Anti-Semitism is an ‘our’ problem

An emotional story, common sense advice and education were weaved together in an effort to understand how anti-Semitism occurs and what could be done to block its growth during a panel discussion at the Bayswater Jewish Center in Far Rockaway on March 5.

Roughly 40 people attended the Rockaway Town Hall for Action: Decreasing Hate & Anti-Semitism, as Holocaust survivor Mark Schonwetter recalled how his family at the beginning of German occupation of Poland in 1939, mother, Sala, in her early 30s, Schonwetter (then known as Manek) at 6 and his sister, Zosia, 2, began a nearly six-year odyssey of hiding from the Nazis until Poland was liberated in early 1945.

Schonwetter, along with his daughters Ann Arnold and Isabella Fiske, established the Mark Schonwetter Holocaust Education Foundation, a Livingston, New Jersey-based organization with the goal of raising money to help schools apply for grants to assist them in buying materials and funding programs to enhance a Holocaust curriculum.

“My sister, me and my mother survived the Holocaust,” Schonwetter said after recalling that his family moved from different homes several times, mostly in the winter, and lived in the forest during the warmer weather. “I made sure that my two daughters knew the story of our survival.”

The audience was astounded by Schonwetter’s story of living under a floorboard that had hay and pigs on top, learning how to pray while in the home of Christians and having to eat mushrooms and berries in the forest. “I started to speak to kids in high schools, then private schools,” he said, “so people will remember what was happening in that time of history.”

Only a dozen states mandate Holocaust education. State Sen. Joseph Addabo and State Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato, Democrats who represent the Rockaway area, noted that they are sponsoring the proposed Hate Education Bill that seeks to make learning about the noose and swastika compulsory for state public school students in grades six through 12. “No hate is accepted in this community, period,” Amato said, noting the incident last summer when a swastika was drawn at Silver Gull Beach Club in Breezy Point.

Arnold wrote “Together: A Journey for Survival” a book published in 2016 documenting her family’s story. “I grew up cynical,” she said, “the children of Holocaust survivors have more hatred that the first generation who have more forgiveness. But there are really good people in his world.”

She think that education is needed to help forestall the spread of anti-Semitism. “It’s not a Jewish problem or a black problem, It’s an our problem. We visited fifth-graders in Newark and the black kids didn’t think there was violence against white people. We told them that Jesse Owens couldn’t shake Hitler’s hand because he was black. We have to connect with people.”

Anti-Semitism has risen on college campuses in the past 20 years because of the Palestinian uprisings against Israel, said Carly Korman, the national campus outreach coordinator for the Simon Wiesenthal Center. She noted several incidents of universities allowing the rhetoric to become too hot and Jewish students needing to fight back. “The universities are doing a terrible job of calling out anti-Semitism,” Korman said, noting the number of pending lawsuits. 

If a victim or a witness of a hate crime, preserve the evidence and call the police, Queens ADA Mark Rovner said.