Rapid Response: New Idea to Combat Antisemitism Today
Since the summer of 2021 when Evelyn Markus and I started co-hosting the antisemitism podcast NEVER AGAIN IS NOW on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts, I have been reading daily the news dispatches from around the globe about antisemitic incidents. Most of these news dispatches follow the same format:
- Description of incident
- Statement that the police are investigating
- Quotes from the major organizations in whichever country assuring that antisemitism will not be allowed
And on to the next news cycle …
When I recently started analyzing this cycle in terms of military strategy, I thought about rapid response teams deployed around the world to deal with hot spots.
Thus my idea — which then got encouragement from two initiatives (one in Pittsburgh and one in Berlin) that I shall describe below:
We need to have a “boots on the ground” reaction at the site of the antisemitic incident within a few days of the incident. This would NOT be an event with the usual speeches by top officials. It would be an event suited for the specific incident — a town meeting format or a theater presentation or whatever creative response is appropriate at that time and place.
The goal of these rapid response events is to change people’s minds about Jews. To make explicit, for example, that it is NOT an acceptable joke to say Jews should go to the gas.
And of course this rapid response event would invite the media to cover it — hopefully reaching the people who would not attend the rapid release event although these are the people who need to have their minds changed.
Why is this important?
Because otherwise the news cycle presents the incident and then everyone moves on and the incident becomes just another antisemitism statistic. What is more important is that people’s minds actually change from their negative attitudes towards Jews.
A few days after I started developing this idea, I read that a free Holocaust book distribution next to the Track 17 Holocaust memorial in Berlin had been set on fire and the books burned.
Yes, this was in a news release. What was in an almost immediate follow-up email from the book distribution project organizers was much more important.
The email read in part:
Invitation to Sunday, d. 20 August from 2 p.m.
Sorrow at the sight of the burned and incomprehensible
We meet here at the former BücherboXX platform 17. (Grunewald S-Bahn station)
Discussions, music, literature should help to process what happened and to gather new strength for the continuation of the work started 12 years ago opposite the memorial track 17. The book, knowledge and enlightenment remain the focus. Anti-Semitism and racism must not be given a voice.
Yes! A public event specifically addressing the antisemitic incident!
This is exactly the type of rapid response that I am envisioning — and using media to get out the word that we Jews will not simply rely on the police investigation and quotes from top leaders. We will rapidly respond (without violence) to these incidents.
And while pondering how to share this concept with others, I came across the Eradicate Hate Summit started in Pittsburgh after the Tree of Life synagogue massacre. This was exactly the kind of “boots on the ground” response that I was envisioning.
I reached out to the organizing committee — and was thrilled when I was invited to attend the conference as part of the working group “Upstanders in Action.”
Now my mission is to secure action partners for my rapid response concept.
Stay tuned for updates!
UPDATE on August 21, 2023: I just heard that my co-produced short film TEACHING THE HOLOCAUST: BEYOND FACTS AND FIGURES has been accepted into the Silicon Beach Film Festival held in Hollywood and will screen at the festival in September!
ADDITIONAL UPDATE: Later I learned that TEACHING THE HOLOCAUST: BEYOND FACTS AND FIGURES earned “Grand Prize – Best Documentary Short” in the festival.
