and incarceration.

I do not feel intimidated walking the streets of Wynnewood, knowing that hateful, neo-Nazis reside in our midst. But I am deeply concerned about our country in which there remains a doubt about the acceptability of these sorts of expressions of hate in America. How did we return to this place, only 80 years after Naziism was dismantled and deconstructed? How did the world fail to make it clear that hate is root of so much of the anger, strife, and violence we see today?

As a Jew, I do not feel threatened. But I am deeply afraid of a country in which this hate continues to abide and thrive without being addressed. I am deeply concerned about the ability that our society has to watch a news report, or read an article, only to lose interest as other newsworthy stories are reported. This is but one of many stories reported on today.

If I am to glean a message from this act of hate, it is that hatred has not, will not be, nor can it be eradicated from our midst. Our success in dealing with Antisemitism is about scaring Antisemites so that they go underground. They will always be there, only afraid that their attempts will be in vain.

There is today a new level of tolerance for those who hate. Whether one looks to politicians running for office or the tenor of free debate on college campuses throughout the country, in the halls of leadership and in the great academies of this country, hate is on the rise. In particular, Antisemitism has become acceptable when it sounds like anti-Zionism, or when it sounds reasoned and intelligent. It is this that I fear.

That flyers are passed out is not the problem. It is the symptom. It is a sign that what passes for high-brow reasonable discourse in the political or academic spheres is finding a comfortable place to call home, in communities around this country, including Ardmore. I am not frightened or intimidated by flyers in Ardmore. I am deeply concerned and, yes, intimidated by the mainstreaming of hate in this country.

I do not know what the responses in this community will be. I will support vigils and demonstrations. But truth be told, when the messages of hate come from above, from those in positions of political leadership or from the world of the Academy, the effect of a local show of camaraderie and consensus is minimal.

B’Shalom,

Rabbi Neil S. Cooper