It’s not just a history lesson it’s a lesson about us about human behavior it’s hate that’s outlived Generations every minority is feeling this hatred and it’s on the rise an attack against one religious freedom is an attack against all religious freedoms it’s cost millions of Jews their lives but we had
To we this my gosh that meant that we were subu and continues today a foot away from our front door was a pentagram around the world we’re not victims we are Jewish we’re here we’re proud across the country we need to be a lot more security-minded and right here in St
Louis and when you see something say Something I’m Mike bush and thanks for joining us for another program in our Series race listen learn live in the next hour we’re going to tackle a difficult topic Rising hate in this country in particular anti-Semitism the Anti-Defamation League reports that anti-Semitism incidents in this country were at an all-time high
Last year so what is anti-Semitism well it’s a form of racism defined as a prejudice against or hatred of Jewish people people of the Jewish Faith share Customs traditions and histories you can be born Jewish or convert into the faith you can also be Jewish and secular but
At times in history the Jewish people have been characterized as a race Hitler and the Nazis believed people could be divided into races and that the Jews were a weaker dangerous and inferior race with anti-Semitism On The Rise St Louis isn’t immune which is why we’re looking to educate inform and search for
Solutions to help help us do that we’d like to introduce seven panelists from the St Louis Jewish Community who will share their experiences Karen aresty is the director of administration for St Louis County government Deb Israeli is a registered nurse and the former mayor of olvet robbi Kim Landa serves as the
Director of the kabad Jewish center of St Charles County Helen Turner is the director of education for the St Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum Jay Greenberg is the special agent in charge at the St Louis office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Maxine Gil is a 2023 graduate of Washington University
And Brian htig he’s the president and CEO of the St Louis Jewish Federation now to understand where we are today and move forward it’s important to look back at our City’s history many metropolitan areas in the early 20th century had immigrant populations that created a rich diverse Community our Kelly Jackson
Found St Louis was no exception in the early 1900s St Louis was on the move and growing the US Census had the population at more than a half million the city’s immigrant population adding to its hustle and bustle it was a very immigrant friendly environment and um
There was a very large population of Jews that had already come decades earlier uh mostly from Germany and by um the turn of the century they were pretty well settled Dr Warren Rosenbloom is an author who teaches history at Webster University he says by 1907 40,000 Jews
Were living here many of them had established you know small businesses or in some cases had gotten lucky and built up pretty good siiz warehouses or um many were involved in textiles along Washington Avenue there were great successes like the department store chain sticks Baron Fuller found it in
The late 1800s famous bars flagship store opened in the railway Exchange bill building the Jewish Hospital of St Louis built in 1902 on delmare Boulevard which we all know as Barnes Jewish Hospital today on King’s Highway however like many immigrants knew to a different country there were struggles Once Upon a
Time in St leis we had an area called the ghetto that they referred to which is where most of the Jewish Community lived and um while Jews weren’t literally forced to live in this ghetto the fact of the matter is that um it was the place where they could feel
Comfortable where they could feel safe and there were a lot of um housing covenants that blocked them from some surrounding neighborhoods there were also people who weren’t welcoming anti-Semitism rearing its ugly head here during Hitler’s rise to power and a pro-i group spreading propaganda in 1937 they paraded through Forest Park um they
Gathered around a a memorial that’s still there the memorial to fredr Yan who was a 19th century German figure and they gathered around this Memorial and they gave speeches and they waved Nazi flags and they marched around um so events like this were very unnerving to the Jewish Community here and while the
Jewish Community was very tight-knit Bound by Traditions the more modern verses versus the more traditional the one unifier was a high school soldan it just happened that where it was placed it encompassed a lot of the German Jews who were now doing a little better a little more well off and these Eastern
European Jews were still struggling ad adjusting to American Life maybe didn’t even speak English all that well but it it captured the whole uh crowd and and that was really kind of then in some ways the heart and soul of the Jewish Community for a while a collective
Who’ve left their mark on our community from beautiful synagogues to Industry and more St Louis was a very rich Urban environment rich in its cultural life rich in its sense of you know tempo and just Rhythm and um uh and and the Jews of the early 20th century loved that about St
Louis let’s begin with your own experience with anti-Semitism Karen wanted to get it started oh I was a first year law student at Washington University it was 1987 and I used to get my haircut at this Posh shop location doesn’t have to be named um and uh one day I went to
Have an appointment and the cutter said well would you come to get your haircut and Fenton and I said why Fenton at that point I wasn’t even sure where Fenton was because I was at wasu most of the time and that was you city right and she
Said well I need uh to work out in Fenton because I have a non-compete clause in my contract and um it’s all the fault of the Jew that owns this place and I had seen her for about a year we never really talked religion um
I I I don’t know where it came from I Didn’t Know the ownership of the shop was Jewish you wasn’t an issue but it kicked me in the stomach um uh I think in the end I left without telling her much of anything I certainly didn’t go back um and I think
