Let’s ‘Stand Up Against Hate’ together 

Welcome to the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle’s annual Standing Up Against Hate special section. I proposed that we launch this special section several years ago. I had no idea how relevant it would become. 

For this year, at a time of consternation and heightened antisemitism, I’d like to share a list of people around me whom I have love for. Elie Wiesel famously said, “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.” With that in mind, I now toss this list – which is not comprehensive, just a sampling of people to love – into the universe. Who would you add? Who would you put on your list? 

Rob’s list of love 

I have love in my heart for you if you are much more observant than I am. 

I have love in my heart for you if your father was Jewish, but not your mother. 

I have love in my heart for you if you are transitioning, or if you love someone who is the same sex as you. 

I have love in my heart for you if you struggle with mental health, or if you are disabled. 

I have love in my heart for you if you, or others, think you are in some way unsuccessful. 

I have love in my heart for you if you are a person of color in a room full of people who are white. 

I have love in my heart for you if you were born into the Jewish Milwaukee community, or if you are new to it, or you’re in another Wisconsin city. 

I have love in my heart for you if you live up north in a little town where the supermarket checkout clerk sweetly strikes up a conversation with you about their dog or their mom or their kids for 20 minutes, yet you don’t know what they think of the Jewish people, or if they think of us at all. 

I have love in my heart for you if someone you know clicks “like” on an uninformed, troubling post on social media.  

I have love in my heart for you if you ask me for food as I hurry past you. 

I have love in my heart for you if you are suffering, or different, or excluded. 

The world could use more love, so I invite you to join me in this. It can’t hurt, and what we’re doing in some corners of the world is not quite working. 

Rob Golub, editor 
Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle