28.10.18

A Word on the Tree of Life Shooting

I don't want this to sound like "I told you so" because that's not my intention. But to all those people who have expressed concern to me over the last 4.5 years about my decision to move to Israel because of how dangerous it is to live here, I unfortunately now have proof to what I've been saying all along. Here in Israel we know who our enemy is. We know where they live, they state their hate-filled agendas for all the world to hear, and we take common-sense gun laws seriously as well as security checkpoints in basically every place where large groups of people gather (airport, malls, train stations etc.) In Pittsburgh, antisemitism doesn't often rear its head, but I've always feared that something like this would come out of nowhere. Someone once hit my brother while walking down a city street in Squirrel Hill. He didn't know the man. The man just saw a Jew, said some derogatory comment, and hit him and left the scene. A random act of violence. Pittsburgh is truly at its core a city of love and brotherhood. But this leads to a false sense of security that something like this can't happen here. Not on our streets. Not in peaceful Squirrel Hill. Guess what, it can and it has. People need to wake up. People need to engage in CIVIL DISCOURSE, instead of the hate-filled separation we've been experiencing. We should be able to speak to each other about topics we don't agree on without devolving into idiots shouting our opinions and not listening to those of others; without deciding that if someone disagrees with you they are "stupid" or not worth listening to.
I don't really have the energy to sum up my thoughts enough for a proper sign-off, so I'm just going to say this: go out today and spread love into the world. Truly listen to others and let them know you value their opinion. Act the same way on the Internet as you would in real life. And start doing things to help bring change to this crazy world we live in.