It’s why I ended up working for so many years in the Jewish Community I eventually worked with ADL for 20 years at that moment in time I was not an ally for myself I just kind of stood back and let it happen and I I regretted that a lot looking
Back and Deb I know you had a a terrible experience right so a few years ago um my husband and I were getting ready to go on vacation and I was upstairs um in our home in alette um getting my bags together and my husband yelled for me to
Come down and I you know like a good wife I’ll be there in a minute no come now and um right outside of our front front door it was maybe gosh a foot away from our front door was a pentagram spray painted um some of the lights were
Still lit there were tea lights and there was um a pig’s head in the middle um I am not one to have a loss for words but at that time I was completely dumbfounded um I never really understood what it felt like to be afraid and to be
Afraid in your own home is just a feeling that I wouldn’t wish on anybody um I immediately called the Olivette police um Karen got involved with it the FBI got involved with it um we still don’t have any answers for this but um you
Know I tried hard to kind of keep it as quiet as I could for a while and let the investigation play out and then a couple of um I guess about a year ago or so um my niece who’s going to school at University of Illinois um she was
Telling me that they were handing out flow Flyers about the pandemic and that it was a Jewish conspiracy that Jews were involved and I said finally I just I have to let people know that even in our insulated community of alette and where everyone on my street happened to
Be Jewish every single family on my street this is happening so um you know I really needed for that to come out my experiences to bookend um Karen’s are more about the communities that I’ve been a part of I haven’t actually experienced in them myself um so between
My freshman and sophomore year at the University of Wisconsin there are a couple dozen anti-semitic acts that happened uh the last was uh somebody cut the the brakes on a camp bus for children going to a Jewish Day Camp so when we got back to school a group of us
Started a group that um at night would just walk around the Jewish fraternities and sororities mostly to make sure that everything was fine um it didn’t happen to me personally it impacted the community I was a part of but I did and had the opportunity to stand up and
Advocate and then I actually was a member of Tree of Life synagogue and on the board in Pittsburgh um and while I didn’t live there at the time the attacks happened I knew several of the people who um who were killed that day but that to me um also um shook me
Because uh that was a place I went every Saturday that was a place that was my place of worship you know it’s it’s it’s a different experience for those of us who have been through it because you can walk down the street and nobody necessarily will know that you
Are a a Jewish person they may not know it as opposed to an Asian-American as opposed to a black person um and so when it happens like you said Karen it can be a kick in the stomach but then what do you do um I think a lot of what I’ve
Experienced sort of in my generation has been parading a lot of this sort of edgy quote unquote humor um that often times involves like Holocaust jokes and things like that I remember one time there was a fellow student in my class who in high school came up and Drew a swastica on my
Desk while I was sitting there and just started spewing this hitleresque um kind of anti-Semitic vitrio and um he just thought it was funny and I and I have seen both the side of um kids thinking that that sort of thing is funny and then also having it take a more serious
Turn in things like social media we’ll see um sort of like rants on on Twitter and whatnot that have a lot of thinly veiled anti-Semitism and we’ll see it as sort of a valid argument of things like how did the pandemic happen why do Jews have disproportionate power in different
Um areas of the United States and so I think a lot of it is just education and trying to talk to people and when I encounter that or someone shows me that explaining how it is anti-Semitism I am visibly Jewish so in terms of um my experiences kind of works both
Ways you you do attract that the the hate um you don’t get to really hear necessarily what someone really thinks because they know that you’re Jewish um but like I remember um going to synagogue on Shabbat crossing the street on delmare and you know people roll down
The windows and say hateful things um I lived in Brooklyn I heard these things all the time um it’s almost natural there’s no followup you don’t get to have that conversation and certainly someone who has like um any relationship with you they’re not going to say those
Things um but just being visibly Jewish you’re almost a magnet for those touch and go um so definitely experience this if you believe you’re the victim of a hate crime and a hate crime is simply a violent or property crime that that has a bias motivation you should immediately
Pick up the phone and call the police so if you believe your personal self or your property is in danger right then the easiest way to get police there is to dial 911 we would then ask that you pick up the phone and call us at the FBI
Here in St Louis or wherever you find yourself or you can call us nationally at800 call FBI because we want to make sure that that incident is being looked at from a federal perspective as well as a state and local perspective and that every resource that can be brought to
Bear is being brought to Bear unfortunately or fortunately whichever way you look at it in America we have very broad protections for freedom of speech it’s one of the founding principles of our country and so often times no matter how bigoted or offensive speech may be speech itself does not
Rise to the level of a crime generally speaking on the federal level um that being said we always want to get a report because where we see a rise in hate incidents we almost always see a correlation of a rise and hate crimes as well and it allows us the knowledge to
