The dramatic rise of local incidents of anti-Semitism is deeply troubling (“Anti-Semitic incidents climb in N.E.,” Page A1, June 2). The Anti-Defamation League’s report of 56 anti-Semitic acts in the region in 2016, compared with 61 for the whole of 2015, indicates a shift has occurred. An ugly monster, once restrained by a shared commitment to civility and a genuine embrace of American pluralism, has been unleashed. The monster feeds on coarse stereotypes, ignorance of “the other,” and dangerous misinformation. The monster threatens the very fabric of American civil society as it renders an entire group of people isolated and vulnerable.
However, it is precisely because we have met this monster before that we know what to do to contain and curtail the bile it spews, the hatreds it feels so free to sow like seeds thrown to the wind: Stand up to it. Stare it down. Denounce it. Speak out. Speak up. Say that there is no room for anti-Semitism in my home, my school, my place of business, my house of worship, my Facebook page, my Twitter feed. Show the monster that we are better than that, that America is finer than that, that this extraordinary undertaking in pluralism is as beautiful and rare as it is fragile and precious.
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We must do this. Together.