Antisemitism Remains a Driving Force for Violence; We Must Defeat It

With the shootings of two Jewish men outside Los Angeles synagogues this week, we know that antisemitism remains a driving force for violence. Attacks like this, and all the other acts of hate against people simply for being who they are, are designed to reach beyond the physical victims and terrorize entire communities wherever they are.

This attack, among so many others that go unreported, comes at a time when more than four in ten Jews in the United States feel their status in America is less secure than it was a year earlier.

While we are glad to see the suspect has been taken into custody and that this will likely be filed as a hate crime, we must do more. Antisemitism is an integral part of American white supremacist culture, and is often closely connected to other forms of bigotry and violence.

As a society we must hold those who commit hate crimes to account and we must not allow hate and bigotry to thrive in our public spaces, including on social media platforms. We are stronger together and we must work to defeat antisemitism and bigotry everywhere.