Get there and hopefully help protect the community before it comes under greater attack the Holocaust is undoubtedly one of the darkest atrocities the world has ever seen in a push to create a master race the Nazis exterminated millions of European Jews Rachel Miller of Chesterfield was a child living in
France she shares her story of survival with RK Quinn it all start did with Hitler and we have few people in this country that resemble him and that scares me at the age of 90 Rachel Miller has a profound sense of the past repeating itself a
Past so vivid she can hold it in her hand we had to wear this that meant that we were subhuman we had no right to exist born in Paris France in the 1930s this is my father this is my mother her idelic childhood was shattered at the
Age of nine her father died in a hospital in December of 1941 months later she was sent to live with a Catholic Family in the French Countryside my mother said to me rashelle I’m going to give you a new name your new name is Christine and you’re not allowed to tell anybody that
You’re Jewish her older sister Sabine was to follow a day or two later she never made it her mother Brothers and sister were swept up by police in the largest French deportation of Jews of the Holocaust three letters from Sabine reached Rachel she writes of how they shaved her beautiful blonde
Hair she was dirty she was sick and she wanted out allowed to visit her Paris home one last time to get a doll Rachel took something else instead at 9 years old I took the most important thing thing the only gift that you can never never replace the pictures shuttled from
One foster home to another sometimes enduring abuse and neglect Miller became one of thousands of hidden Children of the Holocaust they took away everything everything it’s a hard thing to get over very hard thing Rachel was abused by the American soldier who brought her to this
Country at the end of the war she went on to marry another man and raise her own family now using her cherished photo album she educates about the past and shares her deep fears about the intolerance she sees today I want to scream because it pains me so and it’s not just about
Anti-Semitism it’s about racism fascism nationalism Miller says she never imagined she’d lived through another significant rise in intolerance but she says the feelings she gets today are strikingly similar to The Terror she felt in the 1930s and 40s how can we stop them that means that we need to have a
Government that is willing to stop them and we don’t have one Rachel always held out hope that a member of her family survived but in 2001 with help of the International Red Cross she found her fames names on German documents that proved they were
Sent to awit and killed now we are in a place that you may have never heard of but is definitely worth your time we’re inside a local Museum that not only shows the devastating impact of discrimination but helps promote positive change they were from all over places Hungary Lithuania Czechoslovakia Poland
In cre core a somber history is found its Sanctuary some survived some didn’t marking a time that should never be forgotten they Del their normal life and then all of a sudden boom Oh Hell broke this you’re inside the newly renovated St Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum
Where every tour begins with a gravity point that gravity point is what was the Holocaust it’s making sure that before we even walk in we have an understanding of the depth and the magnitude of the events that we’re about to engage with step inside and there are lessons to be
Learned at every turn museums are spaces for questions museums of spaces for inquiry and museums of spaces for education and that’s what we came here to do while the Holocaust was the state sponsored systematic murder of 6 million European Jews in many ways this horrifying history is a deeply personal
Story so this is evina the pandemic prompted St louisans to sift through their closets and attics this is one of those very interesting artifacts and longtime archist Diane Everman received dozens of new artifacts from the families of survivors like this doll named evina she was given
To one of our local survivors in Berlin right before evina the little girl who lived down the street was deported to ashz and murdered there a tiny shoe was also an indelible reminder of the youngest victims this is a child shoe from one of the killing centers I find
It really powerful it’s so little it fits in the palm of your hand it’s just a little shoe there’s a story behind every name here and then on the wall and in the final section of the museum a projection of hundreds of survivors who came to St Louis Post Holocaust when we
Began to think about opening a new Museum we knew about 300 names on opening day we knew about 800 and now we know well over 900 walking these hallowed Halls gets you thinking about the nature of hate and Injustice and the consequences of staying silent that is
The point of this Museum it’s not just a history lesson it’s a lesson about us about human behavior and about how we change it look how I know close they up they are remembering the past and being empowered to learn from it going forward what gives you hope I think what gives
Me hope is every day when I see people in this building the new St Louis Holocaust Museum reminding us all that we can and must do better yes I’ve had anti-semitic issues I’ve had my manur desec created in my old building it’s happening on college campuses across this country how one Jewish organization
Is fighting back and teaching acceptance lessons young people are sharing with their peers we do have our our differences but we can all connect Together Anti-semitic incidents surged to Historic levels in 2022 with incidents on college campuses up nearly 50% our Justina Cornell drove to Urbana champagne to visit the University of Illinois and shows us the impact one organization is making I’m Natalie Natalie at this barbecue it’s more than food that’s
Being made new bonds are formed too how are you doing it’s called Habu the latest move to make memor the week after is two midterms and it’s like midterm midterm midterm the habad Center for Jewish life and living is a part of a movement the goal is to be this home
This space for all people to experience Jewish life it has programming space study space and most importantly it’s a place that people know they can come to 24 hours a day why year you senior right Rabbi David kto has poured his heart and soul into habad for the last 21 years
