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"Hit a Jew Day" shows we've got a long way to go
Categories: Teens & tweens, Education, Religion & Spirituality
When I was about five years old, someone spray painted swastikas on our garage door -- which really confused me because we were Catholic. Eventually, I came to understand that it was because my father was Jewish and those that had vandalized our garage were little different than those who had sent my grandparents and aunts to their deaths in Auschwitz. Thus began my lifelong hatred of discrimination and prejudice.Fast forward lo these many years and I'm sure we would all like to think that we've evolved past such pettiness, until you think about the racial tensions, the anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiment so popular today, and, of course, California's proposition 8 which would eliminate the right of some couples to marry. And this story: "At least four students from a suburban St. Louis middle school face punishment for allegedly hitting Jewish classmates during what they called 'Hit a Jew Day.'"
It was part of an unofficial "spirit week" where some students gave each other hugs and high-fives. Sadly, it progressed to include "hit a tall person day" and, ultimately, "hit a Jew day". Teachers and officials reacted quickly when they learned of the situation, assembling the students for a talking-to and suspending the students directly involved.
School officials also expressed their sadness and outrage that students who knew about the activities did not immediately come forward and alert teachers. In an open letter, the superintendent said that "we work very hard in Parkway to teach students appropriate behavior ... but we cannot use this as an excuse to minimize the gravity of what these students have done. It is painful and hurtful and we are committed to doing whatever we can to ensure it does not happen again."
I too would hope that something like this would never happen again, but sadly, I've heard that before.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sandyone 10-26-2008 @ 4:55PM
For the record, not everyone who opposes gay marriage does so based on hatred. My opposition is rooted in Natural Law and has nothing to do with hate.
I don't think this stupid game the kids were playing had anything to do with hate, either. The kids just picked different ways of deciding who to hit that day. Do I find "hit a Jew day" offensive? You bet I do, mostly because I know about the history behind declaring a certain group to be 'non persons' and making it legal to kill them.
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notfooled 10-26-2008 @ 5:30PM
Sandyone - what is this "natural law" you refer to? Gays aren't "made" they are born, and therefore are God's children just like the rest of us. By implying that gays go against your man-made "natural law" you ARE advocating hate against a social group, as surely as these students are advocating hate against Jews.
Fiona Mackenzie 10-26-2008 @ 8:46PM
The only "natural law" consists of the postulates of symbolic logic, and maybe not those. Everything else is generated by some value system selected by persons who learned or absorbed it sometime in their lives.
Unfortunately, what folks call "natural law" frequently ignores entirely the only possible basis for any conclusion, that is, logic. It has become a synonym for "I myself feel it's right, so it is."
Unfortunately, the arrogance of people who think their personal notions--and/or the notions of their own special interest group--have some character of absolute or general rightness generates enormous conflict and unhappiness in the world. .
Now, how did we get from "Hit a Jew Day" to gay rights?
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ninainindia 10-26-2008 @ 9:16PM
So was "hit a tall person" better than "hit a jew"? The articles only focuss on the jew part, as if it's not so bad when you are hit for being tall....
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rpf 10-26-2008 @ 11:02PM
its not. remember - height is relative. these middle school children will have completely different views of tall and short as they go through growth spurts and puberty and such. hatred of Jews, however, isn't something which is relative - it either exists or it doesn't. Its more important to stamp out signs of anti-Semitism than it is to suspend someone b/c they hit a tall person.
Jessica Moore 10-26-2008 @ 11:19PM
Well maybe its because no where in history were slightly taller people ever targeted for mass murders or dangerous discrimination and hatred...moron. Geez get some common sense
ninainindia 10-26-2008 @ 11:26PM
No need to call me a moron, if I were a tall person and I got hit on "hit a tall person day" I would also like to see these children suspended. It's violence either way. I don't agree that a crime against a Jew is worse than one against someone else because of what happened in the past.
rpf I understand what you are saying and agree with you. Hated against tall people likely won't make it to adulthood although hatred towards jews might. However, anyone who thinks of a game that starts with "hit a..." seems like there is something wrong with them. I'm not sure if this was a real case of Jew hatred, it might just have well been "hit a black person" or "hit a muslim" day if that would have sprung up in their mind at that moment.
