Passover-Easter holidays offer chance to counter anti-Semitism

The spring holidays of Passover (which started Saturday evening, March 27) and Easter, which will be celebrated Sunday, April 4, offer a rare chance to expand people’s understandings of holidays outside of their comfort zone.
The chance for a give-and-take conversation about both prominent observances, it can be hoped, can play a key role in reducing the amount of anti-Semitism and other irrational hatred that continues to taint our society. Recent examples show just how acceptable some people think it is to spout such raw hatred, which goes back centuries.

This column appeared in the Friday, March 26, 2021 edition of The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, MA:

Is the time for renewed understanding among people of different faiths upon us or will the hatred and vitriol that dominate social media continue unabated? Pessimists would answer no to the first question and yes to the second, while optimists would answer yes and no.
I pose those questions --- and more near the end of this column --- in the hopes that, with the spring religious holidays of Easter and Passover overlapping, that we’ll be able to become a less hurtful society. (Passover starts at sundown Saturday, March 27 while Holy Week starts the next day, with Palm Sunday and will culminate with Easter on Sunday, April 4, the last day of Passover.)
One of those optimists is New England Patriots veteran wide receiver Julian Edelman, who twice in the last several months has demonstrated that his heart is bigger than his urge to retaliate against the blind hatred that fuels anti-Semitism.
Anti-Semitism, which is a byproduct of ignorance and fear, is an ugly sentiment, and it sadly persists unabated in our society.
One of the latest examples surfaced this week in Massachusetts when the Duxbury football team revealed its ignorance about Jewish history when it used the word “Auschwitz” --- the Nazi concentration camp in Poland during World War II, where 1.1 million Jews were exterminated --- to call out the team’s plays. Also used were the words “rabbi” and “dreidel,” a toy used to play a game during Hanukkah. (The football coach was fired after the incident became widely reported.)
The Anti-Defamation League of New England condemned the use of one of the Holocaust’s most notorious death camps to call football plays, and is seeking an investigation, but the incident clearly illustrates how widespread anti-Semitism remains, and why its use saddens and angers the people against whom it’s directed.
That’s why, it would have been understandable if Edelman had reacted to the anti-Semitic comments made by two  professional athletes by lashing out, but he resisted that urge, and instead reached out to them.
The most recent example came in early March, when Edelman responded to an anti-Semitic slur that Meyers Leonard of the NBA’s Miami Heat used on a Twitch live stream while playing the Call of Duty video game.
Leonard naturally followed up his anti-Semitic rant with an “apology.” (I use quotes to denote how perfunctory and empty that such apologies usually are). But Edelman, who is Jewish, opted to write an open letter via Twitter to Leonard.
“I get the sense that you didn’t use that word out of hate, more out of ignorance,” Edelman wrote. “ ... That's what makes it so destructive. When someone intends to be hateful, it's usually met with great resistance. Casual ignorance is harder to combat and has greater reach, especially when you command great influence,” he wrote.
Edelman, as he did several months ago after Philadelphia Eagles’ wide receiver DeSean Jackson shared anti-Semitic material on his Instagram, reached out to Leonard, offering to host Leonard for a Shabbat (Sabbath) dinner, which is eaten at sundown Friday to usher in the Jewish Sabbath.
Earlier, in response to Jackson’s anti-Semitic posts, Edelman proposed taking him to visit the Holocaust Museum and the Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. so Jackson could learn more about Jewish history, and he could learn more about Black history.
“I know he said some ugly things, but I do see an opportunity to have a conversation,” Edelman said on Instagram. “I'm proud of my Jewish heritage and for me it's not just about religion. It's about community and culture as well.”
Then Edelman got to the root of anti-Semitism: “Anti-Semitism is one of the oldest forms of hatred. It's rooted in ignorance and fear,” he wrote.
Edelman’s responses to anti-Semitism are instructive as we navigate this slash-and-burn society where so many prefer to condemn groups of people based on stereotypes rather than  firsthand knowledge of others’ rituals and religious traditions.
The only way to fight anti-Semitism, racism and all irrational hatred, such as what has been directed against Asian-Americans since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, is through education. That’s why in the past, I’ve written about Judaism’s rituals and holidays.
Passover and Easter have always presented an ideal opportunity for mutual understanding since they’re historically related inasmuch as the Last Supper was a Seder meal, the ritualistic dinners held on the first two nights of the eight-day Jewish Festival of Freedom.
Before the pandemic, I’d invite some of my non-Jewish friends to attend our Seders, just so they could experience the holiday’s traditions, which include the youngest person at the table asking four questions about Passover – queries that set the scene for the retelling of the holiday’s story.
In that vein, I’d like to pose four alternative Seder questions aimed at reducing the runaway anger that permeates American society:
1. How can we best promote empathy among people instead of divisiveness?
2. How can we encourage people to police themselves on social media, instead of saying ignorant things that lead to half-hearted apologies?
3. Post-pandemic, why would it be smart to invite more people over to our homes for dinner to promote understanding?
4. How can we show each other that we have more things in common than different?
Such questions would be a good start toward achieving the goal of toning down the hurtful rhetoric that plagues our society.
Larry Kessler is a retired Sun Chronicle local news editor and can be reached at larrythek65@gmail.com. He blogs at larrytheklineup.blogspot.com