He’s witnessed hostility and hate firsthand yes I’ve had anti-Semitic issues I’ve had my manura desecrated in my old building a new report from the Anti-Defamation League finds these anti-semitic incidents on college campuses Jump by 41% from 2021 to 2022 with nearly 3,700 incidents nationwide
At U ofi in early 2022 a Wata was found on a wall inside a bathroom at a residence hall and anti-semitic Flyers were spread on campus Tao believes they’re doing the work but more needs to be done at Illinois we’re proud to say that we work very hard to combat it
Especially with a pro-s semitism approach while the hate can bring division te only wants to unite I met a student once that carved a 11 and 1/2 in swat in a table in a bar and through my contacts I found out who it was and I
Said do you realize what you did he’s like no a lot of hate comes from misunderstanding this is the arc where we store the toras understanding the troubles is Junior Jaden pael president of the Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi definitely realized the importance of of kabad and the importance of just like
That Jewish Community here pel is learning lessons beyond the classroom he’s now looking out for more than 100 members making sure everyone’s safe is definitely something that I always keep in the back of my head so you all live together that’s exciting that’s why habad has become a home away from home
Barue is one of the ways we create that Community pel knows students are always on the move this is a space they can feel centered just the of community is is really strong every week I’m here I see friendly faces I meet new people welcome guys welcome the message that I
Was taught is that we’re not victims we are Jewish we’re here we’re proud and we’re here to stay Karen how do we fight anti-Semitism because um it’s it’s very complicated to fight it because as the rabbi was saying sometimes you just hear words and they they keep driving so how do you fight
Anti-Semitism it’s all about education and it’s all within and without um and to the extent that we experien these ups and downs we call it now the rise of anti-Semitism we could have that conversation every year because it never goes away so we’re always experiencing the es and flows education is a constant
Throughout education changes though right because now we can use social media to our advantage we can come to this Museum which I think is only one of 22 in the country as a unique learning space we can bring um information electronically easily into classrooms but people have to want to
Step up and learn the hardest part about the education piece initially when people explain a lot of incidents that happened to them is how do you overcome the initial anxiety and and sort of cortisol reaction right so that you’re not a bystander so that you do become an
Ally for yourself and others and you widen the circle um and that’s the thing about um what I’ve seen in this community over U several decades which is that people will step forward they will support the Jewish Community as the Director of Education here at the Museum
Um is clearly the front and center of what we do and we really believe in educating people about the past about the Holocaust about the history of anti-Semitism which is a very long and complicated one um but we’ve also built on to the museum with something called
The impact lab and it’s doing exact what Karen is mentioning which is that it’s one thing to learn about the history of the Holocaust of anti-Semitism it’s another thing to learn about what current anti-Semitism looks like what all the things that you have shared look
Like and then to know how to respond in the impact lab we really call it like um a workout for your mind because it is practicing these scenarios so that instead of getting you know you do get that cortisol rush you you panic you’re not sure what to do and the impact lab
We can play through those scenarios so you can literally practice um so that when you’re in a situation it becomes more like muscle memory to know what to say to know who to call to know which community members need to be involved and it just makes us all so much more
Prepared um you know I I think to defeat anti-Semitism is going to take a very very long time and and so much education and pulling from all sides but to be prepared to combat it is something we can do right now in the museum you know even more than even just education get
Out there meet your neighbors make sure that you know you’re you’re being protected in a in a way that you feel safe um you know not necessarily hey would you come to my house if something happened just be out in the community and don’t be afraid to identify yourself
As being Jewish and I think just being visible and making sure people know that Jews look like me like you like you we come in all different strip and um you know because I’ve I’ve also heard you know you don’t look Jewish and my answer
Back is tell me what a Jew looks like so you know we we come in all different shapes and sizes Mike I just wanted to say two things about education one we’re really proud of the fact that two years ago we were part of a coalition that helped
Bring a Holocaust Education bill which the state passed so every child in the state has to learn about the history of the Holocaust but the second thing that we’re really proud of is what um Helen was talking about is that anti-Semitism is one ISM there are a lot of them and
Where anti-Semitism happens racism happens sexism all the other isn’t happen so education we um at the Museum uses the Holocaust as a grounding point for talking about all of that not just anti-Semitism because those things are so closely linked and usually it’s out of ignorance the other piece in our
Community at least that’s critical to is just Safety and Security and so while we focus on education we also through the community security program at the Federation work with our 60 plus Partners in this community to help make sure that they’re prepared whether that’s training whether that’s helping them achieve nonprofit security grants
