This Wednesday, close to press time, a white supremacist exchanged gunfire with a security guard at the US Holocaust Museum. The guards quick response no doubt prevented more injuries, and potential deaths, inside the museum.
Then we learned that the security guard died of his wounds. Our fingers were numb; our hearts, outraged.
Like an inverted looking glass, the Holocaust Museum reflects not beauty, but a nightmare. As schoolchildren, adults, the elderly, Jews and non-Jews alike, stroll the halls and take in the exhibits, they inhale the foul odor of the Holocaust. They become absorbed, immune to the outside world. This Wednesday, the contemporary and the historical intersected a collision occurring with startling frequency in this country.
According to Paul Goldenberg of the Secure Community Network, homegrown terrorists have either searched for or indicated that they want to harm Jewish entities or institutions in recent weeks.
Item: The man charged with killing a soldier in Arkansas had been researching Jewish sites.
Item: A terror plot targeting Bronx synagogues was uncovered.
Item: The suspect who killed a Jewish female student at Wesleyan University held a copy of the classic anti-Semitic tract, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Some argue that the Jewish sensitivity to anti-Semitism is a neurotic historical remnant with no place in current reality. Think again. Although Jews are undeniably safer in 2009 than in 1939, anti-Semites continue to hate, plot and murder. Anti-Semites study the places where Jews congregate: synagogues, JCCs, federations, Holocaust museums. They may target one particular Jew in a secular setting, or they may target many. Either way, the motive is clear. Terribly clear.
The 88-year-old man who sauntered into the entrance of the Holocaust Museum today was so blinded by hate he probably never anticipated that the first person he encountered would fight back. But we have learned a thing or two in this struggle. In Israel, security guards are on the front line in the fight against terrorism and are willing to risk life and limb to prevent it. No doubt the supremacist expected to walk right in and spill as much blood as possible. But the guard reacted and lost his life.
According to a recent study by the ADL, anti-Semitic incidents decreased in the US during the last year. Good news. Still, it is clear that shootings and plots have not gone away. In fact, is there a pattern to the four recent attacks? It is not enough to say that they were unconnected operationally. If Jew hatred is spreading widely, they would not need to be connected operationally to indicate a pattern.
Clearly, we need to stay vigilant. We are grateful to UJC for establishing the Secure Community Network and to the government for funding it.
