New Depths of Disgust ....If you're not worried, you should be.

Over the weekend, an act so heinous it's indescribable, took place in Chicago. A little boy was stabbed 26 times because his family is Palestinian-American. His mother was also stabbed multiple times and is currently hospitalized. The perpetrator was their landlord, a man named Joseph Czuba, who had, in the past, given the child toys and even built him a treehouse. According to the New York Times:

In court documents, prosecutors described the landlord, Joseph M. Czuba, 71, who has been charged with murder and hate crimes, as angry, erratic, paranoid and violent. 

He had been listening to conservative radio coverage of the Middle East war in the days before the attack, the prosecutors said, wanted his Palestinian American tenants to move out of his building and was increasingly concerned that he was in personal danger because of his connection to them.

So he stabbed the kid and his mother. In America. In Chicago. In a place that is supposed to be safe...his home. No child should be sacrificed on the altar of political rhetoric. What happened in Chicago is as heinous as what happened in Israel...and Gaza, too. Innocent people died on both sides. Civilians. Children. Grandparents. Non-combatants all, and all are dead because the politics of hate is practiced world-wide. And it's increasingly practiced in these here United States. 

Last week, the Twin Cities Jewish community came out for an event in support of Israel. When we arrived, the line already snaked around the building. Police and County Sheriffs were positioned around the building, parking lot, and all doors. While they were there because credible threats exist and the intent is to make us all feel safe, I did not feel safe in the slightest. I did not feel safe because I knew Jews and Jewish events in the United States are considered targets. Still, more than 1700 people showed up. 

The venue, one of the local synagogues on the Minneapolis side, was filled to the scuppers. Every available seat, every available standing-room space was takens. Hundreds more could not even get into the building, and listened to the live stream in the parking lot on iPads, tablets, and phones. I saw almost every one of our morning minyan regulars as well as dozens of other St. Paul denizens. We were lucky; we may have been all the way in the back, but we could hear Senator Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, and Governor Tim Walz clearly denounce the slaughter in Israel. We listened to speaker after speaker pledge unwavering support for Israel, but we also knew in other places we were being called war criminals and murderers. Oh, you know the drill. 

As Israel is held to some bizarre standard that precludes self-defense, all Jews become targets for hate. In Australia, 1,000 protesters in front of the iconic Sydney Opera House chanted Gas The Jews.  Jewish students on college campuses across the US are threatened by groups that would silence those who support Israel. Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia, all Ivy League institutions, have become centers for antisemitic actions toward students by other students under the guise of free speech. For the most part, the administrations have remained woefully silent. Google Jew Hatred on Campus and you can check it out for yourself. Claims that this is about Israel just don't hold up; it's about Jews. 

UPenn President Liz Magill, after being faced with unprecedented backlash to the university's lack of response to concerns voiced by Jewish students, alumni, staff, and board members, sent out a letter basically apologizing. She wrote:

At Penn, we are confronting these events in the wake of recent antisemitic acts on campus and individuals, with a public history of speaking out viciously against the Jewish people, appearing on campus as part of the Palestine Writes Literature Festival.

Many have voiced their anger and frustration about this event. Please know that I hear you. I know how painful the presence of these speakers on Penn’s campus was for the Jewish community, especially during the holiest time of the Jewish year, and at a University deeply proud of its long history of being a welcoming place for Jewish people. The University did not, and emphatically does not, endorse these speakers or their views. While we did communicate, we should have moved faster to share our position strongly and more broadly with the Penn community.

"A welcoming place for Jewish people."  Yup, that's what she said. Maybe it's me, but that one gave me the creeps. Would she have said, "Black people," or "Italian people," or even "Catholic people?" I don't know,  but her tone left me ever so slightly unsettled...and suspicious of her motives. Maybe I'm just too sensitized by the rhetoric around me. 

Getting rid of Jewish people in general is definitely on a whole lotta tables. The new rhetoric is just like the rhetoric of Nazi Germany, of Imperial Russia, or even the Inquisition...just wrapped up in a white flag with a blue star. When so-called intellectuals rave about supporting Palestine's struggle to be "free," they have no clue that Palestine was never a country to begin with. They rant about Gazans not being able to leave...well, maybe they could if Hamas had officials at the border to check passports...which they don't...which is why the border to Egypt is closed. NOT because the Egyptians or the Israelis closed it. Maybe they'd still have a potable aquifer if they hadn't used all the pipes and funding for rocket launchers... but hey! that was not an Israel problem; that was a Hamas problem,  not that anyone would admit to that. As the radical masses carry on about these injustices, they blame Israel, not Hamas for the squalid conditions, in turn, giving the haters open season to hate not Israelis, but all Jews. 

We are not safe from the extreme right, nor are we safe from the extreme left. We are oh-so-conveniently stuck in the middle. 

Tempio Maggiore

Every synagogue I know has security details in place on Shabbat. Outside doors are locked, easy, welcoming access is no longer possible. Several years ago, while in Italy, I was told to register before going to the Tempio Maggiore di Firenze for shabbat. I sent an email, then upon arrival in Florence, I went to make sure I made the list on Friday morning. I was stunned to see the fences and soldiers with automatic weapons patrolling in front and on the grounds of the synagogue. Tonight, while I was in Talmud class, a representative of the safety committee popped in to say we could no longer leave an interior chapel door open for people coming in for minyan. Is this what is coming for us? Apparently, and it scares the hell outta me. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Readers have written asking me what they can do to help. Like I have a magic answer for that? Actually I might: send money. Right now, Israel has numerous organizations that are crying out for donations for relief, supplies, body armor, you name it....they need it. Below is a list sent from my friends in Herzliya of established placed to donate with some I've added:

Friends of IDF 

Lone Soldier Center 

Help ZAKA 

United Hatzalah 

Magen David Adom - this link is being matched by Mike Bloomberg:  

Stand With Us where you’ll also find items to share on your social media

Leket Israel our local food rescue and distribution initiative

Shaul Foundation for families in crisis 

St. Paul Federation Israel Emergency Campaign 

Jewish Agency: Victims of Terror fund  

More agencies can be found Here:  TC Jewfolk Resources to Help Israel During Operation Iron Swords. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

The age-old adage,  

put your money where your mouth is,  

applies big time here. 

Please find a fund you like and pitch in.