Through the federal government to harden their building so that they’re less accessible like we saw not just a couple weeks ago um at a at at a day school that was protected properly so all of those things because the day and age we live in it’s not just about talking we
Also have to actively do things so I I was going to add with the education I think it’s directly related to this as well there’s education of about hate and where that can go and just making people aware how terrible that is um there’s also positive um going Beyond um the
Fear the hate um really educating people about Judaism about people um humanizing the whole thing uh if there’s two key words education and relationships um and I think just creating those opportunities um it’s it’s more of a I would say an organic approach having someone at your Shabbat
Table that may not experience that Shabbat table um connecting just on a human level for me being visibly Jewish and talking about the silliest things could be the most meaningful experience for someone who has never met a Jew or never met a never met a rabbi um but you
Have to be intentional about creating those uh those moments uh putting yourself out there and there is a lot of ignorance um and being patient with that too most people I believe are good people and they’re they’re trying to do good I mean that’s what it is and we’ve
Been saying that that seems to be the theme is just you know introduce yourself and and show that you’re just like everybody else it it is about education I think if we look exclusively at the Jewish community we can find examples of anti-Semitism that causes us concern that it may be on
The rise but if we look at post-pandemic America and the world we’ve seen a tremendous rise in anti-asian hate and hate incidents and hate speech and if we look only in our own country post the dobs decision from last year we have concerns about a rising tide of violence against Catholic institutions and
Pro-life um institutions and so being a part of a group or being a part of a community automatically separates us into us and them and what I would encourage is each member of each one of these communities to sort of open their aperture and be welcoming and learning
From other communities at the same time that we are teaching other communities about ourselves now there’s a local program where students are taking a unique approach to tackling anti-Semitism it’s connecting students of different faiths to break down barriers and build bridges in the fight against hate on this day it’s sekman High School
In Imperial Missouri what I just blew is called a chofar the best teachers might just be students loud and it’s used for a traditional uh wakeup call which is why Mr Kirby is just an observer today in his German language classroom I want to expose my students to the whole world
Especially to things that they might not know about the way mybot Mitzvah looked lesson plan is been taught by four Jewish students another option that a lot of people tend to do is go to a Jewish Day School to pupils unfamiliar with Judaism something a lot of Orthodox
Jews will do is they live really close to their synagogue because we’re not driving on Shabbat the goal to quell stereotypes and Prejudice when we connect and we see each other and when the students actually talk to each other it breaks down those barriers Lauren Abraham is the director of the student
To student program for from the Jewish community relations Council of St Louis you’ll hear in the presentation we give a lot of statistics about how we’re such a minority but religious-based hate crimes so many of them are focused toward us more than a hundred teenage ambassadors volunteer every year to be
Part of the jcrc program and after hours of training they will visit more than 120 classrooms all over the bstate area for a baby boy there’s a bris or bre me law 17-year-old Riley feine says she felt a responsibility to sign up every minority is feeling this hatred and just
Kind of this sense of Doom in the world that there’s always the stuff happening and nobody’s fighting against it so I think that by coming into these classrooms it is our way of hoping to change that so this is how you would spell Shalom each presentation is
Deliberately low Tech I have some props like this is a Torah that was given to me by my synagogue and they touch on everything from holidays to the Hebrew langu just so everyone knows the Torah is the Old Testament 18-year-old Sam Deutch told the personal story of his great
Uncle it’s an important thing to my family and to him survived the aitz death camp and became an educator his philosophy was that if he spent the rest of his life wanting revenge and all that kind of stuff that nothing would happen and anti-Semitism would go on in the
World stories like that strike a poignant cord for Mr Kirby my grandmother and her siblings were all part of the Hitler Youth and my great uncle ended up in the SS a HOA represents a home that the couple is going to make which is why he invites the program into his classroom every
Year my Uncle Fritz and I even spoke about this program that I’m doing here and how all of this helps the world be a better place it’s hard to measure the difference one hour can make but for some it seemed to have a lasting impact
It kind of makes me wonder like when did it stop being about the fact that we’re all people you know regardless of cultural differences or Traditions ethnicity student to student or the best way to get rid of subconscious biases and stereotypes is to actually just interact shining a light to eclipse the
Shadows of prejudice we do have our differences but we can all connect together thank you so much for listening to what we had to say today and Building Bridges of understanding one lesson at a time we’re very divided these days and I think it’s refreshing just to have a
Conversation with a human being he was a very ordinary man who who really looked at a situation and and step by step made choices that change lives one man who made a difference in the lives of tens of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust his connection to St leis the
Threat is real the new reality for local synagogues every single thing that we do we have to think about security According to the ADL since 2022 there have been more than 120 anti-semitic incidents targeting Jewish institutions the majority of those have targeted synagogues our Christine buyers found out out that safety has become an essential part of practicing the Jewish faith when Rabbi Noah AR now first joined the K Rea synagogue in Clayton
