Anti-Semitism a problem for all Americans, not just Jews, rabbi says

A recent wave of bomb threats at the Levite Jewish Community Center in Birmingham – there have been four such threats, the most recent occurring March 6 – has bought the problem of hate crimes and other racially motivated incidents uncomfortably close to home for many area residents.

And Jonathan Miller, senior rabbi of Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham, said that he’s disturbed by the apparent recent increase in anti-Semitism in America and elsewhere.

“One of the horrible things going on now is that (anti-Semitism) seems to have gotten a voice that I had not heard and which I thought was buried after the cataclysm of World War II,” Miller said.

Miller also argues that all Americans should be concerned about the rise of anti-Jewish feelings.

“Anti-Semitism is a problem that affects Jews, but it’s not a Jewish problem,” he said. “It’s a problem of this society at large, and if it continues to flourish, it’s a sign of a very sick society with a lot of problems.”

Such incidents as the bomb threats at the JCC, similar threats phoned into other JCCs nationally and the recent desecration of a Jewish cemetery affect everyone, Miller said in a recent op-ed at AL.com.

“All Americans should understand that these threats undermine and threaten our… ideals of freedom, equality and respect,” Miller wrote.

Miller has also spoken out strongly against hate crimes and threats of violence directed at Muslims and other groups in in the United States and Canada.

These actions “are not simply acts of religious hatred or an expression of long-held or deep-seated religious animosity” but are “threats to the fabric and ideals of our country,” he wrote in the op-ed.

Miller – who is retiring at the end of June after leading the congregation at Temple Emanu-El since 1991 – speculated recently on the causes of the recent uptick in hate crimes and other incidents.

“I have ideas, but I’m not a sociologist,” Miller told Iron City Ink, “All of these are from my gut.”

Miller said he believed that some of the anger in the country was created by what he calls an “exceedingly divisive” 2016 presidential campaign.

“The way our president spoke about groups of people permitted the underbelly of our moral society to speak,” Miller said, referring to Donald Trump, though he added, “I’m not saying that’s what our president feels or thinks.”

Strong, even extreme, beliefs regarding certain social and political issues are also exacerbated by an “echo chamber” – created in part by social media – in which people tend to consume only the news and opinions that reinforce their own existing viewpoints, according to Miller. “We’ve lost a lot of the civil discourse and ideological give and take that marks a vibrant civil democracy,” he said.

An increasingly global economy and the dislocation it has created for many workers in the United States and elsewhere are also factors, according to Miller.

“People are scared,” he said. “With globalization, we live in a world with no borders, no walls and no way to define ourselves. I think that the idea of putting up walls is nonsense. It won’t work. But I think that this a reaction to the fact that we have too many neighbors. The whole world is our neighbors. People become scared of that. They become scared of other people.”

In addition, there are demographic changes at work. “White people are becoming a minority in the population and in terms of setting the cultural agenda,” Miller said.

Some of the problems we face stem not just from economic or sociological causes – or even just from racism itself – but from “spiritual deficits” or a “spiritual malady,” Miller said.

That malady likely stems from people’s “overwhelming sense of fear of unknowable forces,” he said.

“Instead of responding with faith that God is good and we will make it through these challenges and we will grow together, we feel we have to withdraw, and we have to blame,” he said.

A typical viewpoint might be, “’I have to protect myself, because people are coming to get my money, or my culture, or my civilization,’” Miller said.

To address some of these problems in society, a purely political approach will not work, according to Miller.

“If these issues are only addressed in terms of policy, they won’t change,” he said. “But if you address it in terms of the spirit of people and helping them to transform themselves, it is much better. That is what the Civil Rights Movement did. Martin Luther King spoke emphatically for his cause and for his people, but he also spoke about the spirit.”

“As citizens, we hold the answer to the spiritual problems plaguing us,” Miller said in his AL.com op-ed. “We ought to be agents of compassion and reconciliation. We need to guard our thoughts and our speech against the fear and hatred which tears up our communities and sows division among good people. We must challenge the hatred and fear which these uncertain times churn up.”