Lori Townsend: Recent attacks and negative imagery targeting Jewish people have highlighted the concern over a rise in bigotry in our country.

Unknown: Aparently there is quite a need for improvement in Holocaust education in Alaska.

And I'm just very willing and hopefully able to, to work on that with people.

Lori Townsend: This week marks Holocaust Remembrance Day, a time to reflect on the terrible legacy of antisemitism.

We're examining that legacy and how to combat it right now on Alaska Insight.

Incidents of antisemitism have been on the rise nationally and worldwide.

Here in Alaska, a series of events last year highlighted the need for continued education to combat bigotry.

As Alaska Public Media's Adelyn Baxter reports, the Alaska Jewish Museum sees that as part of its core mission, even as it's been a target.

Unknown: This room we call it the little red room or I call it the little red room ...

In a small building in the center of Anchorage, Curator Leslie Fried documents Jewish life in and outside Alaska.

And I thought, well, what were these people here?

What were they imagining they would find what would they see?

Fried is the only full time staff for the Alaska Jewish Museum, running it since it first opened in 2013.

This is an exhibit about the proposal to to bring Jews from Nazi-controlled countries to the Alaska territory.

Displays include artifacts and photos about early Jewish arrivals in Alaska, and document events like the Alaska Development Plan, a federal study conducted during World War II to explore whether Jewish refugees fleeing Europe could resettle in Alaska.

This plan, the Alaska Development Plan failed, and so this exhibit explores how and why starting with the atmosphere in this country.

The antisemitism, immigration issues.

The museum itself was the target of antisemitic vandalism twice last year.

In May and September, Fried found stickers with swastikas on the outside of the building.

Similar stickers also showed up outside a local bar popular with the LGBTQ+ community.

Very upsetting and shocking, actually, I think I just was paralyzed for a few seconds there before I reacted.

Around the time of the second incident community members opposing COVID-19 Health mandates, or yellow Stars of David to an Anchorage Assembly meeting that drew criticism for likening health measures to the Holocaust.

Controversial comparisons like that have become more common over the course of the pandemic.

Fried says after the museum vandalism, she appreciated the response from the community and her colleagues around the state.

People concerned for me, my safety and my my mental well-being, people writing in.

But also I was just incredibly touched by the response of the Alaska Historical Society, writing a letter in support of this and a denouncement of these kinds of acts.

Fried also received a grant to upgrade the museum's security and took an emergency response course.

She says the pandemic has interrupted many of the trainings and field trips that used to take place regularly at the museum.

She's looking forward to offering more educational events again.

Apparently there is quite a need for improvement in Holocaust education in Alaska.

And I'm just very willing and hopefully able to work on that with people.

One educational event took place recently on the Alaska Jewish Campus.

Rabbi Shalom Greenberg, brother of Anchorage Rabbi and Alaska Jewish Museum President Yosef Greenberg is the chief rabbi of Shanghai, China.

25 years ago, Passover 1998, we told our brother that we considering to go to Shanghai and people looked at us and said, 'What?

There are jewels in China?'

He spoke in person at a public event held at the Lubavitch Jewish Center of Alaska.

We got to Shanghai and they looked at us and said, 'What?

There are Jews in Alaska?'

My underlying message is that the Jewish people today live everywhere, and in different kinds of countries, that different cultures, different societies, different style of governing.

Wherever we live, we have the freedom to live our life according to Jewish law.

And in Jewish tradition.

Due to the pandemic, Greenberg and his family have been unable to return to Shanghai for the past year.

He's using the opportunity to travel and talk to people about his experience in Shanghai, where he says the local community has been extremely welcoming to Jews.

I'm encouraging people to be proud of who they are, to be proud of their heritage to stand strong and not be afraid to say who they are.

Back at the museum, Fried is busy planting new exhibits, in hopes to see the number of visitors pick up again.

She says she misses meeting people from around the world.

There are just a lot of connections between people worldwide and it's that's my favorite part.

In a way of being here, the connections between people.

She plans to keep making those connections in the years to come.

In Anchorage, I'm Adelyn Baxter.

Lori Townsend: Joining me tonight to discuss the work being done to help educate about Jewish culture to promote more respect and less division is Rabbi Abraham Goodstein with a Congregation Beth Sholom in Anchorage and Robin Dern and Alaska member of the Anti-Defamation League's Pacific Northwest advisory board.

Welcome both of you.

Thanks so much for being with me this evening.

Rabbi -- It's great being here.

Thank you, Rabbi, I understand you'd like to go by Rabbi Abram rather than Rabbi Goodstein.

