Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 16, 1994 TAG: 9402180030
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Like most who see it, they were shocked and disturbed at the movie's recounting of the oppression of Jews in Hitler's Nazi Germany.
A few hours later, according to Rabbi Jamie Cowen, the synagogue's members were even more shocked and disturbed to learn that their temple had been deliberately set on fire by an arsonist or arsonists unknown.
Damage to the building has been estimated at $22,500.
Who would dare try to estimate the spiritual and moral damage as anti-Semitic acts continue to be perpetrated year after year in Virginia and throughout the country?
It was just about three years ago that Beth Israel Jewish Cemetery in Roanoke was desecrated with hateful, ugly slogans assaulting Jews.
We don't need "Schindler's List" to remind us that we need to remain vigilant against sinister intolerance. We can never complacently assume that our country is immune to the poison that flowed in Germany a half-century ago, that we see flowing today in Bosnia and elsewhere. No nation, no generation is immune.
Perhaps the ages-old prejudice problem will never be banished from the planet. But people of good conscience will recoil with horror to witness it, whether in a movie about a historical event or in today's news. They must stand together and speak out against those who perpetuate bigotry's destructive insanity.
Be their targets Jews, blacks, women, whomever, the bigots must never go unchallenged.
by CNB