The Bay Area is bracing for two provocative rallies this weekend. In the guise of trumpeting free speech, they are in fact likely to condone a message of hatred and bigotry that could very well lead to violence.
The National Park Service has approved a permit for a Patriot Prayer “freedom rally” on Saturday, Aug. 26 that is anticipated to bring 400 followers to San Francisco’s Crissy Field. And on Sunday, Aug. 27, the group “No to Marxism in America” plans to hold a rally at Berkeley’s Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park.
These are the types of events that attract white nationalists, alt-righters, haters and a bunch of other not-good characters. And while organizers of Patriot Prayer in particular disavow these labels, their protestations are disingenuous, for their rally is a direct provocation and not about any kind of freedom we can support.
The question before us, as Jews and as a Jewish community, is this: How should we respond? Should we put our bodies on the line and march with the counterprotests planned for both days? Or should we refuse to give these provocateurs the attention they crave and instead attend one of several alternative gatherings, some being held in synagogues, that aim to bring together the interfaith community for song, prayer and celebrations of inclusivity?
Both options are being put forward by our rabbis and community leaders. Some plan to join Sunday’s “Bay Area Rally Against Hate” in Berkeley, scheduled a few hours before and just blocks away from the alt-right gathering. Others are heeding the advice of the larger Jewish communal organizations, including the ADL, JCRC and both Federations, which are urging people to stay away from the rallies and head for the Jewish-organized gatherings instead.
What is not an option is to do nothing. This is too important. The normalization of hatred, bigotry and, yes, anti-Semitism, that has been unleashed in this country threatens everything we hold dear.
And it travels. The same hatred that animated the young man in Charlottesville, Virginia, to drive into a crowd of counterprotesters, with deadly results, surfaced last week in Alameda, where an unknown assailant threw rocks through the windows of classrooms at Temple Israel. The windows had images of Stars of David, drawn by children in the religious school.
So this weekend, do not stand aside or stay quiet. Stand up, stand with bravery and love. Say no to hate. And say it together.
what to do something actually constructive? its elul…do teshuva
Promiscuously labelling their enemies “fascists” is right out of the far left’s playbook. It’s a tactic as old as the Communist takeover of postwar central Europe and as new as Antifa and the campus thought police thugs. What’s disappointing is to watch previously sane and moderate people buy into that.
What do we really know about the makeup of participants at these “prayer” and “anti-marxist” rallies that haven’t even taken place yet? And even if some unsavory characters attach themselves, by what right do you condemn all the others? It’s certainly not a principle you apply consistently; if I told you that some number of the attendees at a Black Lives Matter have committed murder, you’d just yawn.
Oh my, Oh my! So much passion, so much chest pumping! I don’t remember the J calling for boycotting the mosque where that imam called for annihilation of all Jews. The hater was happily embraced by the very same official Jewish leaders who are now calling for a thunder and lightning against perceived “Nazis”… What’s the difference between him and David Duke? Both are white skinned, both hate Jews, both promote anti-Semitism. How is this Imam different from David Duke? What gives? That’s point one.
The second point is the intellectual and moral laziness of J editorial board. Like a dutiful lapdog of the alt-left fringe of unapologetic leftists, the J promotes and incites hatred and violence against people they know nothing about. There is not a shred of information in J about any of the groups we are supposed to violently oppose.
Shame on you
Some nutjobs got a permit to have a meeting in a park.
Oh no! idiots saying ugly things!
They’re coming to get a rise out of you. They’re coming to boost the perception that they matter by getting attention and press.
So I guess it’s a good idea to give them exactly what they want and credit this tiny minority of horrible people with immense power over your lives. Take a nothing group of jerks with delusions of grandeur to power to disrupt an entire city. They come to draw energy from the hate they generate among people they offend. You’re so kind to oblige them.
Who knows in the stupid fights against these nothing idiots into which you guys decide to deliver yourselves and your families someone might actually get killed again. “Martyrs” make great television and rallying cries. That’s why the national media chooses to publicize these idiots and give credibility to their tiny pointy headed groups that until the media decided to give the free press were hiding in their sad little compounds in places where nobody goes. Cause no one likes them or takes them seriously. But put them front and center and a bunch of equally stupid people will deliver themselves up to be that martyr.
Talk about ratings!
Maybe you or one of your kids can get hurt of killed in the stupidity bound to occur this weekend. You’ll be famous!
Seriously that’s a great goal!
You can get hurt fighting against groups who no one likes, have no political power, who already lost every battle for their sad ideology decades ago and that will be back in Idaho Monday planning their next trip to your town cause you’re the best crowd they’ve ever had. Finally someone is giving them the attention they crave.
Maybe you needed better kindergarten teachers. Just because someone says something ugly it doesn’t mean you have to go out of your way to be around them. If someone you don’t like throws a party don’t go, especially if all the kids attending are jerks too.
All can conclude about you guys is that if this is what’s most important to you this weekend you must not have anything going on in your lives.
They used to say what if the threw a war and nobody came. Well what if a bunch of morons showed up for a big rally and noone even noticed?
Maybe the right response is to take your kids to play putt putt golf and have a slurpee. Or help your neighbor build his fence. Or do your taxes. You know as if these idiots are truly important.