{"source_url": "https://www.bostonglobe.com", "url": "https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/12/30/midst-increasing-anti-semitic-violence-growing-unease-for-jewish-community/OUN3mR0rypyYLdl9D8n1rM/story.html", "title": "In the midst of increasing anti-Semitic violence, a growing unease for Jewish community", "top_image": "https://bostonglobe-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/evLTyztUHEfaIDHRhy-ZFtKgFgc=/506x0/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-bostonglobe.s3.amazonaws.com/public/JSQJ5PBKS4I6VA3NAQFVKWCXCU.jpg", "meta_img": "https://bostonglobe-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/evLTyztUHEfaIDHRhy-ZFtKgFgc=/506x0/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-bostonglobe.s3.amazonaws.com/public/JSQJ5PBKS4I6VA3NAQFVKWCXCU.jpg", "images": ["https://www.facebook.com/ tr?id=884869448226452&ev=PageView&noscript=1", "https://bostonglobe-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/evLTyztUHEfaIDHRhy-ZFtKgFgc=/506x0/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-bostonglobe.s3.amazonaws.com/public/JSQJ5PBKS4I6VA3NAQFVKWCXCU.jpg", "https://sb.scorecardresearch.com/p?c1=2&c2=6035042&cv=2.0&cj=1"], "movies": [], "text": "As Brown, 24, puts it, \u201cThat just feels safer and less complicated.\u201d\n\nShe has begun to more closely consider what she wears \u2014 her Star of David earring, or the college sweat shirt featuring Hebrew print. Sometimes, when an Uber driver asks what she\u2019s studying in grad school, she says \u201creligious studies\u201d rather than offering the more specific answer \u2014 which is that she\u2019s in her first year of rabbinical school at Hebrew College in Newton Centre.\n\nThere are things Michaela Brown thinks about these days that she never did before.\n\nAmid a troubling spate of violence against Jews across the United States \u2014 including an attack on Saturday in which a machete-wielding intruder left five people injured during a Hanukkah celebration at a home in suburban New York \u2014 members of the Jewish community in Boston and beyond have found themselves faced with a growing unease.\n\nAdvertisement\n\nAnti-Semitic incidents have long been a part of the American landscape, Jewish leaders said, but they typically have taken the form of anti-Semitic rants or spray-painted swastikas. The recent violence, they say, is new. And in a current cultural and political climate in which many feel that animosity and bigotry have become tolerated by some \u2014 if not outright encouraged \u2014 it feels especially unnerving. In response, some congregations are now ramping up security.\n\nEarlier this year, the Anti-Defamation League reported that violent attacks against members of the Jewish community in the Unites States doubled from 2017 to 2018 \u2014 with 39 cases of physical assault last year involving 59 victims.\n\nGrim headlines have seemed be increasing. Three people were killed during an attack at a kosher market in New Jersey earlier this month. And a shooting at a California synagogue in April killed one and wounded three others.\n\nIn 2018, a mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh left 11 dead and two injured in the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in US history.\n\nAdvertisement\n\nThe rise in violent incidents has compelled some local Jews to make uncomfortable calculations about wearing Jewish symbols in public. Others, though, remain determined to not abandon their identity in any way.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s something we\u2019re forced to think about in ways we haven\u2019t in the past,\u201d says Samantha Walsh, who serves as director of Needham-based B\u2019nai B\u2019rith Youth Organization New England, an organization for Jewish teens. \u201cWe\u2019re grappling with, how do we stay in the public and be proud of being Jewish, while also making sure that the teens that come to [our] program are out of harm\u2019s way?\u201d\n\nUntil recently, such concerns were largely absent in the United States.\n\nIn France, members of the Jewish community have been warned about appearing in public while wearing Jewish symbols, out of concerns for safety, said Joseph Polak, chief justice of the Rabbinical Court of Massachusetts.\n\nAnd during trips abroad, some members of the local Jewish community say, it\u2019s not uncommon to avoid wearing certain Jewish-related clothing or accessories.\n\nBut as anti-Semitic incidents have risen to nearly historic levels \u2014 in Massachusetts alone, the ADL logged more than 530 anti-Semitic incidents between January 2016 and November 2019 \u2014 such concerns have permeated the United States, too.\n\nErin Miller, the chairman of Boston University\u2019s Hillel Alumni Council, said that even in the progressive haven of the Northeast \u2014 where the Jewish population is sizable \u2014 her family worries about her well-being.\n\nAdvertisement\n\n\u201cMy own my mother was texting me today \u2014 she\u2019s very nervous of me living in New York, being in public places,\u201d says Miller, who is currently attending medical school in New York.\n\nIn August, pictures of students from the predominantly Jewish Brandeis University appeared on an online forum accompanied by anti-Semitic and racist language. The university asserted in an e-mail to the student body that the forum posed \u201cno direct threat to these individuals or to Brandeis,\u201d but many still felt threatened or violated by its presence, according to Linzi Rosen, a sophomore at Brandeis.