About 10 years ago our doors were always unlocked then in 2018 everything changed 11 people were killed at a Pittsburgh synagogue during Shabbat morning Services it was the deadliest anti-semitic attack in our country’s history breaking news the deadly mass shooting at a syag ogue in Pittsburgh every synagogue in America realized that
We need to be a lot more security-minded Cole Rea started incorporating security measures into its every move Rabbi AR now and several members of the synagogue went through active shooter training it’s awful and when you’re done with it you feel at least a little better maybe a
Little more scared but also a little more prepared Justin Sparks leads active shooter training at places of worship for tier one tactical Solutions he’s noticed an increase involving violence at synagogues and those who attack them for whatever reason they become hyperfocused um in this case on the
Jewish faith and synagogues and the the congregations there in spark says his company bases its training on real life events like the one that happened in Pittsburgh we put them through the training so that they can see it and feel it and smell it and so that they
Can understand that when this day happens at their event hopefully it never does but if it were to they will be prepared and know how to respond Rabbi arnow says he’s glad he took the training yes no one wants to imagine the worst possible thing that could happen to
Them that’s what active shooter training prepares you for security at synagogues like Cole Rena is also seen and unseen every single thing that we do we have to think about security and we’ve gotten used to it it’s like a muscle now which is great it means that we are
Safer and more thoughtful about everything that we do and that takes time and money if you want to practice Judaism there’s a significant security cost that the Jewish Community has borne March Clayton police cars often sit outside during times of worship we don’t expect synagogues to have to know their
Local police departments but we do and he says they need to keep their doors locked our doors are always locked and Everyone is always welcome in 1977 a white supremacist opened fire outside a Richmond Heights synagogue during a bar mitzvah one person died two others were wounded that
Sniper was convicted and executed in 2013 is there a right way to respond to anti-Semitism is is there a right way and I know it I guess it would depend on you know something like that happened to you and how you respond to something like that by calling law
Enforcement but maybe it’s just someone yelling something maybe it’s something you see on social media what’s the right way to respond you uh if I may Mike I think that’s a fantastic question because I think it’s the one we all Wrestle with right right um how do I
Respond um and I think honestly there’s no there’s no right or wrong way it’s a spectrum of response like I I cannot imagine your fear and what that must have felt like and I don’t think there is a right or wrong way to respond but I think sometimes we can pack ourselves
With a toolkit of what to do um so again for the museum this all takes place in the impact lab and we really use the acronym um to act um so the first thing you want to do is try and draw attention um what’s happening that might be
Calling your local FBI or police or I’m taking a photo notifying someone telling someone what’s happening um then we always want to make sure that we offer comfort and care that might be to ourselves if it’s happened to us having so much grace to just feel all of your
Feelings because again I cannot imagine but if you see someone else going through something how can you offer them care what do they need in that moment um and then the final part of that acronym is to tell um to make sure that we tell someone an authority figure um someone
Who can help and I think just having these kind of basic core tenants of what we could do um then you can really explore what that looks like for you and every person’s going to react differently I always tell the kids I’m a I’m an extremely shy person
So for me to stand up and say you know hey you know that I don’t like that joke that’s terrible um I’m not going to do that I’m a very shy person but what I do tend to do is I usually have a laptop or books or something with me and I might
Drop it and draw attention to the situation and that sometimes gives me a minute to think um just be like okay what would I like to do next can I make eye contact with someone else in the room how do I take a beat um and then
Move on to the to the comfort and the tell piece just to add to what everyone’s saying that fear and misunderstanding hides in the dark so you have to bring things to light you have to make people aware of what’s going on and I think that well how do we
Do that how do we bring things so by sharing stories like this by um bringing groups to the Holocaust Museum by having your neighbors over for dinner by um doing community outreach and let it be known yes I’m Jewish I’m representing my community Mike if I can so several years
Ago Nicholas profit kicked in the door of the Islamic Center in Cape Gerardo poured acceler Rent All Over the inside of the mosque and lit it on fire and unbeknownst to him there were several residential apartments for rent there and there were numerous families living there at the time fortunately all
Of them escaped um unfortunately the Islamic Center was destroyed and this was a violent attack against a religion of Peace rooted in misunderstanding sounds very early similar to what we’re talking about today in a in a different Faith uh the same is true on race-based crimes or on gender orientation or um
Gender gender orientation sexual orientation based crimes this is a misunderstanding that drives violent action and so together we can have one much louder voice and I think the other part of telling is that there is a great deal of healing that goes into telling and there’s a great deal of support that
