{"id":109420,"date":"2023-12-17T18:05:12","date_gmt":"2023-12-17T16:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=109420"},"modified":"2023-12-17T15:10:20","modified_gmt":"2023-12-17T13:10:20","slug":"23-00-90","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=109420","title":{"rendered":"Latest Attack on Jews in Beverly Hills Proves We Can\u2019t Trust Others With Our Safety"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Latest Attack on Jews in Beverly Hills Proves We Can\u2019t Trust Others With Our Safety<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n

Pini Dunner<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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A Torah scroll. Photo: RabbiSacks.org.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

It has been a remarkable week \u2014 Beverly Hills was all over the news, in the US and across the world. But this time, not for celebrity shenanigans or movie gossip \u2014 but because of a violent hate crime. Truthfully, I\u2019m still trying to get my head around it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last Saturday morning, two stalwart members of our community, Raphy and Rivka Nissel, were walking to shul for Shabbat services, when they were suddenly set upon by a violent stranger.<\/span><\/p>\n

The attacker, Jarris Jay Silagi, yelled, \u201cJew, give me your jewelry!\u201d He then used his belt buckle to hit Raphy over the head, causing a laceration that required several stitches.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rather than yielding to their assailant, the Nissels yelled for help and gave chase. Shocked by their vigorous response, Silagi ran off, but he was soon arrested by the police. Silagi was later charged with various felonies \u2014 including assault with a deadly weapon, attempted robbery, assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury, and elder abuse. On Tuesday,\u00a0Silagi pled not guilty to the charges, and he is currently being held on $1,310,000 bail<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shockingly, this incident occurred just an hour after Silagi had been released without bail for a misdemeanor. Silagi also has an extensive rap sheet, and is obviously a career criminal. Despite all that, what makes this latest crime stand out even more is that it involved an antisemitic outburst. Clearly, the explosion of antisemitism that has erupted across the United States since the Hamas-perpetrated October 7 massacre in southern Israel and Israel\u2019s military response in Gaza, has seeped into every level of society.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jews wherever they live are now considered targets just for being Jews. It is open season against Jews, and no Jew is safe from attack.<\/span><\/p>\n

To be fair, the support for the Nissels and the Jewish community since the attack has been noteworthy. Los Angeles Mayor\u00a0Karen Bass<\/a>\u00a0and California Governor\u00a0Gavin Newsom<\/a>\u00a0both condemned the attack, and highlighted the antisemitic aspect of the assault, as did\u00a0Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gasc\u00f3n.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The Beverly Hills Police Department has also been eager to emphasize their increased efforts going forward to ensure community safety, particularly for religious institutions and Jews walking the streets, in light of the attack and the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.<\/span><\/p>\n

But somehow all this supportive froth seems hollow, at best. The recent paroxysm of antisemitism \u2014 marked by attacks against Jews and visible symbols of the Jewish faith \u2014 cannot be mitigated or prevented by sanctimonious virtue signaling and faux outrage.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Tuesday, beleaguered Harvard president, Claudine Gay, attended a public menorah lighting hosted by Harvard\u2019s Chabad representative, Rabbi Herschy Zarchi. The previous day,\u00a0Gay told the\u00a0Harvard Crimson<\/em><\/a>\u00a0that \u201cthreats to our Jewish students have no place at Harvard, and will never go unchallenged.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But Rabbi Zarchi\u2019s heartfelt address at the menorah lighting told a different story.<\/span><\/p>\n

Apparently, the powers-that-be at Harvard insisted that the public menorah had to be dismantled each night. \u201cAfter everyone leaves the Yard, we\u2019re going to pack it up,\u201d Zarchi revealed. \u201cWe have to hide it somewhere,\u201d he said, as Harvard won\u2019t \u201callow us to leave the menorah here overnight, because there\u2019s fear that it\u2019ll be vandalized.\u201d How exactly is that \u2018threats against Jews never going unchallenged\u2019, President Gay? It sounds more like \u2018Harvard has capitulated to bigots.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And to be clear, for those who insist that anti-Zionism is not the same as antisemitism \u2014 how do you reconcile the fact that a Jewish religious symbol in Harvard is being targeted by vandals in the wake of the October 7 massacre, or that Jews walking in Beverly Hills are being targeted?<\/span><\/p>\n

I am willing to accept that there are passionate anti-Israel activists who are not necessarily antisemites. But are there any anti-Israel activists willing to concede that Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza are being used as a cover by antisemites to feast on what animates them most \u2014 unfiltered Jew-hatred and unfettered Jew-targeting? Because it would appear that there are a lot more of this kind of anti-Israel activist than of the other kind.<\/span><\/p>\n

As we all grapple with the unsettling rise of antisemitism, from the streets of Beverly Hills to the halls of Harvard, and in multiple other places across the country and around the world, this sudden turn of events must become an urgent wake-up call. In the final analysis, despite our best efforts over so many years, and the social capital we have invested in our political leaders and into our national institutions, it is time to acknowledge that our ultimate security lies not in human efforts, but in God.<\/span><\/p>\n

King David\u2019s words in Psalm 146:3, \u201cDo not put your trust in princes,\u201d resonate as profoundly today as when they were first recorded over three millennia ago. It is also a lesson vividly illustrated in the Biblical story of Joseph, as expounded by the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. Notwithstanding Joseph\u2019s exceptional acumen and strengths, his fate was not exclusively contingent on human actions, but rather on Divine will.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rabbi Sacks writes about Joseph\u2019s reliance on Pharaoh\u2019s butler to get out of prison, a trust that was met with disappointment, as the Torah records at the end of Parshat\u00a0Vayeishev<\/a>\u00a0(Gen. 40:23<\/a>): \u201cThe butler did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.\u201d As a result of putting his faith in the butler to effect his release, Joseph languished in prison for a further two years, and only then did he experience his elevation to great power, as recorded at the beginning of Parshat\u00a0Mikeitz<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

As Rabbi Sacks puts it, \u201cGod answers our prayers, but often not when we thought or how we thought. Joseph sought to get out of prison, and he did get out of prison \u2026 but not immediately, and not because the butler kept his promise.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Joseph\u2019s experience mirrors our own experiences, where human promises and what we imagined were guaranteed protections have proven to be unreliable. Although we must always work tirelessly for safety and justice via human means, the outcome of our efforts often rests in Hands that are far more powerful than our own.<\/span><\/p>\n

As we stand up against the current wave of antisemitism, we should remember that our strength lies not just in our communal resilience and external support from loyal gentile friends, but far more in our faith in God, which must be constant and unequivocal.<\/span><\/p>\n

God\u2019s message to Joseph was that expecting the butler to come through while losing sight of Divine help was not seeing the wood for the trees. Joseph\u2019s journey from despair to triumph teaches us about the balance of effort and faith. We do our part, but we must recognize that the final deliverance, often unforeseen and unexpected, comes from a higher source.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The author<\/strong> is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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Latest Attack on Jews in Beverly Hills Proves We Can\u2019t Trust Others With Our Safety Pini Dunner A Torah scroll. Photo: RabbiSacks.org. It has been a remarkable week \u2014 Beverly Hills was all over the news, in the US and across the world. But this time, not for celebrity shenanigans or movie gossip \u2014 but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109420"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109420"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109435,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109420\/revisions\/109435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}