\n\n\u201cWe grew up believing we\u2019d never face the same threats that our grandparents did,\u201d she said. \u201cBut now there is this concern looming that something might happen. The threat feels a bit like wind \u2014 like you have no control whether it will strike here or home or somewhere else.\u201d\n\nIn response to the increase in anti-Semitic violence, various local synagogues have ramped up security in recent years.\n\nBrookline\u2019s Temple Beth Zion has opted to hire a security guard for all public events, while the Temple Emeth, whose 500-pound menorah was stolen last year, now requires visitors to ring a doorbell and requests a police detail for Saturday services.\n\nCharles Homer, the president of the Brookline synagogue Temple Sinai, said it was \u201cbetter not to say\u201d what exact steps have been taken by his synagogue.\n\nBut such measures, some worry, could alter the relationship younger generations have with the church.\n\nAdvertisement\n\n\u201cMy niece is three, and her first memory of walking into Jewish spaces is going to be walking through metal detectors and having her bags checked,\u201d says Brown. \u201cIt\u2019s just a different feeling.\u201d\n\nEven as the recent spike in anti-Semitic violence has left many on edge, however, it has also served as something of a galvanizing force.\n\nHomer, the president of the Brookline\u2019s Temple Sinai, said he\u2019s noticed many congregants becoming \u201cmore assertive\u201d of their Judaism in the wake of recent tragedies, wearing yarmulkes and the Star of David.\n\nRosen, who identifies as a lesbian, said the rise in anti-Semitism both locally and nationally has made her feel as if she is now part of two marginalized groups forced to contend with bigotry.\n\nBut despite these concerns, she says, she has never felt \u201cmore connected with\u201d or \u201cmore proud\u201d of her Jewish identity.\n\n\u201cPeople go in two different directions,\u201d Rosen said. \u201cSome may opt to become less obvious. But more often than not, I\u2019m seeing people who are more assertive. People who are wearing kippahs or the Star of David who never have before.\n\n\u201cJust an overall pride in their faith.\u201d\n\nDugan Arnett can be reached at dugan.arnett@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @duganarnett.", "keywords": [], "meta_keywords": [""], "tags": [], "authors": [], "publish_date": "Mon Dec 30 00:00:00 2019", "summary": "", "article_html": "", "meta_description": "For many members of the local Jewish community, the rise in anti-Semitic violence has left them grappling with a tricky personal calculus: How to continue taking pride in their heritage and beliefs \u2014 while not making themselves targets.", "meta_lang": "en", "meta_favicon": "/pf/resources/images/favicon.png?d=120", "meta_data": {"description": "For many members of the local Jewish community, the rise in anti-Semitic violence has left them grappling with a tricky personal calculus: How to continue taking pride in their heritage and beliefs \u2014 while not making themselves targets.", "robots": "noarchive", "viewport": "width=device-width, initial-scale=1", "msapplication-config": "/pf/resources/images/icons/browserconfig.xml?d=120", "theme-color": "#ffffff", "fb": {"admins": 507486035, "app_id": 103933749691726, "pages": 5637143257}, "og": {"site_name": "BostonGlobe.com", "type": "article", "title": "In the midst of increasing anti-Semitic violence, a growing unease for Jewish community - The Boston Globe", "url": "https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/12/30/midst-increasing-anti-semitic-violence-growing-unease-for-jewish-community/OUN3mR0rypyYLdl9D8n1rM/story.html", "description": "For many members of the local Jewish community, the rise in anti-Semitic violence has left them grappling with a tricky personal calculus: How to continue taking pride in their heritage and beliefs \u2014 while not making themselves targets.", "image": "https://bostonglobe-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/evLTyztUHEfaIDHRhy-ZFtKgFgc=/506x0/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-bostonglobe.s3.amazonaws.com/public/JSQJ5PBKS4I6VA3NAQFVKWCXCU.jpg", "pixelID": 884869448226452}, "article": {"opinion": "false", "publisher": "https://www.facebook.com/globe", "content_tier": "free"}, "twitter": {"account_id": 95431448, "card": "summary_large_image", "site": "@BostonGlobe", "title": "In the midst of increasing anti-Semitic violence, a growing unease for Jewish community - The Boston Globe", "description": "For many members of the local Jewish community, the rise in anti-Semitic violence has left them grappling with a tricky personal calculus: How to continue taking pride in their heritage and beliefs \u2014 while not making themselves targets.", "url": "https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/12/30/midst-increasing-anti-semitic-violence-growing-unease-for-jewish-community/OUN3mR0rypyYLdl9D8n1rM/story.html", "image": "https://bostonglobe-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/evLTyztUHEfaIDHRhy-ZFtKgFgc=/506x0/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-bostonglobe.s3.amazonaws.com/public/JSQJ5PBKS4I6VA3NAQFVKWCXCU.jpg"}, "section": "Metro"}, "canonical_link": "https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/12/30/midst-increasing-anti-semitic-violence-growing-unease-for-jewish-community/OUN3mR0rypyYLdl9D8n1rM/story.html"}