{"id":1309870,"date":"2019-05-02T22:20:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-03T04:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/micek-column-we-cannot-ignore-the-threads-that-connect-acts-of-hate\/"},"modified":"2019-05-02T22:20:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-03T04:20:00","slug":"micek-column-we-cannot-ignore-the-threads-that-connect-acts-of-hate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/micek-column-we-cannot-ignore-the-threads-that-connect-acts-of-hate\/","title":{"rendered":"Micek column: \u2018We cannot ignore the threads\u2019 that connect acts of hate"},"content":{"rendered":"
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HARRISBURG, Pa. \u2014 Holocaust survivors, their families, their friends, and their allies all gathered in the state Capitol building here Wednesday. And they vowed to never forget.<\/p>\n

But how can they?<\/p>\n

How can they when the same sparks that lit the gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, and other extermination camps keep burning in our own time?<\/p>\n

How can they when Charleston, Pittsburgh, Christchurch, Opelousas, Sri Lanka, and now Poway have become part of our shorthand of hate?<\/p>\n

When Linda Schwab, a Holocaust survivor from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, stepped up to light one of six candles commemorating the memories of those here and gone, it was hard not to be a little in awe of the strength of someone who\u2019d lived through the worst mankind has to offer, and was still standing among us to tell her story.<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s remembrance ceremony in the ornate reception room outside Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf\u2019s office was the 35th such annual observance. And it came just days after the shooting at the Poway synagogue, on the final day of Passover, that left one person dead and three more injured.<\/p>\n

And that shooting came six months to the day after another coward opened fire on worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh\u2019s leafy and wonderful Squirrel Hill neighborhood, claiming the lives of 11 people, simply because of who they were and what they believed.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s be clear, on this day of Holocaust remembrance, that we cannot equate the tragedy of the Holocaust\u201d to the shootings in Squirrel Hill and Poway, or the Easter bombings in Sri Lanka, Marc J. Zucker of the Pennsylvania Jewish Coalition said. \u201cBut we cannot ignore the threads that connect them.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2018, there were 89 reported acts of anti-Semitism in Pennsylvania, according to Nancy Baron-Baer, the Anti-Defamation League\u2019s regional director. Nationally, there were 59 victims of anti-Semitic violence last year. That\u2019s nearly three times higher than the 2017 tally, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFighting this kind of bigotry cannot be a partisan issue,\u201d Baron said, rattling off a list of recommendations for policymakers.<\/p>\n

They include collecting better data to track acts of extremism, giving law enforcement the tools and training it needs to report and respond to hate crimes, and anti-bias education for students at both the K-12 and higher education level. A 2014 Pennsylvania state law mandates such education.<\/p>\n

Baron called the fight against anti-Semitism and hate a nonpartisan one. And, at least for that hour on Wednesday, she was right. Pennsylvania state House Speaker Mike Turzai, a Republican, and Democratic Rep. Dan Frankel are two western Pennsylvania lawmakers who agree on almost nothing, but they agreed on that much.<\/p>\n

Frankel, who is Jewish, represents Squirrel Hill in the state House. He called the shootings a strike \u201cin the heart of my neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my family, there are liberators and death camp survivors,\u201d said Frankel, who authored the 2014 Holocaust education law. He also helped organize a rare legislative joint session commemorating the Squirrel Hill massacre just two weeks ago.<\/p>\n

It was hard not to despair Wednesday, hard not to wonder if we\u2019re ever going move past the poisonous tribal loyalties, the toxic politics, the blind stupidity, and historical amnesia that too often leads to immeasurable tragedy.<\/p>\n

The Holocaust survivors, like the soldiers who liberated them, are passing into history, taking their firsthand experience with them. They\u2019ve transmitted their knowledge to their descendants, who have transferred it to their children.<\/p>\n

And on Wednesday, a 16-year-old young woman named Luka Joy reminded us all of the transformative effect that knowledge can have when it\u2019s received by an open mind and a welcoming heart.<\/p>\n

Reading aloud from an award-winning essay on what she learned about the Holocaust, Joy, a sophomore at Carlisle High School outside Harrisburg, offered the simplest of lessons.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t know, or remember, we won\u2019t learn,\u201d she said, with the directness that only a young mind can muster. \u201cNo matter who you are, you should never stand by as others suffer.\u201d<\/p>\n

And her plan to make sure others learn that lesson?<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s make compassion part of our curriculum.\u201d<\/p>\n

We all could use a refresher.<\/p>\n

An award-winning political journalist, John L. Micek is Editor-in-Chief of The Pennsylvania Capital-Star in Harrisburg, Pa. Email him at jmicek@penncapital-star.com<\/a> and follow him on Twitter @ByJohnLMicek.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HARRISBURG, Pa. \u2014 Holocaust survivors, their families, their friends, and their allies all gathered in the state Capitol building here Wednesday. And they vowed to never forget. But how can they? How can they when the same sparks that lit the gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, and other extermination camps keep burning in our own […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1309870","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-16 13:34:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1309870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1309870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1309870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1309870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}