That Burning Bush

By: Larry Gordon

Sometimes it feels like the uptick in antisemitic and anti-Jewish attacks is concentrated in the Northeast, especially in the New York area, where violence-prone Jew-haters can garner more attention since this is where the national media is located.

This makes last week’s arson attack on a historic, 160-year-old synagogue in Mississippi a curious event. The fire was set in the early hours of last Saturday or Shabbos, and raged out of control for part of the day. By the time the fire was extinguished, at least five Torah scrolls were completely burned, with one surviving, a scroll that survived the Holocaust and managed to survive this conflagration due to the fact that it was in a thick, protective glass case that the fire was unable to penetrate.

In this age of increasing hateful acts targeting Jews, it leaves one with no choice but to wonder where all the rage and hate emanate from. On that matter, I had the opportunity to speak with Rabbi Dr. Josh Joseph, CEO of the Orthodox Union.

An assault on a Jew anywhere is an attack on us all. That Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Mississippi was a Reform congregation is irrelevant, and Rabbi Joseph at the OU makes it clear that in a situation like this, we are all one.

A great deal of our conversation drifted to the increasing matter of the scourge of antisemitism. The rabbi pointed out that a recent survey illustrated that three quarters of those questioned did not know the definition of antisemitism. The actual clear and unmitigated meaning is “Jew hatred,” and those words are perfectly clear and understandable.

Antisemitism is an oft-used term to describe what Jews have been dealing with since time immemorial. But rarely has it ever been as pronounced as we’ve seen in these advanced, modern times, when one would assume that baseless hatred directed at any group would have been relegated to the dustbin of history.

Unfortunately, it is the reverse reality that we’ve had to deal with. When the perpetrator of the arson attack was apprehended, he told police investigators that he committed the arson “due to (the) building’s Jewish ties.”

Had the FBI probed deeper into his motives, he most likely would have said that he thought burning down a Jewish temple was the right thing to do. Just before he committed the arson attack, he posted a highly-offensive antisemitic cartoon to Instagram.

As Rabbi Joseph points out, this was not the first time that Beth Israel was attacked in this fashion. Back in 1967, the temple was destroyed by other Jew haters, such as the Ku Klux Klan, perhaps one of the groups founded on the premise of hate.

Rabbi Joseph points out that attacks like this place great emphasis on the need for security to protect our sacred places like shuls and yeshivos. And of course, it is the task of the Orthodox Union, as leaders of the Jewish community, to urge local governments how vital it is that they provide the funding to protect these institutions.

“We have to do our part by davening with bitachon,” Rabbi Joseph said, but he added that we also have to do our hishtadlus by reaching out to the powers that be to provide the security and safety to our institutions.

In his remarks, Rabbi Joseph pointed out the reference in the Torah portion of Shemos where Moshe encounters a bush that is engulfed in flames but is not consumed even though there is a raging blaze.

The analogy, of course, is about the destruction of the temple in Mississippi. The irony, however, is that in the Torah retelling of the event, the bush in last week’s Torah portion did not burn.

There are many eternal lessons we can learn from this. Primarily, as Hashem introduces Himself to Moshe, the message is that yes, the Jewish people will endure hardships and infernos, but we will never, ever, be consumed by them. There will be pain and suffering, but there will also be strength and determination to not just survive—but to overcome and thrive.

When a deranged person is motivated by sheer antisemitism and sets off an arson attack to destroy a historic shul in Mississippi, he of course must be arrested and face justice. But Rabbi Joseph points out that we have to look inside ourselves and reinvigorate our emunah and bitachon in Hashem, but ultimately, we as the nation of Israel and as the Jewish people, can and will endure despite the obstacles and circumstances.

As far as New York is concerned, State Senator Sam Sutton introduced legislation that is now law that makes it illegal for the violent anti-Israel, pro-Hamas lunatics and paid protesters to come within several hundred feet of any religious institution be it shul, yeshiva, or church, to harass and intimidate people going to pray or participate in religious-oriented programming.

The OU and personalities like Rabbi Josh Joseph are leading the way and making the difference in these challenging times.

Read more of Larry Gordon’s articles at 5TJT.com. Follow 5 Towns Jewish Times on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for updates and live videos. Comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome at 5TJT.com and on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

{