A HATRED THAT RESISTS EXORCISM
by Edward Rothstein, The New York Times
Is there anything left to be said about anti-Semitism? By now surely the
outline is clear: how hatred of Jews grew out of early Christianity’s
attempts to supplant Judaism; how the demonization of Jews in the Middle
Ages turned violent; how the hatred was given its name by a
19th-century German journalist; and how it reached cataclysmic
fulfillment in the Holocaust.
There are other landmarks: the expulsion of the Jews from England, Spain
and Portugal; intermittent massacres in Muslim lands; the construction
of European ghettos; the pogroms of Russia and Eastern Europe; the Dreyfus Affair;
the Nazification of Europe; Stalin’s purges and show trials.
And then, of course, there are the triumphs that act as a kind of
remonstrance: the Enlightenment success of Jews in secular European
societies, the myriad opportunities in the United States, the birth of modern Hebrew and, after a
half-century of settlement, land purchases and institution building, the
creation of Israel, whose founding principles incorporated both
democratic and Judaic ideals. Read more...
UPSTANDER GOES INTERNATI
ONAL One of our members wore her bracelet on a recent trip to Europe. Amid answering many curious questions as to the meaning of the bracelet, she was able to capture a snapshot chronicling her trip as an UPSTANDER. Send us your snapshots as we broaden the reach of the UPSTANDER movement!
Anti-Bullying Club formed by fifth grader, Dalton Reynolds in Florida
Sticks and stone can break your bones, but words can never hurt you. The falsity of that statement has never been more real than it is today. Michael Brewer and Josie Ratley are two Florida teens that are survivors of vicious acts of school...read more...
Artwork by Middle School Second Place winner, Ulysses Trejo,8th Grade, Kennedale Junior High
School.