Comes from talking about an experience the Islamic Center received hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of donations to rebuild their Center um far larger than the number of constituents they have in the Islamic Center so I think that just goes to show the vast majority of people
Do not support you know hate driven on misunderstanding we all want the same things in life when it comes to hate we all wonder if we can make a difference well in The Darkest Hours of History one man emerged from the shadows as a Beacon of Hope it’s a remarkable story that has
A St Louis connection and changed countless lives forever in the heart of Budapest Where the danu River Winds through a city steeped in history a travel group from St Louis recently took an immersive journey into a solemn past there no con they followed in the footsteps of a man
Whose Legacy still Echoes today he was a very ordinary man who really looked at a situation and and step by step made choices that change lives his name was Carl loots and to Fathom his significance We Begin by retracing a path that started in a Swiss Village and Carries us across continents
When the young man wanted to see America and so we came here not knowing a word of English in 1913 ended up spending about 5 years in Granite City lot’s connection with St Louis continued in the 1930s when he went into the Diplomatic service eventually taking on
The mantle of the local Swiss Council his office was 411 nor 7th Street if you know where the old Ambassador Theater was he was in the offices above the theater and he actually lived in the old Statler hotel which was right around the corner his next assignment as a diplomat
Was in Palestine then a British territory he was there in 1939 when Germany’s invasion of Poland ignited the second world war Carl loots was tasked as a Swiss Diplomat to negotiate the release of about 2500 or so German people from Palestine back to Germany he also assumed the duty of aiding German
Jews who feared returning to their home country so at this point Carl loots is introduced to something called shutz passes or protective papers they were produced by the British and they gave their holders Exile in Palestine by 1942 lot’s assignment led him to Budapest where he confronted the harrowing reality of the Holocaust bearing witness to the mass deportation of hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews to concentration camps but the biggest thing he does is he remembers these protective papers these shutz passes that he had been
Introduced to in Palestine those who possessed them found themselves embraced by the umbrella of Swiss diplomatic protection loots dispersed these crucial documents throughout the city a Prelude to designating 76 buildings for Swiss diplomatic safeguarding Within These Havens he provided refuge for thousands of Hungarian Jews there’s a lot of
Different numbers and we’re still working on the the final but what we say is Carl loots is responsible for the largest diplomatic rescue mission of the entire Holocaust and rescued several tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews during his time there back in Budapest the St Louis Travelers visited The Glass House
Memorial Museum a sacred site commemorating lot’s actions this is where loots began arranging false papers and safe houses sadly Switzerland refused to acknowledge L’s rescue efforts officially until 1995 20 years after his death he explained his actions in a letter as a devout Christian he expressed that
Saving condemned lives was a matter of conscience he might seem like you know a hero or this you know how could I possibly do that but I think that Carl loots would probably say the same he say how could I do that from St Louis to Budapest Carl lot’s Legacy transcends
Time and so the message I take from it is you don’t need to be incredibly powerful you don’t need to have any sort of position or Talent OR skill to do the right thing anyone can do the right thing regardless of who you are an ordin individual rising to be an extraordinary
Beacon of Hope and Compassion you can’t be scared you have to think of only one thing Staying Alive a powerful Story of Survival and how it will live on for generations to Come we’d like to thank the sponsors of this program Carol stainer Michael stanberg and the St Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum so if there is a message for the people who are watching today um this special is about anti-Semitism and and how we can find solutions to it and and I’m wondering what what do you think the most important message that that that people should understand from this
Discussion Rabbi um I don’t if it’s the most important but I think it’s important to the audience who’s not Jewish um learn engage create those relationships and to the Jewish audience I think it’s be proud be strong um and just be confident in your jewishness and when you see something
Say something do something about it um and between both of those things I think a lot of this hate will dissipate it will it will never disappear it’s actually it’s interesting before our peoplehood there was already this hate before the Jewish people became the Jewish people um in the Bible um we are
Told Esau hated Jacob and it’s it’s just there it’s it’s it’s it’s it’s out there and we got to deal with it it’s it’s never going to go away come to the museum um expect well I’m happy to plug the museum um expect to feel uncomfortable that’s okay um expect to
Learn a lot about the Survivor community and that that’s enormous because there were survivors and there are generations of survivors many of whom now because this Museum refreshed itself um are coming forward in ways that they used to not it’s a big deal you were telling me
You you discovered after you opened the museum many more Survivor descendants yeah which is wonderful I mean we are um we have a running list of people that we need to add to our digital Memorial so um yes our survivor Community is large and vibrant um we’re delighted to be
Able to welcome those families in yeah talk about people who have confidence now because this institution gives them a platform from which to teach others your advice from from law enforcement’s point of view sure again every situation is different so uh my advice to people would be trust your gut if your gut