So Rabbi Abram, when you reflect on the story we just saw and the events that have happened recently in Alaska, fortunately, no one was physically harmed, but the swastikas outside the Jewish Museum in Anchorage, and similar hateful graffiti that has shown up more than once in Petersburg.

How do you talk to your synagogue members about this so they feel less afraid?

Unknown: Well, yeah, I mean, fear is the problem.

And it's so unfortunate is that, you know, we often have to tell our children, you have to be brave to be Jewish.

And like, think about how like, difficult that is?

And how hard is it to have that conversation with your children?

You know, when, when the events happened in Colleyville, Texas a couple of weeks ago, I had explained to my five-year-old, like, what was kind of going on, and that's like, a horrible position us Jewish parents have to be in to explain to our children.

But you know, I also don't think it's necessarily all bad, right?

You know, I think that like, it's important that we show our values, it's important that, you know, we, we are brave.

But I feel like you know, other religions don't have to keep their doors locked 24/7.

Every, every sermon I've ever given at my congregation, that door has been locked.

I would love I would love to keep my doors open.

But we can't, we can't.

And but I don't want fear to sort of control what we do.

I'm certainly, security's a valuable, important component for our community.

But we shouldn't let fear make us decided decisions, we shouldn't decide to make our decisions based off our tradition, you know, who we are.

So it's unfortunate that these, these events occur, and, and it's really harmful.

But also, I feel like we shouldn't let that fear affect us and being Jewish.

Lori Townsend: You mentioned earlier that you use sort of a tactic called "counter speech" to combat antisemitism.

Tell us about that.

What does that mean?

Unknown: Yeah, so, so so counter speech, it was actually, it was coined by a Supreme Court Justice, Justice Brandeis, like 1927.

And essentially, it's a it's a First Amendment alternative to censorship.

It's a it's a public rebuke of hateful speech.

So if there is sort of like something hateful that occurs in I would say, the public sphere, I, I counter it with counter speech.

I mean, and often, you have to actually be like, angry with it.

You can be compassionate if you want to.

But essentially, it says, "Hey, like what you said, is hurtful.

And it's not it's not appropriate for the public sphere."

So for example, when the, with those yellow Stars of David, that that you showed that the anti-maskers were using, that was incredibly hurtful for the Jewish community because it really trivializes sort of the experience that many Jews went through in the Holocaust.

And I actually I ended up approaching the Mayor about it.

And instead of being angry and frustrated, which I was when I saw those stars, don't get me wrong, but I got over sort of like those emotions and was able to think to myself, like I want the stars to go away, like what's the best way of doing it?

And I approached the Mayor, and I was like, "Can you help me with this?

I'm, I know that you made that statement.

And I think maybe you didn't mean to make it that way.

And can you apologize and help us take the stars away from the conversation?"

And he said yes, he did apologize, and he did help me remove the yellow Stars of David.

So I used a cos-- I used counter speech as a way to get those yellow Stars of David off of those anti-maskers.

Same thing when a to, a year ago, we discovered there were some license plates that had unfortunate antisemitic rhetoric on them that was very hurtful for our community.

And then unfortunately, an assembly member supported that saying it's the first amendment right.

I countered that right away, I wrote an open letter to an op-ed at ADN, and essentially worked with the Assembly to create a resolution remembering and honoring Holocaust Memorial Day, it actually happened exactly a year ago today, and as a result of that, right?

So I countered that as well.

And I find it to be an effective result to, to when we when we experience anti semitism.

I also believe that education as we're playing out is really important and valuable to just in counter speech is it's good for like the here and now.

But I don't want to use counter speech, right?

I don't want to, I don't want to have like a playbook for when I experienced antisemitism.

I just don't want there to be any antisemitism at all.

So but that's, that's the way it is.

Lori Townsend: It does sound like an effective way of sort of being very definitive and clear that this isn't okay, but still leaving the door open for conversation and for perhaps increase and understanding by not just saying, You're bad go away.

You're saying yeah, hey, here's why this is painful.

Can we try to have better understanding between us?

It sounds like it could be quite effective.

Unknown: I think, I think the value of is that it de-escalates the situation.

That's always what I'm trying to do.

I'm always trying to escalate it.

I'm always trying to say like, let's not let's not ramp things up here.

Let's try and get to a place where we both want to be.

Lori Townsend: Right.

All right, well, Unknown: And that's the value of counter speech for sure.

Lori Townsend: Thank you so much for starting us off there, Rabbi Abram.

Robin, I want to turn to you now you testified on the hate crimes bill that Anchorage Democrat Rep. Josephson, Andy Josephson sponsored.

Tell us about your testimony and a little bit about your thoughts on this bill.

