opinion
When Your Family Is the Victim
of Antisemitism
BY BENJAMIN KERSTEIN
R ecently, and at long last, the
antisemite who has been vandalizing
my family’s business in a Jewish suburb of
Boston for nearly a year was caught.

My family owns a small store that sells,
among other things, Israeli products.

A sign hung from the store’s awning
advertises this fact. Over the past year,
this sign was repeatedly stolen, torn
down and defaced by an unknown rac-
ist. Finally tired of replacing it, my fam-
ily installed security cameras. The next
time it happened, the criminal’s face and
license plate were captured as he com-
mitted the crime, and the police tracked
him down.

The self-righteous fiend told the police
that his crimes were justified because he
found the sign “extremely offensive.” The police
were forced to inform him that this did not entitle
him to break the law. The question now before us
is what the next step will be.

The police want to settle things privately, with
the criminal paying some kind of restitution. My
father wants compensation paid, but also wants
to meet with the criminal and require him to attend
an educational course given by a group like the
Anti-Defamation League. He feels that an overly
punitive reaction may only intensify the criminal’s
antisemitism. I, on the other hand, want the criminal prose-
cuted and punished to the fullest extent of the
law. (In my darker moments, I also want to see his
legs broken in multiple places with a baseball bat,
preferably wielded by myself.)
For the most part, however, this entire ordeal
has forced me to recognize a gaping divide
between me and the rest of my family on the issue
of antisemitism in general. A divide that, I believe,
may be emblematic of a larger divide within the
Jewish community itself.

I have lived in Israel for 20 years. I am a Zionist
and make no apologies for it. I believe that when
faced with racism and/or violence, the Jews should
respond in the most punitive manner available in
order to achieve justice and create deterrence.

I do not believe antisemites can be educated,
changed or cured. They won’t stop unless they
are stopped — until they are made to understand
that the cost of hating the Jews is higher than its
sadistic benefits.

Even more telling is the emotional divide
14 JUNE 16, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
some kind of relatively painless solution
to the issue. The protection of the law,
in this case, appears to have worked.

Perhaps it is better to let it go.

Perhaps. But for myself, I can only see
the gaping divide between us. And this
divide, above all, frightens me. It fright-
ens me because I am painfully aware
of certain facts: A terrifying percentage
of the progressive left and the Muslim-
American community holds antisemitic
attitudes and is prepared to act on them.

And antisemitic violence, if not checked,
always escalates, as it did last May, when
Muslim-American and pro-Palestinian
thugs attacked Jews across the United
States. To me, this criminal and his van-
dalism were not an aberration — they are
the new normal. And this normal has now
struck frighteningly close to home.

I also know that, perhaps when Israel
fights its next war, it will happen again. And this
time, it will likely be much worse. There is a very
good chance that it will end in a murder — per-
haps many murders — and I fear that the attitude
taken by most American Jews cannot stop such
a terrible eventuality. I also know that, when this
happens, my family will be vulnerable to such
violence, and so will the entire American Jewish
community. This is because the police, however well-mean-
ing they may be (and they are), cannot be every-
where and cannot act until the thing actually
happens. And at the moment, most American
Jews have no other options. With a few local
exceptions, usually in Orthodox communities, they
have no security or defense force of their own.

When it happens, there will be no one there to
protect them. And even if local law enforcement
takes action to secure Jewish sites and busi-
nesses after the fact, this means the Jews will be
forced to live their lives under continuing siege. All
of this is unacceptable to me.

So, I am forced to look across the divide at my
loved ones, hoping that despite my misgivings,
they will turn out to be right. I wish very much that
this divide could be bridged, and that the larger
divide between Jews like me and most American
Jews could be bridged as well.

At the moment, this appears unlikely. And so, I
am forced to worry, and know that I will continue
to worry for a very long time. JE
between me and the rest of my family. They
appear to be inclined toward something like mag-
nanimity, while I am comfortable with the fact that
I hate those who hate the Jews. I have never met
the criminal himself, and I do not care to. But I hate
this person. Hate him. My family, perhaps to their
credit, does not.

My family are American Jews. For the most part,
they have always lived in America. And I think
that their attitude is emblematic of that of the
vast majority of American Jews. They believe that
antisemitism can be fought by nonpunitive means
— education, reconciliation and dialogue. They
believe that antisemitic incidents should be dealt
with in a moderate and measured way.

When one of my father’s friends compared the
vandalism to Kristallnacht, my father felt he was
going a bit far. The rest of my family has not said
as much, but I sense that they would agree with
this. They don’t feel the sense of urgency that I do.

I am fully prepared to admit that they may be
right. Perhaps it’s better not to overreact. Perhaps
my reaction is somewhat hysterical. Perhaps our
long history of persecution has fostered a certain
paranoia among the Jews, which causes us to
exaggerate and overstate what may simply be the
random acts of distasteful individuals. Perhaps
America really is different, the Jews are relatively
safe there and we must be aware of this in dealing
with the small amount of American antisemitism
that does exist. And perhaps education, reconcil-
iation and dialogue are indeed better than stern
justice. Moreover, the police acted promptly and effec- Benjamin Kerstein is a writer and editor living in
tively to the vandalism, and are trying to arrange Tel Aviv.