'Heart Challenges Hate' Series Closes with Look at Ethnic Prejudice

Panelists delve into origins of hate and causes of abuse against Jews and Asian-Americans

Sacred Heart University concluded its Heart Challenges Hate discussion series March 22 and April 20, delving into incidents related to recent headlines: assaults and other actions against Jews and Asians. 

Hatred that targets Jews, also known as anti-Semitism, has been going on since before Jesus was born. The March session examined why Jewish people have been a target of hate for so long, the history behind this hatred and what people can do to counter it. Michelle Loris, chair of the Catholic Studies department and dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, moderated the panel discussion. She began the conversation by defining anti-Semitism as “a prejudice against Jews as individuals and as a group. This is a hate which began in ancient Greece and Rome, which showed its most horrifying example in the Holocaust and its most recent example in the Tree of Life synagogue killing that occurred almost two years ago.” Eleven people died in that mass shooting at the Pittsburgh synagogue, and two were injured.

For panelist Rabbi Marcelo Kormis of Congregation Beth El in Fairfield and campus minister at SHU, anti-Semitism is deeper than the technical definition suggests. “When we get so technical, we lose sight of the intricacies of anti-Semitism in our modern society,” said Kormis. “To me, anti-Semitism is the longest hatred in our Western society and, unfortunately, there is a ready market for anti-Semitism in our modern world.”

Gary Jones, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Western Connecticut, spoke with Loris about the remarkable history Jewish people have of being at the forefront of calls for justice for so many other groups of people, not just Jews, and how they often get backlash for doing so.

“We believe we’re here to help repair the world, to make it a better place, and we know that while we’re here primarily focusing on issues that affect Jews particularly, our job in life is also to work to support other people; to stand up for others who are being put upon or being treated unfairly,” said Jones. He pointed out that the Tree of Life murderer admitted that one reason he set out to kill Jews was because they were taking a stance in support of immigrants.

Anti-Semitism began from religious disagreement between the Jews and the Romans and the Greeks well before Christianity. “The Jews did not want to take on the gods, and they wanted to maintain their monolithic belief in one god and in their tradition,” said Hadar Lubin, co-director of the Post Traumatic Stress Center in New Haven and assistant clinical professor at Yale University. What began as an anti-Judaic perspective—a hatred against the religion—turned into anti-Semitism, the actual hatred of Jewish people, around the time of the Reformation in 1517.

Resolving this issue involves educating younger generations. According to Kormis, many young people are not aware of what is going on with the Jews and other minorities in America. “For example, two thirds of American millennials don’t know about Auschwitz, and 22 percent of American millennials have not heard about the Holocaust,” said Kormis. “I think that education is crucial; colloquia like this are crucial; talking about interfaith is crucial.” He said he advises his students not to be a bystander but an “upstander.” 

Watch the "Anti-Semitism: The Enduring Hatred" discussion on YouTube.

Hatred against Asian-Americans

In the final colloquium of the Heart Challenges Hate series in April, moderator Daniel Rober, associate lecturer of Catholic studies and assistant director of the Thomas More Honors Program, led a discussion on Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) exclusion and phobia in the United States, including its root causes and history. 

Panelist Na-Rae Kim, interim director of the Asian and Asian-American studies institute at the University of Connecticut, said, “From the very beginning of Asian immigration to the United States, Asians have always been seen as un-American. So, when we look at various immigration laws that America has put forward, they had the goal of controlling Asian bodies from entering into America, then … barring them from citizenship rights and naturalization rights, among others. There have been continual cases, like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, then the Page Act of 1875 and the Johnson Reed Act of 1924 that continually designate Asians as unfit to be American, not only as a citizen, but just unfit to come in as an immigrant, whether short term or long term.”

The panelists also said former President Donald Trump’s use of the terms “Chinese Virus” and “Kung Flu” when referring to the coronavirus made all Asian-Americans potential targets of people’s anger over the pandemic. “The times that I’ve had racial slurs … targeted at me personally, no one’s figured out in that moment that I’m Filipino-American. So, I’ve been called different slurs that are wrongly attached to the wrong racial and ethnic group,” said A. Rima Dael, general manager of WSHU Public Radio.

Brent Little, lecturer of Catholic Studies, acknowledged the scapegoating of Asian-Americans regarding COVID-19 and Trump. “I’d also like to point out the intersection between racism against AAPI and also this long history of fetishization, particularly of Asian-American women,” said Little. “This is deep in Western society, as early as the nineteenth century.” He noted that the shooter who targeted women of Asian descent working at spas in Atlanta this past March—who was characterized as having a sex addiction—intersects with this AAPI fetishization. 

Dael said hate crimes are not confined to murders. Attacks on Asian-Americans, two thirds of which are against women, also include verbal assaults and physical violence, often occurring in broad daylight. Providing recent statistics on Asian-American hate, Dael said the “Stop AAPI Hate Report,” released in March, found that AAPI hate crimes over the past year has increased by 150% across the country. Meanwhile, the New York City police department reported a 1,000% increase of AAPI hate crimes in New York City alone. 

David Luesink, assistant professor of history, concluded the discussion with a message for students. “I just want to say, be curious about people of Asian descent, people who are different from you, who look different than you. Ask questions, get to know people, make friends with people who are not like you. I did that when I was your age and it led me to become a historian of China. I lived in Asia for over six years, and it completely transformed my life. It was great.”

Watch the "Anti-Asian Hate: An American Tradition" discussion on YouTube.