At 12:15 I met up with my group and we prepared for the interview which after some technical issues started. Unfortunately, since he is 92 years old some knowledge was lost though he still said some very eye opening points about the holocaust. After we asked about his experience he told us he was in two concentration camps and before that his mother worked in a library while his father was in a labor camp and once he met back up with his father they lived in hungary until 1956 and that’s when hungarian revolts sprung up about the russian rule which was horrid. This meant that right after the Holocaust these people had to live off rations. All because a leader thousands of miles away decreed it. During this revolution they escaped to Vienna and shortly after in 1959 he got a visa and came to the US. During the time he was in a concentration camp he remembers the routine which was roll calls, in the rain, in the snow and in the sunshine. He remembers standing outside the barracks until noon. He told us that if we just talk about what happened then some people would listen. Lastly, he told us that he doesn’t think his life would’ve changed much if the holocaust hadn’t happened, meaning he would still be the same person and Russia and the US would still cause war and strife all throughout the world.

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At 1:45 we met with Tanya Gersh who is a real estate agent. At first we asked for a quick summary of her experience. She said she was a victim of a troll storm. A troll strom is when someone like Andrew Anglin gets your information and gives it to a bunch of hate filled people and primes them to harass you. For example they would find every website about you and leave bad reviews and destroy your online life. This caused people who didn’t even know Tanya to think she was bad at her job and an overall bad person. Eventually, there was a march set in her hometown of whitefish montana ending at her house filled with antisemitic people. Though later Tanya told us that these people are cowards having liked the feeling of power over the computer but would never dare go to her in person. She also told us about how things are changing though our perceptions of these people are not. For example, I usually think of antisemitic people as stupid and kind of like a redneck but instead they are taking perfectly fine college students who are smart and educated then indoctrinating them against Jewish people. Then we talked about her reactions which were fear and horror and shattered her entire world view. Which was very closely tied to the show Glee, where a very diverse community celebrated their differences this also made her think Americans had basically overcome adversity and Hate violence. Her children felt the same but were also unsure of whether they were on the right side. After the Judge ruled in her favor though she was reassured that the precedent was out and the judge showed how we won’t put up with these people and we will hold them accountable. After she told us how we could make a difference by being loud and proud showing the best possible image of ourselves combating these harmful stereotypes.

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At 2:15pm we left class and prepared ourselves for the interview. At 2:30pm we joined the zoom though we had a tech issue so really we joined at 2:38pm. Dante formally excused our tardiness and Shaffer asked the first question which was, “Can you tell us why you decided to join the ADL and why you’ve stayed there?” Scott explained that in law school he worked mostly on civil rights issues which lead to organizations like the ADL but he wanted something more hands-on. Before he joined ADL he worked to rebuild and reconnect the Jewish community because the iron curtain was falling. During this he helped holocaust survivors. Also, this showed me a new perspective about the cold war. Though he helps all minorities rather than just Jewish people. He also told us more about how his kids are dealing and learning about things he never had to do such as antisemitism which shows just how big and fast it grew. The main reason antisemitism has risen so fast is mostly because of social media. We see that in 2017 there were only 12 examples of antisemitism in NJ compared to 179 incidents in 2020. Also, New York has the highest number of antisemitic incidents. Though there is a general rise in hate against the minorities all around the US and there are a few reasons for this. One is because of social media which helps unite hate filled people and turn people against their fellow humans. This is in large contrast to the past where if you wanted your message to be out in the world you would have to go to a radio station or a newspaper publisher and ask for them to input your message but that would entail bad publicity so that rarely happening but now you can easily go to a media app and post virtually whatever you want. Another reason is because of polarization which has made the other side unable to listen to us. Also, it gives people a reason to cover up their side’s thoughts in order to spread their ideology. Lastly it shows how only people on the left can control people on the left and vice versa for the right and we have been forcing them in the middle giving no one control over them.

We can see very clearly that ignorance has spread all throughout the US. It shows most commonly in seven widespread misconceptions about Jewish people. These are: Jewish people are in control. They are associated with money. They are only loyal to Israel. They give Jewish people perks and are special compared to non-Jewish people. Jewish people are responsible for the killing of Christ though recently the pope rebuked this conception as not true. That the holocaust wasn’t real! Lastly, there is anti israelism.

I was personally shocked to see how bad things really are in the US for minorities and how it is most likely going to get a lot worse very fast. Unfortunately, this also clearly shows the major flaws with democracy and freedom. What was most surprising to me was that New York has the highest number of antisemitic incidents because I always thought this was one of the safest places for Jewish because there were so many in New York but now I see that that made them a bigger target.

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We met up with our teacher Jacob Farkas in the lobby of our school at 1:15pm. After that, we went to the Jewish Heritage Museum. Once we got there we went to the Exhibition called: The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do. When we first went into the exhibition there were photos everywhere of just regular people just like everyone else. This was done to connect us to the culture and make it feel all the more real. Next, we saw an overview. We saw a quick history of antisemitism going back thousands of years, next. Then, we got associated with Judaism. After that it talked about concentration camps and execution sites. We spent around 1 hour on the first floor and so we had to pick up the pace throughout the rest of the museum. On the second floor it talked more about the holocaust but focused more on individual stories, atrocities and resistance. I especially remember listening to a survivor talk about his experience seeing a dead boy inside a basket of laundry. On the last floor we saw a documentary about a photographer taking 75 pictures of holocaust survivors for the 75th anniversary of the Auschwitz liberation and behind us was a room filled with the pictures of them. Through this experience I learned that antisemitism has been prevalent throughout the history of the entire world. I also learned that there has been activists counteracting this throughout everyone’s history.

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