Heroic Jewish College Student Teaches us How to Confront Anti-Semitism

by Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5TJT.com

Maddy Gun, a student at Michigan State University, is a true Jewish heroine who has recently modelled for us all as to how to handle an antisemitic incident in the right way.

Last September, Miss Gun returned to her apartment and saw something very disturbing.   The mezuzah that she had hanged on her door had been ripped off and stolen.  Calmly, Maddy asked her apartment manager to check the video footage to identify the perpetrator.  With that information in hand, she filed a police report. The police soon identified an MSU male student as the suspect, giving her the ability to press criminal charges.

Instead, she did something else.

Maddy, along with a Chabad Rabbi and MSU’s Hillel director, Cindy Hughey, sat down with the perpetrator and asked if he would take a guided tour of the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills near Detroit.  The center was started by Rabbi Charles H. Rosenzveig, a Polish born holocaust survivor who later studied at Yeshiva University.

The Mezuzah thief agreed.

The story was featured in by radio station WILX and was reported on their website as well as TheJewishNews.com.

“Meeting face-to-face with the perpetrator, I told him how his actions had not only impacted me but also the greater Jewish community at MSU, as someone else in my apartment building took their mezuzah down out of fear,” Gun wrote.  “My hope is that through this process, he understands the impact and hurt his actions caused,” said Gun.

This incident brings up an important point.   At times, there are significant changes that occur in our reality, but the observer or the person undergoing that change does not see it.  This phenomenon is termed “change blindness.”  Our self-perception of ourselves is that we assume that we will be able to detect the change.

There has been a massive change that has transpired in this country in regard to both the violent acts against Jews as well as the “blame the victim” mindset. And we have become blind to this change.

Nothing brings this change home more than the recorded reactions of some of the residents of Jersey City – the place where the murders of innocents in a kosher supermarket had transpired two months ago.  A representative of American Against Anti-Semitism went back to the scene of the murders and said,  “I blame the Jews.  Because we never had a shooting like this until the Jews got here.”

“If this had been the other way around – they would be killing us.”

“They all the problem.  Because if they ain’t come to Jersey City, this .. would never go on.”

The problem is that it is not just attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburg, or the murderous attack on the Chabad House in Poway California, or this most recent murder of Jews in a kosher supermarket.  It is the attitude.  It is the emboldening of hate. And it is the fact that expressing such hate and vile sentiments has become okay.

Social media has helped fuel the fires too.

Every 7.5 seconds there is an anti-Semitic tweet posted onto Twitter.  The scope of it all is difficult to fathom. They number some 4.2 million Tweets a year.  The number of anti-Semitic incidents?  They are approaching 2000 a year.  These incidents are not insignificant.  They range from punching someone in the face – just because he is a Jew, to defacing cemetery plots to kicking Jewish women – aside from stealing and defacing a Mezuzah.

WHAT WE NEED TO DO

There are a number of steps that can be done to help combat it.  The first step, of course is to daven to Hashem and to come back to the ideals of Torah.  There is a shulchan aruch out there that tells us to perform Bikkur Cholim, Kvuras HaMais, and Tzeddakah on account of Aiva.  Are we really doing these things?  Not really.

We also learn from Yehudah in Parshas VaYigash, that we should also take other steps to confront it as well.  How so?  Through advocacy.

There is an avodas HaKodesh out there called shtadlanus – to both protect Klal Yisroel and perform a tikkun olam at the same time.  It should not be negated.

We need to educate – both ourselves and, yes, also our not so friendly neighbors around us, as Maddy Gun has done.  Fighting for our rights without the accompanying education – just creates more anti-Semitism.  We need to explain why dehumanization of people is wrong, and that we should stand up for the rights of others – and not scapegoat and blame others for all of society’s ills.

We need to confront these hateful attitudes and explain why they are wrong, just like this young college student has done.  But we must never do so when our personal safety is in danger.  We need to give them the opportunity to apologize.  The ADL has a list of suggested strategies to employ when confronted with anti-Semitism– and these strategies do make sense.

STRATEGY #1: Ask a question.

What do you mean?

Do you mean everyone who is , or are you speaking of someone in particular?

STRATEGY #2: Explain impact.

When you say that, it is really damaging to an entire group of people.

Statements like that reinforce systems that really harm people.

STRATEGY #3: Broaden to universal behavior.

I don’t think that’s a thing. I think lots of different people have that quality.

You can’t make a generalization about any one group of people based on your interaction with one person.

Every human is deserving of respect and decency.

STRATEGY #4: Connect to a historical context.

What you’re saying actually feeds into a really old stereotype…

That language supports a legacy of disrespect, violence, and oppression…

Let me explain how that language was historically used to talk about people…

Reporting & Responding to Media-Based Incidents:

Assess media coverage. Before taking any action, determine whether the material you are concerned about is in fact anti-Semitic, or simply represents a viewpoint that differs from your own. If you are unsure whether content is anti-Semitic, contact ADL for guidance.

If you suspect a news story misrepresents facts or contains an error, review the item carefully and check your facts before drafting a letter to the editor in response.

National and local Jewish organizations can help you to assess the accuracy of a news story and determine the most appropriate course of action.

Write a letter to the editor and/or a brief comment in the publication’s online comment section.

Letters must be timely. Allowing a week, or even a few days to pass before responding to an article will  greatly diminish the likelihood of your letter appearing online or in the print edition.

Write in response to a particular news item, editorial  or op-ed. In your letter, make specific reference to the story’s headline and the date it appeared.

Most newspapers/news sites offer online comment sections where you can allow your voice to immediately be heard.

Be brief. Many newspapers only accept letters for publication of 250 words or less. Review the publication’s instructions for submitting a letter to the editor.

Do not personally attack the writer. If responding to an opinion column or op-ed, you may refer in your letter to the writer by name, indicate that you disagree with his or her point of view, and explain why.

Be sure to include your name, address and a daytime telephone number. With the exception of online comment boards, most newspapers will not accept anonymous letters and will not publish a letter without first attempting to check the identity of the author.

Many newspapers, network news outlets, and some Internet

Many news sites have a designated ombudsman or “reader’s advocate” – a staff member whose job is to address specific grievances of readers. If you feel strongly that a certain writer or columnist continues to unfairly portray the issues or facts, or you see a pattern of unfair bias in the publication’s coverage, a letter to the ombudsman may be another effective route.

Although this organization may not be an observant one – their guidelines make a lot of sense.  Our Torah based organization should perhaps organize an advocacy training program in our schools to make sure that we will have the Yehudahs that are necessary in a growingly complex world.

Miss Gun said that she was inspired by her grandfather, a Holocaust survivor, who taught her to never be a bystander.

“My grandfather always ends his speech by saying, “You cannot be a bystander.” These words have resonated with me, and after experiencing blatant antisemitism on campus, I knew I could not just be a bystander”,” she added.

WILX reported that Miss Gun shared her experience at a StandWithUs conference in Los Angeles with over 550 college and high school students attending. The conference aimed at teaching students how to fight antisemitism.

The author can be reached at [email protected]