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| Ald Debra Silverstein - an Orthodox Jew - at a press conference yesterday (JTA) |
Chicago Police have charged a man with attempted murder after he allegedly shot an Orthodox Jew walking to synagogue on Saturday morning.
The victim, a 39-year-old man whose identity has not been released, was walking to Congregation K.I.N.S. in Chicago’s West Rogers Park neighborhood when a man approached from behind and fired multiple shots, striking the victim’s shoulder.
Police say the man, Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi, then exchanged fire with law enforcement after police and paramedics arrived on the scene. Police shot Abdallahi, who was taken to a local hospital in critical condition. The victim was released from the hospital Saturday afternoon.
Abdallahi, whose detention hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, was charged with 14 total felony counts: six counts of attempted first-degree murder, seven counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm toward a police officer/firefighter and one count of aggravated battery with the discharge of a firearm.
Speaking Monday in Pittsburgh, second gentleman Doug Emhoff cited the Chicago shooting in a list of recent antisemitic attacks.
Local authorities and Jewish groups urged caution in drawing conclusions about the motivation for the shooting. But Debra Silverstein, the alderman for Chicago’s 50th Ward, said in an interview that she was disappointed by the lack of a hate crime charge.
“I am very disappointed by this turn of events and strongly encourage the Cook County State’s Attorney Office to prosecute the offender to the full extent of the law,” Silverstein wrote in an email to her constituents after charges were filed. “The police have assured me that they are continuing to gather evidence, and additional charges — including hate crime charges — can still be added.”
West Rogers Park is my neighborhood. KINS is walking distance from my house. I have Davened there many times. I don’t know the identity of the Orthodox Jew who was shot since his name was not released. But I may very well know him.
I agree with Alderman Silverstein. (She is the only Jewish alderman in Chicago who also happens to be Orthodox.) This is clearly a hate crime. When a Jew wearing a Kipa is shot on his way to Shul on a Shabbos morning by someone who is part of a community constantly accusing Israel (and by extension ALL Jews) of genocide, I would be hard pressed to call it anything but a hate crime. I’m therefore pretty sure the charges will eventually be enhanced to include that.
This is of course further evidence of a spike in antisemtism in this country. Not that we needed any. Evidence as well that it is not limited to college campuses or the city of New York. We – the Jewish people – are in greater danger of being physically attacked or even being killed than at any other time since the Holocaust.
Does this mean I have changed my view about the American people?
Absolutely not. First because of the outpouring of sympathy by virtually all Americans regardless of political affiliation in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas massacre and kidnapping of hostages. Who are still in their brutal custody over one year later! That sympathy has not waned many months into the war despite all the media attention to the massive number of civilian causalities in Gaza - and now Lebanon.
While many Americans may have sympathy for what civilians in Gaza and Lebanon are going through, the vast majority of the American people have not forgotten about the actual cause of their suffering – the events of October 7th.
There are many examples where their sympathy for us was made abundantly clear. For example the strong show of sympathy and support of the hostage families who addressed delegates at both the RNC and DNC convention.
One particular observation that struck me was made by Intermountain Jewish News editor and publisher, Rabbi Dr. Hillel Goldberg (published in Jewish Action). It was his... appreciation for the unexpected, beautiful islands of solidarity expressed by non-Jews reaching out to me.
So what gives? If America is so supportive of its Jewish citizens, why are we now experiencing the worst antisemitism since the Holocaust?
I don’t think there is a simple answer to that question. But let me suggest a few things.
First the antisemitism that has exploded now has always existed below the surface among certain fringe groups . There is no doubt, for example, that White Supremacists are antisemitic. And that there are probably a lot more people that sympathize with them than I thought. But in the aggregate they are still a tiny fraction of the American people.
The source of that particular brand of antisemitism is the Church who had blamed us for killing their god and were angry at us for not accepting the trinity of which their god was a part. Centuries of vilification and persecution against us followed. Which included blood libels and assorted accusations of nefarious intent against Christians. All made up out of whole cloth and perpetuated generationally resulting in apathy to Jews being slaughtered during the Holocaust.
But the since Vatican II in the early 60s the Church has stopped doing that. They did a 180 and no longer blame us for the death of their god. They now consider us a brother religion and the root of their own. Evangelical Christians who place a heavy emphasis on the 'Old Testament' (which is basically our Tanach) are now our best friends by far. All that old Christian animus is gone. And no longer driving antismetism (except for the aforementioned fringe groups that have spawned a few mass murderers like the one who killed 11 Jews at the Tree of Life Synagogue a few years ago).
The current antisemtism is driven by the adherents of another religion: Islam. It is the Muslim community that has called Israel’s war against Hamas genocide. Blaming Israel entirely for the deaths of civilians in Gaza, while refusing to recognize Hamas’s own hand in that carnage. When they call for a cease fire they call to free Palestine, too... from their Jewish oppressors. And by Palestine they don’t mean the West Bank. They mean all of Palestine - from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. This is not a secret. they say it openly.
They have been happily joined by the most extreme elements of the progressive left who hate this country as much as they hate Israel – and by extension every Jew whom they consider a Zionist (except for those misguided ignorant Jews that have joined them in protest). They define Zionism as a form of Colonialism - an evil political doctrine whereby white colonizers from a foreign country take over a country and subjugate its indigenous peoples for their own benefit.
This is what happened to black people in in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in formerly Apartheid South Africa. They feel the same way about the US - founded by white Europeans who colonized these shores for their own purposes and subjugated its native citizens against their will - eventually moving them to reservations.
Now with the war in Gaza and Lebanon, the Zionist colonizers of Palestine and their Jewish supporters in the US are their targets
Meanwhile Academia which has become increasingly progressive tends to favor the free speech of people who support the oppressed (i.e. Palestinians) over the safety of people (Jews) that support the oppressors (i.e. Israel). Aided and abetted by the mainstream media.
That is the perfect storm - a prescription for the kind of antisemitic violence that happened last Shabbos in West Rogers Park to an Orthodox Jew.
So by all means, we - the Jewish people - must be vigilant. More than at any other time in my almost 78 years on this planet. The dangers are clearly there. Anyone can be seriously injured or killed. Especially those of us that are visibly Orthodox Jews on a Shabbos when we typically walk several blocks to the Shul of our choice.
But to say that Americans have generally become more antisemitic is absurd in my view. I cannot imagine anyone in America (aside from a few antisemites on the fringe) raising their arm in a Nazi salute to an antisemitic genocidal dictator like Hitler the way Germans did in the 30s. I am absolutely certain that the vast majority of Americans would be appalled by that.
All of this seems obvious to me. I shouldn’t need to mention it. But there are a lot of people that seem to believe we are a lot closer to 1930s Germany than we think. And I am here to tell them that there is absolutely no evidence of that. Instead - as noted - there is a lot of evidence to the contrary.