Unknown: The staff of the ADL Pacific Northwest came to me and asked if I would speak on behalf of Alaskans, and I talked to them a lot about what we could do to be able to support this bill and to raise our voices and solidarity against hate, including those in the LGBTQ community and this hate crimes legislation that's already standing seems not only the right thing to do, but an important piece of legislation for us to get behind.

And and so I was honored to be able to give that testimony.

When you consider what the Holocaust means to those of us who are Jewish, you have to recognize that it's, it's not just about us feeling a connection to the people that died, or a connection to the survivors who lived.

It's not about the profound loss.

And it's not about the immense tragedy.

It's also an instructive lesson about what we do going forward, to be able to make sure that that never happens again.

And so for me, it was especially poignant to be able to give that testimony this week during this Holocaust Remembrance week, and do that work here.

Lori Townsend: Mm hmm.

We, I wanted to ask you, Robin about the No Place for Hate program that the Anti-Defamation League is involved in that is in schools.

And it seems particularly timely right now with the reporting by the New York Times that the Tennessee School Board has voted to ban the book Maus, which is Art Spiegelman's portrayal of his parents time as they were held in captivity in in Auschwitz.

The novel is a graphic novel, as you well know, for people that aren't familiar with it.

It portrays Jews as mice and Nazis as cats.

It's a very chilling account of what happened to them there.

And it's been banned now in Tennessee.

What are your thoughts about that?

Talk a little bit about the No Place for Hate in schools.

And now this announcement, how that makes you feel right now.

Unknown: Our challenge is to create an environment where hate has no oxygen and book bands has always been a precursor to divisiveness.

And, and, and misunderstanding at the very, very least, so we saw that particular action happening with Kristallnacht, which was at the very start of the Holocaust, book burning, book banning.

And I just I think that there really isn't a place for this in our society, and especially this book, which has been so instructive in bringing to life for so many students of all backgrounds, the story of the Holocaust in a way that is acceptable, and and in a way that is more relatable.

So it is very disturbing that that has happened.

And I, I, I think that, that we all need to look at that as and let our alarms be set to that and not stand silent.

I would urge people to look more into it.

And, and, and make comments publicly support people in their fight against anything that they see happening around the country like that.

And regardless of your background, to get involved and raise your voice because it does, it does so affect all of us when lessons of the Holocaust are in some way censored.

Now on a positive note, ADLs No Place for Hate is is a wonderful vehicle to help do that work.

The ADL goes into schools nationwide, to promote messages of understanding and compassion and to teach schools how to create a culture of kindness and a culture of knowledge around hate racism, antisemitism.

And and so I feel like that work is being done in earnest and the curriculum is there and in place.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Museum of Jewish Heritage also have programs, they educate teachers throughout the country.

I know that the FBI works closely with the ADL as so many other law enforcement groups and agencies.

And so yeah, there is education to counter those, those efforts.

Lori Townsend: And quickly, are you concerned now that this has popped up in Tennessee, there have been so many overheated school board meetings in Alaska and across the country, people up in arms about their perception that critical race theory is being brought into school curriculums, which isn't, it's in legal settings and law schools.

But there is fear by some about racism being taught in schools and systemic racism being taught and and are you worried that now that this has come up in Tennessee that other states may say, "Hey, wait a minute.

What about this book?

Maybe we should ban it?"

Unknown: Well, we did have that here in Wasilla.

It wasn't a book about the Holocaust, but it was a book I believe about a transgender individual high schooler and and their experience.

So we have had we have seen that here in Alaska, as far as I know.

And please, I you know, I don't have the specifics, but I can certainly, I can certainly see how this could lead to more events like that.

But this isn't some sort of an exoneration to have these types of actions.

Lori Townsend: It does seem like a concern in the current political climate especially.

Let's reflect back on past decades before there was a robust Jewish community in Alaska.

We're going to watch a short archive clip now of a longtime Alaskan, the late George Mohr.

Mr. Mohr survived the Holocaust and came to Alaska in 1952.

He talks here about looking for community in those early days.

Unknown: We thought what Jewish life is there in Alaska?

What can we do?

As new immigrants, we need some support group.

Well, there wasn't as far as we could see.

We inquired a little bit about it and they said yes, they have heard that there is a Jew in Fairbanks.

But it gets better the longer we stayed here.

We learned more about us in Alaska.

First of all, there was no community here when we arrived.

There were Jews in Alaska connected with the military, and there were GIs and officers.

Well, we befriended the Jewish chaplain here.

And for the first time in my life, I regularly started to go to services.

Lori Townsend: Robin, you knew George, did he talk about memories of that terrible time during the Holocaust?

Or did he like many people just not want to talk about it?

Unknown: George was very vocal.

It was good to see his face just then.

