No accountability for anti-Semitism

In fourth grade, a classmate said to me, while pointing an imaginary gun, “I'm a Nazi, you're a Jew, bang bang bang.” I was angry and told a teacher. He did not understand. He apologized. I was okay.

In seventh grade, I visited the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and learned about Holocaust deniers. I got mad. People are ignorant. I was upset, but I believed that no intelligent human being could deny the mass murder of 6 million people. Nobody would believe this guy. It was okay.

In 10th grade, I went to Israel. I learned so much about my religion, and I was never more proud to be a Jew. I started to understand that only in the United States and Israel were Jews safe to thrive.  I was sad, this concerned me, but I was living in the United States, and I was okay.

During my first year at Duke a friend and I had were having a good conversation with a foreign student who was critical of Israel. I was happy because I thought that the conversation was going well and we were having “dialogue.”  I stated that I supported the withdrawal of Israel from the occupied territories.  Out of nowhere, the student yelled “You are a bloodthirsty murdering Jew!” He was a foreign student, this was a foreign problem. Anti-Semitism wasn't a problem here, I thought. This was something we needed to keep abroad. Here, we were okay.

Oct. 18, 2004: “The Jews.” Anti-Semitism slapped me in the face. Here at Duke. This time, he was educated. This time, he knew what he said, and he knew the pain he caused when he said it. Oct. 18, 2004. I realized we were too late. Anti-Semitism was not knocking on our door. Anti-Semitism had been welcomed back in.

The writer spoke it and, worse, the editors published it and no one has been held accountable. Oct.18, 2004, I no longer felt okay.

Mollie Lurey