October 23, 2019 | Written by - Sarah Namrow '21
On October 9, 2019, Jewish people all around the world went to temple services for Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year. On this holiday, Jews apologize for what they have done wrong, and forgive others for their wrongdoings. While Jews around the world fasted and prayed, a shooter approached a synagogue full of people in Halle, Germany. He attempted to break through the door of the temple, but after this failed he resorted to shooting four people outside of the synagogue. Unfortunately, in our world today it is not shocking to hear about gun violence committed by those attempting to harm a specific group of people. Other than the Holocaust, anti semitism isn’t discussed often by those outside of the Jewish community, most likely because Jews make up only 0.2% of the global population. But many may not know that discrimination has followed Jews since the beginning of their history, and is unfortunately still present today.
In 586 BCE, the Beit Hamikdash, (the hebrew name for “the temple”), was destroyed by the Babylonians. They then proceeded to banish all Jews from Israel. Over the next 500 years, Jews slowly returned to their homeland and completely rebuilt the Beit Hamikdash. But again in the year 70 CE, the Beit Hamikdash was once again destroyed, this time by the Romans, who took over 100,000 Jews to Rome as slaves. After the destruction of the second temple, Roman oppression of the Jewish people continued, until the Bar Kochba Revolt in 132 CE. Led by Shimon Bar Kochba, the revolt was ultimately a failure. The revolt left Jerusalem completely destroyed, and Judaism would not have continued to exist if it were not for Yochanan Ben Zakai. He was the first Jewish leader to realize that if they were going to keep their people from being wiped out, they had to start changing some of their customs to be able to pass down their religion to future generations. Ben Zakai moved the Jewish Supreme Court, called the Sanhedrin, out of Jerusalem so they could continue their religion in a less dangerous area. Leaders after him wrote the Torah Sheba’al Peh, the Mishnah, the Gemora, and the Talmud. The purpose of these books was to write down Jewish ideas and traditions, so they could be passed onto future generations. The Jewish people have endured despite the threat of annihilation on multiple occasions.
Unfortunately, today’s acts of antisemitism and targeted violence against the Jewish people echo what has happened in the past. This year alone, anti semitic hate crimes in New York have increased 63% from last year and multiple synagogues around the world have recently experienced mass shootings. It is extremely upsetting that Jews around the world continue to be attacked for their religion and cultural identity. Antisemitism continues to be a much bigger problem than most people realise. Education about these events as well as a better understanding about Jewish history is the first step to continue combating antisemitism and violence against Jews.
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