He was was always on hand at Holocaust Memorial Day to light candles and honor the 6 million that were lost.

George would come into the building and, and meet with me in my office and he would talk at length about his history.

George did not survive camps.

So it's important to understand that his experience was very different than some others who did survive camps.

There are all, so many different levels of how people were able to escape.

And in George's case, I think that because he was able to get out, but he also lost some so much, all of his family really, I think he felt he felt compelled to keep their story alive to keep the story alive.

And, and to make sure that, that history doesn't repeat itself.

Absolutely.

In fact, George saved, A rabbi had given George a, a book or a religious book that he was able to rescue from Kristallnacht, it was, it was, it was going to be burned.

And the rabbi took it and gave it to George to bring your safekeeping.

And Rabbi Abram and Congregation Beth Sholom, are the safe keepers of that book still to this day.

Lori Townsend: Fantastic.

So thank you so much for giving us that reminiscence about Mr. Mohr's life.

Rabbi Abram, I want to turn back to you now.

I know that you didn't know George's family, but certainly there's significance in having this, this book that you still have.

But if you want to reflect on that a bit, that's fine.

But I do want to we're, we're running out of time quickly here.

And I've got some other things I'd like to talk to you about.

The Texas synagogue where the rabbi and three others were taken hostage, but escaped.

The rabbi opened the door made tea for the man who would then hold him and three people, three other people at gunpoint for hours.

How do you reconcile the idea of being open and welcoming to people who may be struggling and looking for guidance with the need to be safe?

Unknown: Well, that's our what happened, there was like our worst fears are realized, right?

Every congregation and it's not like, we are reconciling like now we are always reconciling this, like, when ever we see a stranger walk into our congregation, the thought of is a stranger going to hurt us is not so far away.

But this is a this is what I mean, we have to be brave.

Sometimes being welcoming, is being brave.

And so I welcome all strangers into our community.

I haven't even tea I should start doing that.

I like that Rabbi Charlie did that.

But uh, but I still welcome all strangers.

I talked to them, I chat with them.

I see how they're doing.

And I you know, when I wonder why they're here.

And it's a hard it's a hard thing, Lori to have to understand that.

And this is like the duality that us Jews sort of live in.

When we open our doors and have our congregations that we we recognize that there are people out there that want to harm us.

But we have to be brave and continue to be Jewish and continue to be welcoming anyways.

So certainly we have security.

And we have we have a lot of security briefings, and a lot of training.

I mean, work on that.

And that those are all things we work on.

But you know, I think part of another like sort of unfortunate thing is that all that time that we think about security, I wish we're thinking about Jewish community instead, but we can't.

Security is a big concern for ours.

And so, Lori, I don't know if we do reconcile this at all.

I think it's just part of being Jewish is living in this duality, that we need to be welcoming, but we also need to be safe.

And sometimes those values collide.

Lori Townsend: Absolutely.

Thursday the 27th is the day the United Nations Mark says Holocaust Remembrance Day.

You mentioned another date that recognizes the Warsaw Uprising.

What should we know about these two dates?

And we only have about a minute left here.

Unknown: Yeah, so so.

So Israel's Holocaust Memorial Day is called the Yom HaShoah.

"Shoah" is Hebrew for Holocaust.

And Holocaust is actually Greek, it means "whole burnt offering," which is pretty macabe.

But um, essentially, in Israel, they just celebrate it on a different day, usually, in April, and it recognizes sort of the, the Warsaw Uprising.

So it's sort of like a different it's a little bit a different experience.

Right?

Well, well, Holocaust Memorial Day recognized for the liberation of Auschwitz, Jews being liberated.

The Yom HaShoah recognizes the Jews rising up and and fighting as well.

So it makes sense for Israel, where that sort of a really big value in Israel, and it's a big value for us here too, but, you know, that's, you know, they really made that to that.

So like, yeah, so essentially, we have two Holocaust Memorial days that us Jews often observe.

Today, or Holocaust Memorial Day, on January 27.

And then you have Yom HaShoah, which is usually in April.

Lori Townsend: All right, well, thank you so much to both of you for spending time with us this evening, and for the work that you do on behalf of all of us to help educate and create more harmonious communities.

Most of us, regardless of our ethnic or cultural background want very similar things for our families and communities respect, safety and the ability to realize the promise of the right to live our lives free of discrimination and fear.

It shouldn't be difficult to adhere to the simple adage of "live and let live."

But it takes all of us working together to learn about each other and build bridges of understanding and acceptance to create that spirit of respect that leads to greater well being in our communities.

That's it for this edition of Alaska Insight.

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We'll be back next week.

Thanks for joining us.

I'm Lori Townsend.

Good night.