Tells you your best course of action is to just stay silent and let a situation pass you by that’s probably right if you feel like you need to step up and do something or you need to act then act with authority act with confidence um but what I would generally say is don’t
Suffer in silence the only way you’re going to get help is if you let somebody know what’s happening so get yourself to a safe place and then alert law enforcement so that we can come and physically secure the area and then we can figure out what exactly has happened
But it’s always better to let people know what you’re experiencing as a young person what would you say to younger people about about anti-Semitism first of all Jewish students who are younger they’re going to know what anti-Semitism is because they’re going to experience it it’s not necessarily something that
You need to inform them that it happens because from incredibly young ages they’re going to be made to feel different by their non-jewish peers and a lot of that is pure childhood ignorance um but I think there’s also a lot of those sort of psychological belongingness needs when you’re very
Young and um so a lot of the times young kids are less inclined to stand up against the hate that they’re experiencing for fear of feeling othered and um kind of furthering that hate but so I think if I were to talk to some younger kids I would say Don’t Let It Go
Un addressed don’t be afraid to say hey that hurts my feelings um and to start that educational process because when it goes unaddressed it just snowballs and becomes worse later um and so being able to speak up stand up for themselves don’t be afraid to stand out um in
Addressing that anti-Semitism would be the advice I’d give years ago little ones were not part of this conf ation whether it’s advances in education social media access to more information generally little ones are in it and we used to say oh you wouldn’t bring a child less than what 12 because they
Wouldn’t have the sophistication to understand what’s going on now they do and so even little ones and you’re right little ones are going to experience anti-Semitism they are they’re going to understand that other piece so what are the tools we have to equip them with being able to stand up and say that
That’s not right for me let’s talk about this I mean I would say too difference is an opportunity not a threat we’re all I was just looking there’s not a single shade of hair that’s the same there’s a like everything difference is an opportunity it’s not a threat we want to
Leave you tonight with an astonishing story a bracelet has been Unearthed in Germany and brought to St Louis 77 years after it was made by a young teenager that teenager made a difference as an adult just by telling a story and and he’s still speaking to us years after he
Died if we can get everybody to please take a seat we’ll go ahead and start at the St Louis Holocaust Museum history is never forgotten today is the perfect day for this important ceremony and on this day a reminder why it’s important to remember it is an honor to be here the
Museum is getting a new artifact a gift from a man who died more than 5 years ago but whose memory will never be buried he was quite a char my father had an uncanny ability to connect with people I hope that nobody that lives would ever experience Ben
Fainer was a survivor of the Holocaust and one of the Museum’s most beloved ambassadors years after he had passed away visitors were coming and saying is is Ben still here it was very very very tough he’d often turned the pages of his life story to educate school children
Church groups even members of the military there was over 300,000 Jews killed in bad alone he was one of those people who could shine a light God bless you you’re too God bless even after knowing Darkness fainer was just nine when the Nazis separated him from his family over
The next 5 years he was moved to five different death camps he once told us it would be like marching from one hell to another you can’t be scared you have to think of only one thing Staying Alive of 260 relatives in the fainer family Ben and his father were among
Only six who survived for years he filed away the pain in the cellar of his mind but a few years before his death in 2016 he let it all out in a book called Silent for 60 years once he started speaking it was so healing for him to
Share his story and to be um embraced by people and now his story has another chapter not too long ago after receiving a stunning email his daughter made a trip to Germany on the grounds of booken Wald a concentration camp from 1937 to 1945 researchers Unearthed an extraordinary rare
Artifact a bracelet made by Ben fainer what has my father’s name is in the center and man is his mother’s family name my father carried his mother’s family name at that time it is believed that Ben made the bracelet while working at a Nazi locksmith shop and was likely
Discarded when it was discovered upon his arrival at booken Wald on the left side of the bracelet the number 178 873 the same number the Na’s tattooed on Ben fenner’s arm here as a 14-year-old child what he had been through it’s who I am what they’ve done to me the tattoo
The year that it happened I mean it’s his identity in this in this piece of metal his Spirit his soul will remain here forever back at the Museum which recently underwent a $21 million expansion ever so slightly could you just tilt your hand this new artifact gifted by the fainer family will be
Displayed in a place of prominence we have artifacts in the museum that really touch the hearted child shoe a food bowl an ID bracelet a uniform but they’re not really associated with individuals necessarily I think it’s it’s going to be very powerful and very moving the Holocaust was a failure of humanity but
Ben fainer was a Triumph of the human spirit this is his story and it needs to continue to be told and this is how it will continue for Generations after a journey of more than 75 years and 4600 miles some sacred history has finally come home I think
It’s going to mean a great deal and there you have it another program in our Series race listen learn live if you’d like to learn more we would suggest you come here to the St Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum truly one of the finest in the country
Thanks for joining us let’s be kind to one Another
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