Anti-Semitism thrives in the US. Sometimes it results in synagogue massacres. Sometimes it results in synagogue kidnappings. But most Jews will experience anti-Semitism In the form of harassment and insults. Last Friday, in front of the Kehal Tiferes Avrohom Ziditshov Orthodox synagogue in Marine Park, Brooklyn, a woman approached three children, one of them 8-years-old, and yelled anti-Semitic remarks at them before spitting on them.
During her tirade, this miserable woman told the children, “Hitler should have killed you all.” Adding, “We will kill you all. I know where you live, and we'll make sure to get you all next time."
Fortunately, there were very clear CCTV stills of the woman. And today, she was arrested and charged with aggravated harassment and menacing - both hate crimes - and acting in a manner injurious to a child.
The police identified the bigoted bully as 21-year-old Christina Darling. She is a local resident who attends Saint Francis College, a small Catholic liberal arts school in the neighborhood.
Her anti-Semitism has deep roots, and the suspect is a known racist. Her mother, Michelle Darling, said her daughter “has mental problems” - which is no excuse. Also, I would be interested to know if the mother had ever done anything to address her daughter’s mental needs. And no mention is made of any empathy for the victims.
Far from it. Michelle’s concern is only for herself as she complained, “There’s supposed to be a rally outside my house now.” She also whined that the commotion would be too much for her elderly father, who she cares for at home. “I can’t have that. My father will end up having a heart attack.”
It gets worse. The mother also told the New York Post, “She needs to get help. It’s not like she hates Jews.” Which is deluded, as her daughter was a well-known anti-Semite. According to her ex-boyfriend Shayne Yorrick, “I know she had a thing against Hasidic Jews, but I never knew it was this severe. She would bad-mouth and talk down on them. She said they were annoying, that they don’t deserve to be around and should all go back to Israel – things along those lines.”
How often do we have to hear racists tell the object of their racism “to go back to” somewhere? Unless the racist is Native American, their family also came from somewhere else. And in the case of Hasidic Jews, telling them to go back to Israel shows notable ignorance. Hasidism arose in Ukraine and spread to Eastern Europe before coming to the US. It would be like a Jewish-American telling an Irish-American to go back to Brazil because they both have something to do with Catholicism.
Conservatives like to point the finger at atheists when talking about religious intolerance. But the reality is that the worst religious intolerance is that of one religion for another. I am sure that Saint Francis College thinks it is working to produce socially aware and compassionate graduates. But all religions need to spend a lot more time figuring out how to teach their adherents to be decent human beings.