How to respond to the cacophony of hateful statements, tweets and posts.

If a pandemic wasn’t bad enough, it has been joined by a cacophony of hateful statements, diatribes, posts, tweets and more with vile racial remarks and Anti -Semitic tropes. Fortunately when exposed, there has been an outpouring of negative responses for the perpetrators and support for the targeted communities. When confronted, some of the perpetrators have said that they just didn’t know or understand the hatefulness or misinformation behind their words and when provided with the facts have agreed that their statements were hurtful and wrong. Whether we believe some or all of these people who have been correctly taken to task for their comments is less important than the need to reinforce the importance of our mission to educate people, especially students about how unbridled hatred can have devastating consequences. To paraphrase the Talmud, just because you cannot complete a task does not absolve you of the responsibility of beginning it. Fortunately you don’t have to “begin” it, you can join with us as we continue the educational mission the Holocaust Awareness Museum and Education Center has been engaged in for almost 60 years. Somewhere, our founders Yaakov and Sheila Riz and our many Survivors and Liberators who are no longer with us are watching with pride as we continue their work to be upstanders not bystanders in the fight against racial and religious bigotry. While we can likely never convince dedicated followers of the David Dukes and Louis Farrakhans, we CAN prevent thousands from potentially joining their ranks by providing the unvarnished testimony of our hero Survivors and Liberators to as many young people as possible. Please continue your support, or join our increasingly important mission by volunteering to help us with your time, your financial support or both. Chuck Feldman President, HAMEC