Posted on March 17, 2025
(This Op Ed originally appeared in the MetroWest Daily News on 3/16/25 – https://www.metrowestdailynews.com/story/opinion/columns/2025/03/15/wayland-rabbi-condeming-antisemitism-specify-the-act-swastika-wayland-ma-opinion/82358700007/)
On Wednesday morning, while in a therapy session (because there’s a lot at the moment), my phone started to ding – a swastika had been graffitied in Wayland, the town in which our Temple is located. I continued the conversation because it suddenly felt even more important to be taking a few minutes to prioritize my own mental health. As soon as the session finished, I spoke to the Chief of Police to understand what happened, and within the hour we were meeting at the high school to witness the act of vandalism and to discuss our town’s response.
The perpetrator of this crime had chosen a spot which ensured that the majority of Wayland High School students and faculty would witness the swastika on their way into class. My initial response was to think to myself “not again.” This was unfortunately not the first time in which the town of Wayland has been desecrated by a swastika, drawn as a symbol of antisemitism, hate, and prejudice (one was graffitied prominently on Rice Road in 2023). And this was not the first time that this building had been desecrated by racist graffiti; in 2022 a derogatory term was written there in an attack on the then superintendent and the black community.
In a world where antisemitism has been on the rise and where the American Jewish community is disproportionally targeted by acts of hate and racism, it was unsurprising that we were having to deal with this issue in Wayland, again. And while it is true that antisemitism is one of various forms of hate and prejudice that are on the rise in America, I suspect that it is only the Jewish community who are forced to question from which side the attack is coming. When a swastika is drawn (or when other words or symbols of antisemitism are shared), we are left to constantly question if it comes from the extreme right or the extreme left, because we have become the targets of both. These two diametrically opposed groups disagree on almost everything, except it seems when it comes to antisemitism and the Jews.
I have been reflecting on the question of how we can make a difference this time, so that in several months from now we do not find ourselves once again in this position. I truly believe that education and learning the lessons of history are vital ways of ensuring that we do not repeat the same mistakes from the past. We clearly did not do a good enough job of that in the aftermath of the racist graffiti in 2022 or the antisemitic graffiti in 2023.
And now we are experiencing a moment where we are actively avoiding studying history and learning the necessary lessons.
President Trump’s Executive Order Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing, means that this year the US Army will not be holding a Holocaust remembrance program, as has been held annually at the Natick Labs and elsewhere in the country. This year there will be no program, no learning, and no education about this terrible moment. An important opportunity for Holocaust education has been lost.
And locally, in condemning these attacks, people, committees, and others have failed to label the symbol as a swastika or to make any mention of the specific community targeted by this hateful symbol – it is an attack on Jews and the Jewish community. Forceful statements have been diluted by a failure to be specific about the crime or the victims. How can we learn the lessons of history when committees designed to include behave in ways that make Jews feel excluded? Naming the specific symbol, the act of hate involved, and then centering the community impacted are crucial in a robust response to any incident of hate, and a crucial way of using it as an educational moment.
I do not believe that this swastika represents the town of Wayland or the people in it, but we have to grapple with the fact that this happened in our town, again.
This is a lonely time for the Jewish community, but it doesn’t have to be. And the response to an incident of antisemitism cannot come primarily from the Jewish community, it must come from others who are willing to stand up in support and solidarity. I know that there are many of those people in the town of Wayland, I have felt that support from Christian and Muslim clergy colleagues, and I felt it when the town came together in response to this crime. The question that remains is how will we educate ourselves and our children, to ensure that we do not shy away from the lessons of the past, but confront them, head on, to avoid making the same mistakes again in the future?
I sincerely hope that several months from now I do not have to write another piece like this one.