When Hate Speech Masquerades as Free Speech on the Salem Common

Last month, the city of Salem turned a blind eye to an organized two day hate fest against the Jewish people— featuring, libelous, and factually baseless retrofits of medieval blood libel tropes. The Salem Police dept under the responsible leadership of Chief Lucas Miller, who was personally on hand, did an impeccable job of ensuring order. However, given the highly charged political and social upheaval we are facing in this country, I ask the Mayor of Salem; Did it occur to you that allowing two days of this on city property might pose a genuine security threat to Jewish people in Salem proper and across the North Shore?

Would you allow a similar orgy of bigotry to proceed in the name of free speech targeting members of the LGBQT, or African American community? And if a trans person was subsequently attacked and seriously wounded G-d forbid, would there not have been a subsequent planet of regret about all the ways that could have been avoided? Or would you have stood your ground and refused to allow hate speech masquerading as free speech to prevail in Salem, the city whose very name is a statement of Abhorence to discord between people.

We came out then, and yesterday as well, to make that point. We did so peacefully and without resorting to dangerous rhetoric. The value of free speech is one which is deeply cherished by the Jewish People, especially engrained in our collective psyche given our history. At its core it is an indispensable feature of the experience of freedom itself. But it turns against itself, and curtails that very freedom it was meant to uphold if it lends itself to a systemic demonization of an entire people within society.

Given, the critical identifier of hate speech, namely the intention (whether overtly stated or not) to libel and subsequently incite violence against a specific people—none of what was allowed falls under the protection of the First Amendment. We stood yesterday in Solidarity with Israel, and the Jewish nation that is inseparable from it. We gathered together as a reminder that the resurgence of Medieval hatred tropes is a win only for the soul crushing milieu of Medievalism itself.

A point well taken given the history of Salem and its witch trials. We gathered to express our condemnation of a global surge in Antisemitism —directly related to the prevalence of these accusations. Finally, we are not only a proud and unbowed Jewish Community, we are also proud Americans that love our country; and so we stood in solidarity with our country, besieged from within and without by those who would seek the destruction of our way of life, in the "land that we love" along with its most cherished values.

Much Love

Rabbi Yossi