Blog

No Place for Hate

April 24th, 2023 by Kenneth Abrahams

It was a simple email with the best of intentions. One of the people that I work with sent me a link to a video and article discussing New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s Foundations new campaign to stop the spread of Anti-Semitism. https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/robert-krafts-foundation-to-combat-antisemitism-blue-square-campaign/. He, like many others, is concerned with the sharp increase of hate crimes against Jewish people in this country and around the world over the last 5 years. Kraft’s Foundation is putting 25 million dollars into the #StandUpToJewishHate campaign. People can show their support by sharing on social media and adding a small blue square to their posts. In the email the question was posed whether we should show our support by adding the blue square and the hash tag to some of our posts as well.

Despite not expressing it to the individual that sent the email, I was touched. You may not know but I am Jewish. It is a piece of my heritage that I am proud of but not anything that I write about frequently. Like Robert Kraft, I am concerned about the rise in Anti-Semitic acts worldwide. Not just anti-Semitism but hate against so many specific groups is rising to all-time high levels. People have been, and continue to be, persecuted because of their religion, place of birth, color of their skin, accent, sexual orientation, or gender identity. This is a fight that I have a dog in or something that I have skin in the game on. Growing up in South Bend Indiana, what I experienced were questions based more on ignorance than hate. Being one of the few Jewish families in our neighborhood and school, people would ask why I got to “skip” school on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. More than once, I was asked about why “my people” had killed Christ or why didn’t we have a Christmas tree. Never was I physically assaulted because of my faith. We never had to wash off or paint over graffiti on our house, sidewalks, or cars. In other words, I have never encountered many of the heinous acts that other people of my faith have.

It would have been easy to respond with a thumbs up to that email and create or share posts in support of Kraft’s Foundation, but it didn’t feel right. We have posted about the holidays of a few different groups, and we will continue to do that. In fact, the discussion that we had around this topic has encouraged us to expand those postings and include more groups. In the past we haven’t publicly supported specific groups or campaigns like #MeToo, Black Lives Matter or Stop Asian Hate. It isn’t that we don’t support the causes we just haven’t actively posted about them as a company and now is not the time to start.

These are troubling times that we live in. Recently, I got an email from the Congressperson that represents the district that I live in. We are in early April and (according to this newsletter) the school shooting in Nashville was the 130th mass shooting of the year. Even if the figures are off by 10 or 20%, that is just too many people that died way to soon. In Nashville 3 of the victims were 9 years old. Kids with a lifetime ahead of them and they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. In a word, it is heartbreaking.

Why do we still need signs in peoples’ yards, bumper stickers on their cars, or placards in their offices proclaiming that these are safe spaces for all races, religions, sexual orientations, and genders? Every day when I wake up, I have enough to do just to keep up with my job and family responsibilities, the thought of wasting time or expending emotional energy hating other people for their beliefs seems ludicrous to me. Keeping myself on track is a full-time job. How do people have the time to dictate to others who they should love or marry, what God they should believe in or pray to?

Recently, we were lucky enough to welcome our first grandchild into this world. Perhaps it is my age showing through, but I truly believe that the world I was born into was a simpler place. It was far from a perfect world or country, but things seemed less complicated. There has been hate in this world since the beginning of time, I acknowledge and understand that. Maybe having the hatred of today that is out front and on display is better than those same feelings operating in the shadows. At times, it feels overwhelming and fills me with sadness. Hopefully, younger, more accepting generations will be able to change the trajectory that we are on.

This spring, as I have done in the past, I was helping a school by doing mock interviews for some of their juniors and seniors. One student that I met with had a very clear path that they wanted to follow post-graduation. They simply wanted to make the world a better place. They didn’t have much of a plan in place, but you know that didn’t really matter. Their enthusiasm and passion led me to believe they would accomplish their mission. Imagine if more of us had a goal to just make the world a better place, what we could accomplish.

It was a simple email that was sent out of kindness and support. As an organization, we try to be good citizens by working with clients, friends, and family to support causes and organizations that, we believe, make our communities better for all, but have we done enough? It is doubtful there is an easy answer to that question. We can always do more, contribute more, show more public support, be more involved in our communities. We can quite simply treat one another better with more kindness, respect, and dignity. As my mom always said, if we are not part of the solution, we are part of the problem.

About the author

Ken Abrahams was born and raised in South Bend Indiana and as some of his friends say, he is just a hick from the Midwest. He is the 3rd of 4 children and the first male. He is a much better cook than he is a golfer and hopes to be a good grandfather to his new grandson.

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