The swastika and the noose. Two of the most powerful symbols of hatred known to humankind. Such powerful symbols are they that their placement need not be accompanied by any words, any other symbols or threats, for their meaning to be clear. They speak for themselves. Contempt. Hatred. Violence.
They represent forces of evil discredited and defeated by the civilized world. The Nazi regime and all it stood for - defeated and discredited. Slavery and Jim Crow - defeated and discredited. Millions died before these ideologies were defeated and discredited, but defeated and discredited they were.
Yet their symbols live on. Even here, in the heart of the most diverse, most tolerant, most open city in the world, the swastika and the noose emerge from the shadows from time to time to express the contempt and hatred and threat of violence, which these two symbols uniquely represent.
Last week, two swastikas were painted at the Young Israel of Hillcrest, one on the outside bulletin board and one on a volunteer ambulance parked at the synagogue. Numerous swastikas were also drawn throughout a high school in Manhattan. For the many Hillcrest residents who are holocaust survivors or the children of holocaust survivors, the swastikas provoked feelings of shock, revulsion and in some cases outright fear. Were the perpetrators sending a message? A warning? Both?
The week before, a noose was left at the door of an African-American Columbia University professor. It was the sixth such incident in the metropolitan area in the last month. What next, burning crosses? Firebombs?
Kristallnacht, the “night of broken glass,” started with a single broken window. It spread to engulf an entire nation in a spasm of sustained, concentrated violence that left six million Jews murdered.
Lynchings were often sown by a single slanderous rumor, circulated and amplified until it swirled into a mob of mindless hatred. How many sons and fathers and brothers were murdered by unchecked hatred?
What stands between us and them, between peace and violence, is our willingness to speak out against these symbols, each and every time they appear. Each and every time. The perpetrators must see and feel the community reject these acts, reject their ideas, reject the people who commit them. It must be absolutely clear that there is no support, no patience, no tolerance for these acts.
Within hours of the swastika attack on the Young Israel of Hillcrest, an assemblage of community, religious and elected leaders of different faiths and backgrounds, led by our distinguished Borough President, stood outside the synagogue to denounce these anti-Semitic attacks, to reaffirm our commitment to freedom and justice, and to let the Jewish community know the entire city stood with them.
At Columbia University, hundreds of students and faculty and leaders of all stripes, shapes and sizes stood shoulder to shoulder against racism, incitement, fear and violence. If the perpetrators thought they would force the professor to stop teaching, or would encourage others to take up their racist cause, they couldn’t have failed more spectacularly.
We know the police will do their job, and make every effort to catch these criminals. We know the District Attorneys will do their jobs, and prosecute these criminals to the full extent of the law. But each of us must do our job, to show through our words and our deeds that the swastika, the noose and every other symbol of contempt, hatred and violence remain the discredited and defeated symbols that they are.
Rory I. Lancman is a member of the New York State Assembly representing the 25th District
