6 in-depth
the
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Friday, March 31, 2017
r e t a l s r 72 yea photos licensed through Creative Commons
History faced its worst of hate in the 1940s during the Holocaust, a time in which Jews, gypsies, the LGBTQ+ community, and the disabled were victims of hateful sentiments gone to an extreme. Have we learned our lesson? by Michael Korsh, Samantha Horowitz, and Lily Smith Managing Editor and Staff Reporters
“Nazis rule.” Someone had broken into the dorm room of Avi Shaver, HHS alumnus, at the University of Minnesota on Feb. 8 and scrawled that message on his whiteboard, along with a graphic illustration of a swastika and a concentration camp. That night, Shaver was hit with a harsh reality: anti-Semitism is appearing more and more on high school and college campuses nationwide. He never thought it would happen to him on such a personal level. “I was expecting to find it, hear about it, perhaps experience it in a large group setting but never as a personal attack,” Shaver said. The Jewish community isn’t alone in its recent experiences with hate crimes and intolerance. With the current political climate, hateful sentiments have transformed into actions— 1,094 bias-related incidents were reported by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in the mere month after the 2016 presidential election. In such a hateful environment, Abdi Isse,
sophomore, feels the immense social pressure placed on him because of his religion. “Honestly, I don’t feel very safe here at the moment for many different reasons. I feel harassed and I don’t feel comfortable being a Muslim in this school,” Isse said. Beginning in January, Jewish Community Centers (JCCs) in Minnesota and nationwide have been the target of a series of bomb threats. According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), since January, over 161 bomb threats have been called against Jewish Community Centers in the United States, including the Sabes JCC in St. Louis Park on Jan. 18. As a parent of a young child on the campus on the day of the bomb threat in St. Louis Park, Laurence White, Chief Counsel for the Sabes JCC, felt a similar emotion as many of the other parents did. “It’s jarring and extraordinarily upsetting,” White said. “At the same time, as a security professional who has advised the Sabes JCC for many years, I know it’s a contingency the staff has trained and prepared for, which was a ma-
jor contributing factor in the success of our response.” Abigail Yousha, junior, along with other Jewish students at HHS, felt a direct hit from such a local incident. “My reaction when I first heard about the bomb threats to the JCCs in Minnesota and across the country was surprise and shock,” Yousha said. “Although I fully understand the extent of anti-Semitism in this country, I was surprised about the reality of threats to the Jewish community across the US.” Because Yousha attended the Minneapolis Jewish Day School for eight years, she feels a strong personal connection to the attacks. “The building and the Jewish community itself is close to me, and there’s a huge likelihood that I could be in the JCC during a bomb threat. These threats directly impact my community and a place where I have spent 12 years,” Yousha said. The ADL, whose mission is “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people, and to secure justice and fair treatment to all,” has been
photo illustrations by Bea Frank, Abby Doeden, and Michael Korsh