Remarks from Hate Crime Awareness Symposium held at Benedictine College, March 25, 2015

I am Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph from Congregation Beth Shalom in Naperville. I want to thank you for the opportunity to participate on this panel to address the issue of hate crime. Hopefully our discussion this evening will help raise our awareness on this extremely important   issue that ought to concern us all.  

What is a “hate crime”?  How is it different from other crimes? The United States Congress has defined a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic origin or sexual orientation.” To me, a hate crime is particularly pernicious because it singles out its victim based on who they are.   Hate crimes therefore have many victims in addition to the victimized individuals or the damaged property.   All the members of the community of which the victim is a member are also affected by the hate crime.  A gay man is attacked because he is gay, and it shakes the entire gay community to the core. Three Muslim students are shot execution-style because they are a Muslim, and the entire Muslim community feels unsafe. A man stands outside of a Jewish Community Center and guns down three people who he thinks are Jewish -- these crimes are directed not only against the individual victims, but against the communities to which these victims belong. They have a ripple effect that tears at the most basic values our country holds so dear -- that everyone in our   democratic and free society is entitled to the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.

Even as we know the definition of a hate crime, we are sometimes blind when it comes to recognizing one that has happened right before our eyes.  I opened up my browser a few days ago and was greeted by the following headline – “‘Anti-Semitic ‘Attack on London Synagogue Leads to Arrest”. The report was alarming enough but one thing immediately caught my eye. There were quotation marks around the word “anti-Semitic”. This communicates to the readers, doubt, cynicism and sarcasm-- as in “Another so-called anti-Semitic attack on European Jews”. Clicking on the story, I read that a crowd of 20 had attacked a synagogue in a London neighborhood on Saturday night when there were worshippers inside. The crowd broke windows and tried to force their way in as the worshippers barricaded the door. The police were quoted as saying that it was being “treated as an anti-Semitic incident due to a remark made by one of the group”, but “there was nothing to suggest that it was a planned or targeted attack.” Even the Rabbi of the synagogue was quoted as saying he thought “the incident was more anti-social than anti-Semitic.” “More anti-social than anti-Semitic” -- What does that mean? A mob attacked this synagogue full of worshippers!  Given the rash of attacks against Jews in Europe in the past year, I would think there would be no doubt that here is yet another anti-Semitic attack against Jews.  But we want to close our eyes, pretend otherwise. I feel the same way about the killings of Deah Barakat, Yusor Mohammed and Razan Mohammed abu-Salha, the three students killed by a neighbor in Chapel Hill, North Carolina – ostensibly over parking spaces. Was this also not a hate crime? Given the way that Muslims are depicted in the news, in the movies and on television, how could this be other than a hate crime? Now, the authorities and sometimes the public come up with “reasons” to explain a hate crime.  It might be that people had too much to drink and things got out of control, as in London, or that there was a simmering grudge over parking spots, as in North Carolina. These excuses either absolve the perpetrators of responsibility for the crime – after all, it was the liquor that did it – or shift the responsibility for the crime partly onto the victims.

Raising the awareness of hate crimes in our communities, understanding what they are, and collaborating to prevent them from occurring is critical to all of our well being. Coming together tonight to discuss this problem is one important step in addressing it. Educating ourselves, our children, and our friends about respecting and valuing differences is another important way of addressing hatred.  The power of getting to know each other, of sharing a meal, taking a walk, discussing a book or a film can be instrumental in dissolving assumptions and prejudices about which we may not even be aware. Sadly, however, prejudice and hatred will be with us for a long time. What do we do when we experience a hate crime in our community?

Some of you might have heard of the attack against Congregation Etz Chaim, a synagogue in Lombard, just five months ago. The Jewish community was deeply shaken by this hate crime right in our own backyard. The way in which the Jewish community and the community in general, responded offers a model of how we can effectively address hate crimes when they do occur. On the evening of October 21, 2014 police arrived at the scene after their custodian reported a disturbance on the synagogue grounds. A man had broken seven windows at the synagogue and scrawled anti-Semitic graffiti on the front door. When police arrived they found him driving recklessly over the synagogue’s grounds, destroying the grass and uprooting bushes. He had left a hatchet, a machete, a knife and an ax at the synagogue’s front door.  When police searched his home they found thousands of rounds of ammunition, a rifle, shotgun and four handguns.

Calls and emails of support and outrage came pouring into Etz Chaim as soon as the news of the attack emerged. The congregation decided to organize a support rally. Hundreds of people from forty different faith communities came together on Saturday night, November 8, to express solidarity with the Jewish community. Reverend Jay Moses of the First Presbyterian Church of Wheaton, Shoaib Khadri of the Islamic Center of Naperville, Dr. Jill Baumgaertner, the Dean of Wheaton College, Reverend Jim Honig of the Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church, Reverend H. Scott, Matheney, the Chaplain of Elmhurst College, Father Jim Dvorschak of the Roman Catholic Church and Rabbi Michael Balinsky representing the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago all offered inspirational messages from the pulpit that buoyed our spirits and re-assured us that we do not stand alone when hatred is expressed against Jews. Perhaps the most poignant moment came at the conclusion of the service. The Senior Rabbi of the synagogue, Rabbi Stephen Bob invited all clergy to stand together in the front of the sanctuary. He told a story. A couple of years ago he saw a picture in the Chicago Tribune of a Reform rabbi pointing to a swastika that had been sprayed on the side of his synagogue in Chicago. Rabbi Bob called his colleague. “What you should have done,” Rabbi Bob advised, “was to have a picture of clergy from different religions pointing at the swastika on your building.” “We don’t know anybody,” his colleague replied. Then, pointing to the sixty assembled clergy that filled the sanctuary Rabbi Bob said, “Well, we do.”

We may not be able to prevent every hate crime. Through coming together in solidarity and support we can help heal the wound that the hate crime has opened.