Institutions are inherently resistant to change. They may attempt to bury or rewrite the truth. They blame the victim, pressuring them to just get over it. They accuse victims of being overly emotional, inaccurate, malicious, uncivilized, violent, or liars. Institutions may perform efforts toward justice and ultimately kill them with inaction or through drawn-out processes of bureaucracy.

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Rosa Moldovan, my great grandmother, teaches my aunt, Erika Goldberger, at home on a chalk board. Jewish students were barred from school during the Nazi regime.

The alarm has been sounding for a long time. And now, it won’t give me a moment’s peace. It sounds like dirty Jew and fucking Jew and kill all Jews. I hear my son sobbing, why does everybody hate me. I see the spider arms of a swastika, black on blood red. I hear, this isn’t going to go away no matter what we do. These words circle in my head. And the longer they do, the more determined I become to stop what I’ve been told will happen again, to stand up every time I’m told to sit down.

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The High Holy Days of the Jewish tradition are nearly here. During these days, we ask for the forgiveness of anyone we may have harmed. We look at ourselves deeply, examine our motives and actions, and atone for any negative effects, intentional or otherwise, we have caused. We do this to repair any harm we…

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In the aftermath of Charlottesville, many are responding with anger toward those who tote the symbols and rhetoric of hate. Why I’m Angry Seeing swastikas and Nazis all over the internet makes me irate. It is deeply painful, and it’s exhausting. That alone feels like an assault. Seeing the confederate flag openly waved and other…

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