Hate may breed hate, but love also breeds love

At approximately 9:40 on Saturday morning, Jan. 15, Michelle Alyssa Go — an Asian American woman who worked for the notable financial firm Deloitte — was pushed in front of an oncoming train, leading to her death.

Barely an hour later, four members of Congregation Beth Israel — including Rabbi Charlie Cytron Walker — were taken hostage in the middle of their services at their synagogue in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Colleyville.

Though seemingly unrelated, these cross-country events have one thing in common: The collective pain and exhaustion from the consistent hatred and discrimination that minority communities in the United States are currently experiencing.

Anti-Asian and anti-Semitic hate crimes have been on a concerning rise in recent years. While the death of Michelle Go has been called a “random incident” by the New York Police Department, the incident adds to the insurmountable pain the Asian American community has experienced since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As of last August, there had been more than 9,000 reports of xenophobic acts specifically related to anti-Asian hatred — a number that has unfortunately continued to grow in the months since. In New York City alone, the NYPD reported a 361 percent increase in anti-Asian hate crimes in December compared to the previous year.

Members of the Asian American community are currently living in fear of hearing about another attack on one of their own, or being attacked themselves.

The Jewish community is similarly reeling from multiple attacks in recent weeks on Jews in the United States and beyond, the most notable incident being the hostage situation in Colleyville. There has been an alarming rise in anti-Semitic incidents in recent years, and many Jews live with the fear they could be the next target of an anti-Semitic attack.

There have been high-profile incidents such as the tragic 2018 shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. The 2019 stabbing at a Hanukkah party in Monsey. And an attack on a kosher supermarket in New Jersey that same year — just to name a few.

But there also have been many lesser-known accounts on which Jews have been verbally harassed, swastikas have been drawn on Jewish sites, or Jewish people have been physically beaten for simply being Jewish. According to the FBI, Jews — who make up only 2.5 percent of the U.S. population — were the targets of close to 58 percent of racially motivated hate crimes in the United States in 2020. And 11 percent of overall hate crimes in the last five years have been against Jews.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, there have been an alarming number of more than 8,000 anti-Semitic incidents over the last two years.

Jews have consistently been the victims of attacks dating back many centuries. Whether it be pogroms in Russia, the Holocaust, or the anti-Semitic attacks of recent years, persecution always has been at the center of Jewish history. Jews are weary of constantly hearing about how a member of the Jewish people was the victim of an anti-Semitic incident.

Jan. 27 was International Holocaust Remembrance Day, marking 77 years since the liberation of Auschwitz. From a broad perspective, there has been a significant decrease in anti-Semitism and an increase in acceptance of Jews since the Holocaust ended nearly eight decades ago. However, society has not been fully liberated from anti-Semitism and other pervasive forms of hatred, which should have no place in modern-day civilization.

The agony and unease that both the Jewish and Asian American communities, along with minority groups, have been feeling are unacceptable. There are kids who currently have to grow up with the fear their schools, houses of worship, or they themselves will be targeted.

The recent trends are indeed disheartening. It is imperative upon all of us to recognize the progress that has been made since the darkest chapters of discrimination and prejudice, while also recognizing that we are still a ways to go from being in a world free of hate.

While there is no doubt hate breeds hate, we must remember love also breeds love. As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., famously said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.”

People should not — and cannot — act to add to the spate of hatred, but rather should carry themselves in a way that embraces others and counteracts the hatred in the world.

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