Right before Sukkot began, I was taking my garbage cans in from the side of the road. As I looked down, I noticed that someone had carved the word “JEW” into my sidewalk. After the initial shock passed and the report had been filed with the police, we started to debate what to do about it. At first, I heeded the advice of a friend of mine and started to grind it out. The carving was a couple of centimeters deep and was taking a little bit of effort but a couple of minutes in I paused and stared at it. I paused because I started to wonder whether this was something that should be covered up? I went back in and started to chat with my family about it. The family suggested that we add something like “I Love JEWs” or “Proud JEWs” to the sidewalk.
On Sunday of that week, I had the 12th Graders over to my house for our monthly class and I showed it to them. I was curious about what they thought and after a long conversation about antisemitism they shared what they thought I should do. What they told me was that we can’t let things like this diminish our pride in being Jewish or alter our behavior. I couldn’t be prouder of these teens, and I whole heartily agree. Every week my family and I will decorate that graffiti and show the world how proud we are to be Jews. Vandalism like this won’t alter how we live our lives. It will also serve as a reminder to the world that we must always take antisemitism seriously and that we can never do it by brushing it under the carpet.
