Editorial in Times of Israel

On Rising White Supremacism

Sometimesyou have to stand up and speak out. Even when it's against the current. Evenwhen there may be a personal cost. Even when those around you try and convinceyou to mind your own business. Simon Wiesenthal himself urged us to never besilent and always pursue the path of justice. 

The world is complicated. Sometimes knowing right from wrong iseven more complicated. But hate is hate and it should be condemnedunconditionally. If more people stood up and spoke out against the Nazis in1933, the Holocaust might have been averted. 

It hasbeen a very difficult and emotionally charged week. Unbelievably, PresidentDonald Trump tried to draw a moral equivalence between the Nazi whitesupremacists and the counter-protesters in Charlottesville, blaming bothsides for the mayhem. And while he condemned the Nazi white supremacists, heseemed to also be condemning those who opposed them.

Naturally, this further emboldened white supremacists like DavidDuke who tweeted "thank you President Trump for your honesty and courageto tell the truth about Charlottesville and condemn the leftistterrorists."

To be clear, white supremacism is a belief that white people aresuperior to all other races, especially Jews and Africans, and should thereforedominate society. They believe that humanity has a racial hierarchy where white(Europeans especially) are at the top. This racist doctrine is also associatedwith German Nazi ideology of the Aryan Master Race which graded Aryans frompure Aryans to non-Aryans. One senior Nazi commander commented in 1943: "We are a master race, which must remember that thelowliest German worker is racially and biologically a thousand times morevaluable than the population here."    

White supremacism reinforced by Nazi genocidal agenda must bevigorously denounced and impaired. It was white supremacism that led to slaveryin America and to the Holocaust in Europe, and from this there are majorlessons to be drawn. We can never ever mind our own business or stay silent.Watching the white supremacists marching unabashedly on the streets ofCharlottesville, torches and racist flags in hand, shouting "Jews will notreplace us" reinforced my resolve that we must strengthen our obsession toeducate and counter hate and intolerance. 

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The world is interconnected and ideology sees no borders. On theheels of Charlottesville came an announcement of a National Front rally to beheld in Toronto (now cancelled because of public pressure). At the same timereports from all over the country began to pour. In Winnipeg more racistgraffiti was found, including statements like "The KKK is Here" and"Lost White Civilizations." Worse, a Calgary school trustee (avisible minority) was threatened that she would be "lying dead on thestreet" like the Charlottesville protester. According to reports, aFacebook "post threatened that the neo-Nazi Aryan Guard group,which has been active in Calgary in the past, would find out where shelives, telling her to 'beware.'"  

And in a Collingwood East Vancouver suburb, flyers weredistributed to homes yesterday with a picture of Hitler and the Nazi Eagle. Theheadline on the vile flyer read, "The World Defeated the WrongEnemy."

Nothing can pass us by. When wespoke about Never Again - we meant that we would make it our business and takea stand no matter the discomfort. Pushing hate back into its dark hole -including incidents liken the vile terrorism that took place in Barcelonayesterday - should be atop of humanity's agenda. It is the number one issuethat can disrupt and destroy civilization as we know it - and therefore, eachof us has a responsibility to act. 

SimonWiesenthal said, "Freedom is not a gift from heaven, you must fight for iteach and every day of your life." There are people working in the shadowsto take away our freedoms - and terrorize us. We must stand up to them, now ornever.