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This week, we’re bringing you reflections from someone who has recently felt the horrendous effects of antisemitism firsthand. Rabbi Jen Lader, who serves the community of Michigan’s Temple Israel, recently found herself in a situation that many Jewish leaders pray they will never know. On March 12, a man affiliated with Hezbollah drove a truck into her synagogue, where hundreds of children were attending preschool. In the days after, she said that the community was heartbroken, but not surprised.
Weeks later, the effects still reverberate. One of the many politicians offering support and condemning antisemitism in the immediate aftermath was Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. But now he’s changed his tune, minimizing the attack by saying: “Hurt people hurt people.”
This is a story about a feeling that most Jews know all too well: the disappointment of realizing that support for the Jewish people is contingent on political convenience, and the underlying assumption that sympathy rests on being a perfect victim. Today, we’re proud to bring you Lader’s story, in her own words.
—Josh Kaplan
