WHAT IS IT WITH THE JEWS? A TAKE AWAY FROM POWAY.
People will strike out to protect what they think is their's - be it property, their culture or their Nation.
Jews are the perpetual wanders in history. As such, we have always been perceived by many to be the stranger - the outsider.
As Jews succeeded in anyplace they've gone, Nationalists in those places sometimes perceived that the Jews were robbing them -- the radical Nationalist, such as the White Supremacist believe that the wealth the Jews achieved was stolen from them. And if times get bad in that place, or even for just one radical Nationalist, they get jealous and angry.
The dynamic I am trying to describe is a formula for violent reprisals. Sometimes those take the shape of pograms. Sometimes they are solo violent outbursts. In the extreme case of the Nazi's, it was much worse. And in the case of the Nazi's, it started with taking the homes, businesses and property of the Jews. What ended with the "final solution," known as the Holocaust, started as the repossession of wealth.
Jews are often seen as strangers - a people whose roots don't belong wherever they are. Throughout history, the Stranger has often been seen as a risk or threat. We instinctively think and teach "stranger danger."
Jews are taught to accept the stranger, because "we were once strangers." It is a concept that is taught to us, embedded in us. It is one of the primary themes of Passover. So it is truly ironic that the last shooting took place on Passover.
Jews have also learned as a culture to assimilate. Jews throughout history have learned to accept the laws of the land wherever they may be and to be good neighbors. Jews instinctively contribute to society. This is a pattern Jews have learned to follow throughout history, in part as a survival strategy.
But despite our best efforts, the instincts of radical Nationalism in the form of anti-Semitism keeps rearing it's ugly head. Which is why Jews are not unfamiliar with having to move on. As we did when we were expelled from England and again from Spain. A famous play was made about this theme - Fiddler On The Roof. When I grew up, every Jewish parent took their child to see Fiddler. Not just as entertainment! It was an important education because you never could be certain it wouldn't happen again, AND because we NEVER wanted it to happen again.
No matter how hard we try or well we do, for some, like the White Supremacists or the neo-Nazi, we will always be the stranger who is robbing them of their property, their culture and their Nation. And when they become too desperate and deranged, egged on by others in their own dark world, they sometimes play the part, in their sick mind, of the hero warrior. And they attack US.
And by "us," I mean all of us. Because it doesn't stop with the Jews. It just starts with the Jews. To the radical Nationalist, none of us belong - not the Hispanic, or African American, or the Asian, or the Arab, or anyone but them - their fellow White Supremacists. But the irony is that that sick thinking is also the obvious reason the White Supremacists can never win.
White Supremacist can't take back their Nation because there would be no nation if they did! The irony is that the Nation which White Supremacists think is theirs, NEVER existed. America is a Nation of immigrants. We are a Land of strangers. (With one obvious exception.) It is partly because America is a Nation of Immigrants, that is why the Jews felt so at home in America.
The truth of the matter is that it is the White Supremacists that don't belong. They are actually the ones with the least right to call America their Nation. George Washington and the Founders vision was the antithesis of the beliefs that White Supremacists hold. In effect, White Supremacists are the least American of any of us, even the illegal alien who is desperate to make America their new home. And certainly the Jews who were worshipping at Poway Chabad on that fateful Passover day.
