Editorial: Public officials must name the scourge of antisemitism

The Editorial Board / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

For decades and maybe longer, Oct. 7 will be a notorious date — not just for what happened on the day itself, but for the spiraling violence and recriminations that have ensued, in the Levant and around the world. But this is not the typical story of conflict between nations. Our ongoing public conversation must prominently and specifically include the rise of antisemitism in the United States, and in Pittsburgh in particular.

One year ago, the Hamas political and military organization orchestrated the worst day of violence directed against Jewish people since the Holocaust. Terrorists breached the Israeli border and killed nearly 1,200 people, including 46 Americans, and took over 250 hostages. The scale and brutality of the attack seemed like a story from a history book, something people no longer did. Many of those hostages remain in Gaza, their fates uncertain.

In response, the Israeli military has scoured most of the Gaza Strip. While the region’s only democracy has a right to its own security, few would argue that the scale of the devastation, including the loss of at least 40,000 mostly civilian lives, can be justified by any legitimate war aim. We join most Americans and most people of the world in desiring a fair and lasting ceasefire, including the return of all hostages, and the renewal of efforts to forge a two-state solution.

The effects of Oct. 7 have also reached Western Pennsylvania, home of thousands of people with loved ones who were killed or whose lives have been permanently altered by the violence in the Levant.

Many Palestinian-Americans — and other Arab-Americans and Muslims — have experienced abuse and other harassment, as some people wrongly conflate Palestinian heritage with support for Hamas. This only further deepens the injustices unleashed by the conflict, and makes it harder for people whose homeland is under siege to feel at home here.

In a particular way, Pittsburgh’s Jewish residents have also experienced a startling erosion of their sense of security and belonging in the city they call home. From antisemitic graffiti in public parks and places of worship to the vandalism of signs of support for Israel to slurs and slogans shouted from passing cars and even outright violence directed at visibly Jewish students at the University of Pittsburgh, a new and distressing era of insecurity for Jewish people has opened in Pittsburgh.

It is essential that public officials recognize and name antisemitism as a unique threat to the public good and to the cohesion of the community they serve. Throughout history — including right here in Pittsburgh — antisemitism has proven itself to be a distinctive kind of hatred that, if left unchecked, builds up and manifests itself in outrageous acts of violence. Further, antisemitic hate spreads to hatred of other people and forms of difference.

Unfortunately, a joint statement commemorating the day by U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, County Executive Sara Innamorato and Mayor Ed Gainey does not specifically mention antisemitism. While attempting to address the concerns of all members of the community, and in a particular way those of Palestinian-Americans whose voices are the least amplified, the statement fails to mention directly and clearly the pain experienced by Jewish people in their community, and the antisemitism that is rending the community we share. Broadly condemning “hate and violence here at home” does not suffice as a public word against this very specific hatred.

It is possible and necessary — especially here, especially now — to condemn all hatred and to recognize antisemitism as a particular form of hatred that bears particularly toxic fruit. The first and essential step to fighting antisemitism is to name it.