[Op-Ed in The Hill by Saralyn Mark, M.D.]
Driving by mosques and synagogues, protected by police cars parked in front of their entrances over the past month, I was reminded that there is a mezuzah on the door frame of my home. A mezuzah is a small decorative case that holds a prayer and placing it on doorposts has been a proud Jewish tradition for thousands of years.
But now I was wondering if it was visible to anyone standing on my porch. I couldn’t believe that these thoughts crossed my mind.
Antisemitism has increasingly been on the rise over the past few years with the Anti-Defamation League recording an over 316 percent increase over the past year.
[The Op-ed continues]
It’s like an indolent cancer that erodes through our social norms, metastasizing into our consciousness, obliterating what unites us as human beings. It grows on misinformation, disinformation and propaganda. It feeds on the souls of the uneducated and the disenfranchised who shout out answers to questions and situations that conveniently fit into slogans and chants. But these are not benign words. Just the opposite — they accelerate malignant intentions to harm and kill
[The Op-ed concludes]
A war against terrorism and antisemitism is much like a war against cancer. It needs to be fully detected and removed. We always try to use scalpel precision to protect surrounding tissue, but sometimes, it can only be done with debulking and other extreme measures. People may suffer from some collateral injury and scarring, but many lives are eventually saved.
View of Dr. Marks' Op-Ed in The Hill