On Saturday, as we were busy preparing for our 39th Anniversary Spiral Dance to honor our Beloved Dead and celebrate the Witches’ New Year, I heard the news of the synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh. I felt heartsick. I come from a Jewish family, and with all the Witchy stuff I do I am still very connected to my Jewish roots. The victims in Pittsburgh are so familiar to me—they could be my grandmother, my mother, my father, my aunts, my uncles, myself.
For those of us raised in the immediate post-Holocaust era, this blatant anti-Semitism triggers some of our deepest fears. Yet we can take some cold comfort in knowing that we are not alone as targets of hate. A white gunman shot two black people in a supermarket in Louisville just days ago, when he tried and failed to get into a black church. In 2015, white supremacist Dylann Roof killed nine people at the African Episcopal Methodist Church in Charleston. Mosques have been vandalized and bombed and Muslims are targeted repeatedly in racist attacks. Immigrants of all sorts are at risk. Even children have been gunned down in their schoolrooms.
In an atmosphere where hatred and violence are legitimized, no one is safe. When the President dehumanizes one target group after another, when he lends legitimacy to neo-Nazis and blames victims rather than perpetrators, when Fox News and right-wing media repeat his lies, when politicians whip up fear and hatred to inflame their base and when they blatantly suppress the votes of the historically disempowered, they bear responsibility for the violence that results.
We cannot counter hatred with hate. Instead, we need to build a movement of solidarity, where we unite with all those who have been targeted and resist attempts to divide us. We need to stand together–Jews, Muslims, Christians, people of all religions, people of color, immigrants and refugees, women, LGBT folks, gender-diverse folks, and what I truly believe is still the vast majority of white folks and men who believe in justice and equality. All these identities overlap and intersect in multiple ways—all of them contribute to the richness and diversity of our individual identities and our collective culture.
We need to embrace and celebrate that diversity, and build a movement strong enough to counter the fears and lies. Violence will not daunt us, but instead inspire us to reach out, unite, and invite in all all those who long to be agents of healing and justice for this world.
I have the same shudder in my bones I remember the first west coast women’s permaculture convergence near your own sanctuary , wondering when and how you would stand for your self and your people.
https://www.algemeiner.com/2018/10/29/how-to-respond-to-the-unspeakable-tragedy-in-pittsburgh/
The story is definitely written from a strongly pro-Zionist perspective, that ignores the reality Palestinians are living with every day. It is vital to separate the Jewish people from Israeli policy. Not all Jews support Israeli policy–not all Israelis and Zionists are Jewish. Trying to smear all those who stand for justice–for Palestinians as well as Israelis–as ‘anti-Semites’ actually plays into the hands of the true anti-Semites who unfortunately are having a huge revival now, aided and abetted by the racism and anti-Semitism being put forth by Trump and his followers.
July 14th 2018
CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?
In an age where hatred and violence are so outspoken and commonplace, choosing to remain quite can no longer be a viable option. If you have the privilege of being silent then you most certainly have the privilege to speak out. That doesn’t mean that we yell or match the intensity of those outspokenly hateful, but that we make statements so profound it pierces through the noise.
CAN YOU HEAR US NOW?