Letters to the Editor: Ending anti-Semitism isn’t as easy as marching in protests

To the editor: A march against anti-Semitism is no substitute for combating the ignorance underlying history’s oldest hatred.

Anti-Semitism is incited by racists and conspiracy mongers on the far right as well as by those who unfairly demonize Israel on the far left. It manifests in assaults on Jews in New York City, in graffiti attacks on Jewish cemeteries, in the need for security guards at the entrances of Jewish schools and houses of worship, in the bullying and intimidation of Jewish students on college campuses, and in the bloodshed in synagogues and kosher supermarkets.

It exploits divisions as political partisans point across the aisle while ignoring those who promote it on their own side. And its power grows as the Holocaust recedes from living memory.

Let’s not only walk together to combat hate, but more importantly, let’s learn together.

Stephen A. Silver, San Francisco

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To the editor: We said “never again” after World War II, but anti-Semitic violence is back, having reestablished itself in small increments all over the world. Why is this so?

Most of us want to live in peace with our neighbors and accept each other’s differences, as we should like to be accepted. To paraphrase Shakespeare, we have eyes and ears and bleed like everyone else. We love our spouses and children, we value education and a moral way of life, and we yearn for peace.

Is there a remedy for this hatred and violence? Is there a way to dispel the fear of “the other”? Am I naive to think that all sentient human beings long for the same things and that some day, all the world will reject hatred?

Grace D. Fox, Los Angeles