Daily Herald opinion: Vandalism at Jewish cemetery in Waukegan reinforces need to combat antisemitism
In the coming days, 39 headstones in an old Jewish cemetery in Waukegan will be scrubbed to wipe away hate-filled words and symbols discovered scrawled across them early Monday morning.
No amount of soap and water, however, can dilute the pain of seeing swastikas spray-painted on the graves of loved ones at Congregation Am Echod Jewish Cemetery or watching the national wave of antisemitism hit so close to home once again.
"Hate," Mayor Ann B. Taylor said in the aftermath, "does not have a home in Waukegan." Yet to make that true in Waukegan - or anywhere for that matter - requires more than just words from public officials. It requires a universal commitment that starts in our hearts and homes to end the stereotyping and scapegoating that helped pave the way for the Holocaust.
Statistics released by the Anti-Defamation League show that there were 2,717 incidents of antisemitism in the United States in 2021 - an all-time high. That includes 88 cases of assault and 853 cases of vandalism, with more than two-thirds of those involving swastikas.
In Glenview this year, flyers and letters were left on driveways targeting Jewish elected officials, blaming the "Jewish Agenda" for the Russia-Ukraine war and more. In recent years, swastikas have cropped up on buildings, parks and fire hydrants in Arlington Heights, Lake Zurich and Geneva.
And let's be clear about what the swastika truly represents: Despite its ancient origins, the Nazis made it an enduring symbol of the slaughter of 6 million Jews and millions of others, including the disabled.
They made it a symbol of evil.
In recent weeks, antisemitism has drawn headlines following social media posts by basketball player Kyrie Irving and hateful tweets by Kanye West. The rapper, a recent NPR story pointed out, has twice as many Twitter followers as there are Jews on Earth. Thus, while condemnation followed, so did frightening support.
A group in Los Angeles - some members with arms raised in a Nazi salute - hung banners over a freeway last month insisting "Kanye is right about the Jews." And "Kanye is rite" was sprayed on one of the headstones defaced in Waukegan.
Nothing about this is "right."
What can we do to combat what's been referred to as the oldest hatred?
We start by speaking out.
Parents have a responsibility to educate their children about bigotry of all kinds and to guard against subtly - or not-so-subtly - passing it on by embracing stereotypes or repeating ugly tropes. As Nelson Mandela so eloquently pointed out, people are not born to hate. They learn it.
We hope those responsible for the Waukegan cemetery vandalism are identified quickly and made to answer for their crimes. But what happened there is far from an isolated incident.
Hate speech and vandalism should have no place here. And yet, they persist.