SAN DIEGO — The July 4th killer was not shy about his hate. He planned the place and the time carefully, meticulously. He planned to get away with it. He visited a synagogue, he walked around the area, and ended up getting on a roof of a building and began shooting just as a Klezmer band was pulling up at a mostly Jewish crowd in a Jewish area of Chicago.
The victims speak for themselves. At least four of the seven victims were Jewish. Many of those shot were Jewish. Crimo who was in antisemitic groups including one called the SS or Sunder Commando was clearly and unabashedly antisemitic. The only people who can’t say those words are the police, the politicians, and the journalists.
“[Sgt Christopher] Covelli also said the suspect is believed to have acted alone, and that the shooting appears to be completely random. Investigators have no information to suggest that it was motivated by race, religion or any other protected status, he added.”
This is what Rachel Treisman and Jonathan Franklin write for NPR. This is what I heard over and over today and yesterday. It is insulting, antisemitic, and hateful to pretend that the ethnicity of the people at that parade meant nothing. It is insulting and hateful and untrue to pretend that this mass killer randomly chose this location on this day.
I am tired of people pretending antisemitism doesn’t exist, that antisemitism doesn’t cost lives. I am tired that because some Jews managed to become successful that it means that Jews can be killed in this country and that their success is a reason for hate and murder. I’m tired of police pretending that the mass murder of Jews has nothing to do with being Jewish. I’m tired of politicians asking Jews for contributions and pretending like we are all one happy family. I’m tired of the anti-Israel antisemitic journalists doing their best to pretend that Jews aren’t victims of hate crime.
*
Sam Litvin, a Ukrainian immigrant to San Diego, is a world traveler, finding Jewish stories wherever he goes.