As some may have read recently on the New Voices blog, UF Hillel’s menorah was uprooted from the ground and vandalized on site this past Saturday morning. The menorah that acted as a reminder to the Jewish student population that we stood as a strong community, lay broken and shattered in Hillel’s front courtyard.
Deeply saddened by this event, I finally processed how anti-Semitism doesn’t feel completely relevant until it happens close to home. I had posted an article about the incident on my Facebook wall. Of course, I received sympathetic messages such as “I’m so sorry to hear this” and “that’s horrible,” but some people who I spoke with reacted differently. With comments like “What is anti-Semitism?” “What is a menorah?” “What’s a Hillel?” it struck me as peculiar that some people were completely unaware, not only of the incident, but to Judaism as well.
Maybe it’s because I come from a smaller Jewish community or because I surround myself mainly with Jewish friends that others are not as in tune. Amazed by this, I felt even more disturbed of how uninformed some people remain about the religious intolerance in the 21st century.
I tried to think, what made these people so angry they felt the need to destroy a holy object? If they were only more informed about Judaism — more cultured in a sense — would they have still committed this crime? An emotional roller coaster of a weekend, I’m not only angry but also sad for the students who built up enough hatred to spawn such a wicked act of violence during one of the most festive holidays of the season.
