Wilshire Boulevard Temple ≠ Gaza
One need not be a student of geography to know that the Wilshire Boulevard Temple is not located in Gaza. Founded in 1862, it is the oldest synagogue in Los Angeles, and one of the most prestigious Reform congregations in America. Its only connection to the events in Gaza is that it is Jewish.
This was not the High Holidays, when synagogues are on high alert for terrorism. It was not the Sabbath. It was merely a weekday, and a typically multicultural event was scheduled. The Reform Jews of the West Side are characteristically liberal if not progressive, vote Democrat, dislike Netanyahu, detest Trump, are lukewarm about Zionism, and are ambivalent about Israel.
To connect these people with events in Gaza is ridiculous, unless you admit that the connection is purely that they are Jews. To attack a house of worship is unarguably an act of anti-Semitic terrorism. To break objects in a house of worship is vandalism and blasphemy. To yell obscene insults at congregants is disgusting.
But to shout threats demonstrates yet again that hatred of Jews goes deeper than other hatreds. It is eliminationist. Since Jews are the source of all the problems in the world – from the Kennedy assassination and 9/11 to global warming – the only solution to the problem is the Final Solution, kill them all.
Read the hate-filled, pro-Hitler posts on X and elsewhere. Then tell me I am exaggerating. Jews need increased police patrols. They need armed private security 24/7. They need armed congregants, if the leftist city government would allow it. But most of all, they need to realize that they are, like so many times before, under an existential threat.
