When I pulled into our synagogue’s parking lot for morning Minyan today, I saw Bill, the congregation’s Custodian, Chief Cook and Bottle Washer, and General Factotum, on his hands and knees in the parking lot, spraying the asphaltum with black spray paint.
“Huh? Wha’?” thought I to myself.
But when I got out of the car, I could see what he was doing. He was attempting to cover up some swastikas that had been spray-painted on the asphalt during the night.
Fortunately, the momzers that left their Stupid-Ass Greeting Card did not deface the building. Perhaps that will come later.
The Rabbi was pretty complacent about the whole thing, apparently because the building itself was not targeted. But we insisted that the police be called - not so much because they will be able to catch the perpetrators, but because they need to know it happened. And they would be the ones to know whether this was a solitary act or part of a larger pattern...a pattern that would be undetectable if individual desecrations were unreported.
So, who did it? A couple of asshole teenagers? That’d be my guess. These morons barely knew how to draw a proper swastika, fer cryin’ out loud.
Were they just having Idiot Fun? Or were they really trying to insult, intimidate, or threaten us? For few graphic symbols pack the visceral wallop of the swastika. It’s the icon of the Nazis, for whom the destruction of all Jews was a matter of official policy, a policy that was acted upon to horrific effect. By rights, the sight of a swastika should send us into a vengeful rage that would make the Danish Mohammed cartoon jihad look like a game of pattycake. But that’s not what we do.
We’re Jews. After a few thousand years, we’re used to the occasional gratuitous insult.
No, we won’t be rioting in the streets. But we will go on with our lives, saying our daily prayers, and every so often shaking our heads and wondering quietly to ourselves, “Why do they hate us?”
[But just the same, I’d love to find the jackasses responsible. I’d make ’em sit through a few days of Diversity Training, hold their hands and sing Kumbaya...and then break their fucking legs with a Louisville Slugger.]
“Huh? Wha’?” thought I to myself.
But when I got out of the car, I could see what he was doing. He was attempting to cover up some swastikas that had been spray-painted on the asphalt during the night.
Fortunately, the momzers that left their Stupid-Ass Greeting Card did not deface the building. Perhaps that will come later.
The Rabbi was pretty complacent about the whole thing, apparently because the building itself was not targeted. But we insisted that the police be called - not so much because they will be able to catch the perpetrators, but because they need to know it happened. And they would be the ones to know whether this was a solitary act or part of a larger pattern...a pattern that would be undetectable if individual desecrations were unreported.
So, who did it? A couple of asshole teenagers? That’d be my guess. These morons barely knew how to draw a proper swastika, fer cryin’ out loud.
Were they just having Idiot Fun? Or were they really trying to insult, intimidate, or threaten us? For few graphic symbols pack the visceral wallop of the swastika. It’s the icon of the Nazis, for whom the destruction of all Jews was a matter of official policy, a policy that was acted upon to horrific effect. By rights, the sight of a swastika should send us into a vengeful rage that would make the Danish Mohammed cartoon jihad look like a game of pattycake. But that’s not what we do.
We’re Jews. After a few thousand years, we’re used to the occasional gratuitous insult.
No, we won’t be rioting in the streets. But we will go on with our lives, saying our daily prayers, and every so often shaking our heads and wondering quietly to ourselves, “Why do they hate us?”
[But just the same, I’d love to find the jackasses responsible. I’d make ’em sit through a few days of Diversity Training, hold their hands and sing Kumbaya...and then break their fucking legs with a Louisville Slugger.]
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