(Jewish Group) Free Speech is Sacrosanct, But Who Will Protect the Faithful...

[Behind the Aegis]

Free Speech is Sacrosanct, But Who Will Protect the Faithful When Demonization Leads to Terror?

Every Saturday morning, the congregants of Beth Israel synagogue in Ann Arbor, Mich. are met by antisemitic protesters. Against the backdrop of history, it is almost beyond belief that lawyers have to go to the U.S. Supreme Court in a last-ditch attempt to gain relief and enforce safety at the entrance of their house of worship.

Anti-Jewish violence at synagogues began in Germany, not on the infamous Kristallnacht night of Nov. 8, 1938, but in 1930, with the rise of Adolf Hitler. For a while, its significance was minimized by Jews. But as history unfolded, abusing Jews by word, as well as deed, at their synagogues was the beginning of the road to genocide.

Jew-haters over the decades, foreign and domestic, took their cues from Nazi Germany. They have understood that the best way to strike a powerful blow against Jews was by attacking their houses of prayer.

In the 1980s, grenade throwing machine-gunning Palestinian terrorists murdered a 2-year-old boy and wounded other Jews during Sabbath services inside Rome's historic synagogue, which stands less than a mile from the Vatican. Two years earlier, Paris' Rue Copernic Synagogue was the target of terrorists—leaving four dead and 46 wounded. The murderous list—too long to enumerate—spanning decades, stretches from Istanbul to Mumbai, from Djerba, Tunisia to Pittsburgh, Pa. from Halle, Germany to Poway, Calif.

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