Perhaps you heard of the recent kerfuffle when Meyers Leonard, a player for the NBA's Miami Heat, was found to have used an all-too familiar epithet for Jews in the course of trash-talking someone during a video game livestream. Leonard, who is recuperating from a shoulder injury in January, issued an apology in which he stated, "…I didn't know what the word meant at the time, my ignorance about its history and how offensive it is to the Jewish community is absolutely not an excuse and I was just wrong." One is left to wonder how, if he was as ignorant as he claims, he managed to use it so skillfully.
This brings us to Julian Edelman. He is a wide receiver for the New England Patriots who happens to be Jewish. Mr. Edelman has started to speak out when fellow professional athletes come to the public's attention for saying or writing things that are anti-Semitic. Last year, after Philadelphia Eagle wide receiver DeSean Jackson made some anti-Semitic social media posts, Edelman invited Jackson to the United States Holocaust Museum. This touched off a conversation which Edelman says is still continuing.
Last month Edelman wrote an open letter to Leonard on Twitter, in which he invited Leonard to attend a Shabbat dinner with some friends. In that letter, Edelman suggested that Leonard was neither trying to hurt anyone nor specifically hurtful towards Jews. However, Edelman wrote, "Casual ignorance is harder to combat and has greater reach, especially when you command great influence. Hate is like a virus. Even accidentally, it can rapidly spread."
Edelman's comment about casual ignorance is insightful. When someone uses such a term out of malice, it is fairly easy to castigate the individual and to fight it. However, when the epithet is used, not as an expression of hate, but simply as something a person says, it is far more insidious.
Many years ago, I was talking with a colleague at the college where I taught about a car he had recently purchased. He was proud of having gotten a good price, and told me that he had "Jewed the guy down." I was sufficiently sheltered that I had never heard that phrase before, so I asked him what he meant. He knew that I was Jewish, and having to explain it to me was probably far more uncomfortable for him than any tirade I might have mounted.
This month we and others around the world will observe Yom Hashoah. It is a stark reminder of what can come from a mixture of ignorance and hatred. Helen Sperling, of blessed memory, told us that "Thou shalt not be a bystander." But how shall we get involved? I suggest we follow Julian Edelman's example. Recognize venomous hatred for what it is and treat it accordingly. But also recognize casual ignorance for what it is, and fight it with the appropriate tools: engagement and education.
Cantor Socoloff
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