A recent op-ed in the Boston Globe, titled “Anti-Semitism is not a Jewish Problem,” raised major concerns with the growing number of anti-Jewish hate crimes being perpetrated in the U.S. The piece came just days after a Hannukah stabbing in Monsey, New York, and on the same day that thousands march in a solidarity rally in New York City.
On Monday, All Rev’d Up hosts Irene Monroe and Emmett Price III offered their thoughts on the rising threat of American anti-Semitism on Monday's Boston Public Radio.
"Anti-semitism is not a Jewish issue the way that racism is not a black and a brown issue,” Price said. “It’s a human issue… we all need to do better.”
Read More: 2019 Brought Stepped-Up Efforts To Counter White Supremacist Violence
"I think in many ways we have normalized anti-Semitism to the point that it’s invisible,” Monroe added. " I think that we should try anti-Semitism not only as a hate crime, but it should also be understood as having a distinct history and kind of motivation.”
Monroe then pointed to a statistic published by the Anti-Defamation League indicating that anti-Semitic hate crimes rose 57% between 2016 and 2017.
“What Emmett said... sort of reminds me what Pastor Niemöller said here: when they came for the socialists, I didn’t speak up. When they came for the trade-unionists, I didn’t speak up. When they came for the Jews, [I] didn’t speak up. And then they came for me, and there was nobody there.”
"It’s not just a Jewish issue, it is all of our issue,” Monroe said.
Monroe is a syndicated religion columnist and the Boston voice for Detour’s African American Heritage Trail and a visiting researcher in the Religion and Conflict Transformation Program at Boston University School of Theology.
Price is professor of worship, church & culture and founding executive director of the Institute for the Study of the Black Christian Experience at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Together they host the All Rev’d Up podcast, produced by WGBH.
