Part Two: Storied Conversation: Two Jewish Girls

Here is part two of Meira and I's conversation about antisemitism and other issues in America. Note that this conversation took place before the election.

Sophia F. We started this conversation talking about antisemitism, and it became a conversation about all social issues, and I think that's so important because anti-semitism is very intertwined with other issues. Every little bit of hate is just another obstacle to having a civil society.

You see all the posts where it's like, “Love don't hate” and I think people sometimes find that so cliche, but it's really true. Why do we allow so much hate in our hearts and allow people to express that hate to one another? We're all human. No one deserves to be told that they are worthless because of their skin color, their beliefs, or whatever it may be.

It's no longer just politics, with this election, it's not just a conversation of “well, who do you like more?” It's a conversation of who is going to help keep my rights– human rights that I deserve. I was genuinely terrified when I heard RBG passed away. I was terrified of what this could mean for America and women in America. It's so scary that people's rights rely on one person. How did we allow this to happen? I feel like history is repeating itself. Sometimes it’s like one step forward two steps back, especially within our government, I think, you know, there are threats of [taking away] women's rights and women's right to choose and when are we just going to put it to rest and say, "Women deserve to have a say over what they do with their bodies." I think that everything going on in America really opened my eyes to how we have allowed these terrible hateful ideals to be in our political system. It’s scary to think that someone in our leadership, didn’t condemn white supremacist groups who are doing hateful acts towards innocent citizens. And these hate crimes are often not reported.

As a society, we need to learn about each other's experiences because this is happening to people–real people. Families. This is happening to daughters and sons and mothers and fathers. I think we need to realize these are real people, these are human beings who had their lives taken away from them because someone held hate in their heart. We need to address those issues, whether it be, racism, antisemitism, homophobia, Islamophobia, Hispanic phobia, or whatever it may be. We need to educate ourselves, and one another, reach out to people of those groups and learn from their experiences because it may seem like it's so far away but really it's your neighbor [or your best friend] who's going through these experiences. There are people around you that through their daily lives are going through certain experiences just because of their skin color, their heritage, or religion.

We need to respect one another and educate ourselves. And not only through reading books or doing research, but also by learning about people's personal experiences and [learning about those experiences] at a very young age. Learning is so vital to having and developing empathy. I think we truly lack empathy, as a society, and all across the globe. We need to realize that just because I may not be going through a hard time other people may be going through a hard time. I think as a society, we need to have more empathy and realize people are grieving. America is grieving. [We need to] educate ourselves.

Meira C. I would definitely agree with a lot of that, especially with all that you said about empathy. I think from a young age, we're all taught, to some extent, the importance of sympathy. But it was my mom who taught me about empathy and not a teacher. The way she explained empathy to me was that it’s like a mirror, and empathy acts as a mirror between you and someone else and the emotions that they are feeling, based on what happens to them in their daily lives. I thought about that when you were talking and I was thinking like, as a society, we really fail to have empathy for other people.

And, you know, sometimes we have sympathy. I've experienced that. When I talk about homophobia and when I talk about antisemitism I tell people [about] my experience and people say, “Oh, I'm sorry.” Well, that's great that you're sorry but what are you going to do about it? How does that make you feel as a friend of someone who's Jewish as a friend of someone who's part of the LGBTQ+ community? What are you going to do as an ally to make sure that that doesn't happen again? Because ultimately hearing sorry, over and over, you become kind of numb to it. The grief that you suffer from experiencing things like that every day. It just gets to a point where you're like, “I don't really care.” And sometimes I find myself, you know, responding with, “It's fine, I don't care.” But it's not fine and I do care; it hurts my feelings, and it scares me.

My best friend is on a volleyball team, and one of the girls on her volleyball team took her life because she had been bullied because she was part of the LGBTQ+ community and I just thought this is so stupid, this shouldn’t still be happening. I hate the sentence, “took her own life” because she didn't take it from herself, the things that she experienced leading up to that were brought upon her. She didn't bring that on herself. And I hate that people think of it that way. It's a bigger issue than people think and when it comes to a point where people are committing suicide and people are committing these acts of violence and there needs to be more recognition of what's going on and there needs to be more activism and education. And, there can't just be, “sorry” and sympathetic reactions that are like, “Oh it sucks that this happened.” I feel like it doesn't scare people enough until it relates to them–until it somehow affects their lives. And, you know, we really have to have an empathetic mindset going into this. We have to think somebody is losing their experience to have a family. Somebody is losing their experience, to live. And that's the important thing here.

Sophia F. I think there's just a lack of putting people in other people's shoes. It's so stupid that in this election everything is political. Who knew Black Lives Matter, could be a political statement, but it is. It's a political statement. If you really break down the sentence, it says, “lives matter” and then just puts a race in front. That's crazy to me the statement, “Black Lives Matter” is political because it involves race. Also, a woman's right to choose is political. We're just saying that women have the right to do what they want with their bodies. I really think a lot of the issues that are circling the U.S. shouldn't be political, they shouldn't be [controversial] when it's really just a matter of being a decent human being. It begs the question, “Why [do we allow] this? How [can we] keep allowing this?”

I just want people to put themselves in other people's shoes. There are mothers out there that every time their son or daughter leaves the house they are terrified. It is a matter of life or death. Antisemitism is the same way when people go to synagogue. There's fear that we are allowing it to circulate in America and around the globe. We're putting leaders in power that allow that. We need to take a step back and realize, this is America and it is not what it should be during the 21st Century. Globally, I think everyone needs to realize everything that we addressed here is happening to people you know.

Meira C. It's really vital to me that we understand that no one's right to exist, at the very least, should be denied. Nobody's right to exist should be denied and it feels like that when Black Lives Matter becomes a political issue based on whether you are a liberal or a conservative. It's not an issue like that; it's not pizza toppings or ice cream flavors. And, I feel like it's important that black people in America know that their lives should at the very least matter. And it just feels so scary to me that it has become so political and, I've had an acquaintance say to me, “well, you shouldn't end our friendship because we have differentiating opinions” and I said, “we can have different opinions on music and food and style of clothing, but I'm not willing to be friends with someone who doesn't believe in basic human rights.” I think that it's important that we really take that to heart, I'm going to reiterate what you said, we need to be the ones that change this narrative; it's a really detrimental one to our society and to the growth of our nation.