FROM KRISTALLNACHT TO TODAY: WITNESSING JEW HATRED REAR ITS UGLY HEAD AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT
Join us for a conversation about the elements of anti-Jewish expression then, now and for the future and consider what you as a Virtual Citizen of Israel can do to make a difference.
LEADING QUESTIONS
- Was Kristallnacht really the first violent attack against Jews?
- What was the tipping point in social acceptance of anti-Jewish laws?
- Why were the 1920s crucial to what culminated in Kristallnacht?
- At what point could the violence have been prevented?
- After Kristallnacht how did the Jewish community and leadership take action to protect Jews? What can we learn from what they did?
- What are the similarities in social trends that led to Kristallnacht and what we see today?
On November 9-10, 1938, Jew Hatred found its violent expression in the massive riots that exploded throughout Germany and Austria known as “Kristallnacht,” the Night of Broken Glass. It took over 10 years of social acceptance of hating and persecuting Jews before this violent outburst. International leaders had long turned a blind eye, commoners had already become either willing participants or willing bystanders, and Jewish communities continued to believe the episode of generational Jew hatred would pass just as it had done in every generation before it.
As we pass the 80th anniversary of this pogrom, we are witness to Jews around the world increasingly becoming the target of attacks both verbal and physical.
Many of us feel helpless. Some point fingers of blame. Many claim that it looks “the same” as Nazi Germany, unaware of the dangers of such distorted comparisons.
