New Palm Beach County center hoping to fight the ‘virus’ of antisemitism

Perhaps the worst parts of human nature — evil, hate, racism, antisemitism — are like a virus: always there, lurking, waiting for a vulnerable moment to strike.

The trial of Robert Bowers, who shot and killed 11 worshipers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, offered a frightening example. Bowers was convicted and sentenced to death on Aug. 4.

He was an isolated man with mental-health issues, his family said, and he became obsessed with deranged ideas, such as the “great replacement theory,” the delusion that Jewish people are part of a conspiracy to destroy the white race.

His delusions became what one psychiatrist at the trial called “subcultural beliefs” — hateful, angry conspiracy theories that ferment on extremist websites. The hate that always stirred on the margins of society now infests online chat rooms, multiplying the anger factor — and releasing the virus of antisemitism.

More: Legislature sharpened penalties for antisemitic acts. How did Palm Beach lawmakers vote?

Bowers’ murderous rampage was the deadliest attack on Jewish people in American history. Threats, violence and antisemitic acts are at record levels, including in Palm Beach County — where a swastika was projected onto a building in West Palm Beach earlier this year, and leaflets with antisemitic rhetoric were dropped in several neighborhoods.

Leaders are now on high alert and taking action, making it a crime to project images on a building without permission, and ticketing people caught littering leaflets. In April, Florida passed a bill that makes harassing or intimidating someone based on their religion or ethnicity a hate crime that can be prosecuted as a third-degree felony.

“Antisemitism has gotten worse, clearly,” says Palm Beach County Mayor Gregg Weiss. “Social media has allowed people who have lived in their bubble to connect with each other and support each other in their hatred. And, unfortunately, many leaders in this country use vitriolic language and try to divide and incite discord instead of trying to tamp it down.”

Weiss is a member of Temple Israel, where rabbis Ryan and Carlie Daniels consider themselves bridge builders and peace makers.

“We try to be welcoming and have our doors open and meet people where they are and be in the community,” Ryan Daniels says, “and our reality forces us to also consider safety and security.”

The married rabbis encountered similar antisemitic acts in Chicago, where they lived before moving to Palm Beach Gardens this summer. Like Weiss, State Attorney Dave Aronberg, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw and others, they are joining with the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County to make combating antisemitism a priority.

“So many people don’t understand the nature of antisemitism,” says Josephine Gon, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council at the federation. “They think it began and ended with the Holocaust. It predates that by centuries and centuries and centuries. It feeds off existing hatred and conspiracy theories.”

The only way to stop the virus is to bolster civil society’s immune system — by providing security and solidarity.

More: Officials: Boca Raton, West Palm Beach antisemitic displays during weekend are related

“All Americans need to understand that antisemitism is a threat to our society and our democracy,” Gon says. “This has become very local and close to home. We need to combat it. The only way to do so is to involve allies and friends. We simply cannot fight this fight alone, nor should we have to.”

Because the threat is real and local, the Jewish Federation voted in May to start the Palm Beach County Center to Combat Antisemitism & Hatred. Gon says the center’s purpose is to build relationships with local agencies to keep all residents safe and to educate people on what antisemitism is and how it manifests.

The definition Gon uses comes from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which says, in part: “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

The 2020 film "Viral: Antisemitism In Four Mutations," now streaming on PBS, examines the “virus” of antisemitism. “By virtually every yardstick, antisemitism in the U.S. and Europe is rising and worsening in ways not seen since the 1930s,” a description on the PBS website states. “It comes in the forms of vandalism, social media abuse, assault and murder. Like a virus, it mutates and evolves across cultures, borders and ideologies, making it all but impossible to stop.”

There is no one answer, Gon says. “Antisemitism has existed for thousands of years and it’s not going away. It is, in my view, deeply baked into society…There seems to be an enormous fascination and hold of conspiracy theories right now, and antisemitism is the oldest conspiracy theory.”

Weiss, who grew up in southern California, says he never felt a sense of antisemitism until he was working at the University of Michigan in 1988.

“Full-on Nazis — with the flag and swastika on it — came to town to protest, and I went down to counter-protest them,” Weiss recalls. “When you’re Jewish, and you read about these events taking place, it catches your attention and concern and reminds you that there are people who hate you just because of who you are.

“We cannot be silent. We cannot let this go unchallenged. We have to speak up.”

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: New center forms in Palm Beach County to combat antisemitism and hate