Uncle Roger 10-27-2008 @ 12:13AM
I think you're right -- "hit a tall person" is just as bad as "hit a Jew". However, in the context of this article, there are two reasons I focused on the latter. First, as someone else mentioned, there is history associated with attacks on Jews orders of magnitude greater than that against tall people. Second, on a more personal note, despite not being Jewish, I have suffered from anti-semitism; I have not, however, ever suffered from any anti-tall-comments, despite being tall. So, for me, the "hit a Jew" angle was much more significant.
Tzipporah 10-27-2008 @ 1:39AM
Tall people weren't sent to gs chambers for being tall. Wake up!
ninainindia 10-27-2008 @ 4:49AM
Well, Tzipporah, as I said in my earlier post I don't think that the past should always play a part in what happens now. Personally I believe you should judge an incident for what it is not for what has happened in the past.
Mz Loca 10-27-2008 @ 2:23AM
You know I'm so sick of the religious groups saying being gay is a sin or against "Natural Law". Firstly if your God is "perfect" then he/she never makes mistakes, so if a person if born Gay, they are made exactly as God intended them to be. And lastly, who said it was anyone's place to pass judgement on anyone? Doesn't the great book say All Judges are SINNERS? Pfffft....
And BTW, I'm a Proud Atheist. I've studied many religions, I wish people would just learn to stop being so damn judgemental and high and mighty.
What those teens did was wrong on every level. What I would like to know is what kind of home enviroment do they come from? Hate is a sign of ignorance.
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Jaysun 10-27-2008 @ 5:28AM
God doesn't MAKE people gay.. poisons in the world--literally and especially spiritually-- are largely at fault for this perversion (a perversion being some unnatural desire, basically). There are many perversions committed by straight and gays alike.. also many perversions in government system and human interaction in general... You couldn't POSSIBLY pretend to KNOW if a person is born that way or not because it's intangible for one and sexual preferences obviously don't surface the first few days (or even the first few years) so people PLEASE STOP BEING SO PRETENTIOUS!!! YOU ASSUMING THAT SOMEONE IS JUDGING YOU BY CALLING HOMOSEXUALITY A PERVERSION IS, IN SIMPLE TRUTH, JUST YOU JUDGING THE ONE YOU ACCUSE!!! IS THIS COMPLICATED???
Besides,why bothering arguing about a God you think doesn't exist anyway?
...By all means, we should all excercise tolerance among consenting adults.. but for now, can't we just use an appropriate forum? This story isn't about homosexuality anyway.. DUH! Please go to some religious site and vent and judge THERE. And if you really studied many religions why do you fall so short of knowing a true Christian view on this?
There's no pride in atheism. It's like saying I am proud to be a talking, walking corpse awaiting the dirt and stench of death. Perhaps you are proud to be unaffiliated with judgemental hypocrites. But those people don't really represent a respectful god anyway. But that's another story for another site.. Good day all!
ParkwayWest HS student 10-31-2008 @ 8:52AM
My sister goes there right now, and i am a student at their highschool, and I can tell you that being in the highschool, we have already had a day that the whole school has come together in our classes and talked about it. its what we call a common ground day, and we shorten each class in order to talk about something important. And as i see it, this is a very improtant thing for us to talk about. My mom has already been contaced about the issue too. I can just say that we arent taking this problem/event lightly.
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2getherwecan 11-13-2008 @ 12:48PM
LET'S ALL REMEMBER THAT HATE...PREJUDICE...DISCRIMINATION...DIFFERENCE....RACISM...AND ABOVE ALL RETALIATION IS TAUGHT!!!!!! NONE OF US ARE BORN WITH THESE NEGATIVE PERSONNAS....SO BLAME SOME PARENTS CAUSE IF KIDS WERE PUNISHED..DISCIPLINED AND FORCED TO RECONCILE WHILE YOUNG THEY WOULD HAVE MORE RESPCET FOR EACH OTHER WHILE THEY GROW.....NO HOME TRAINNING +PARENTS WITH A CLOSED MIND = ALL ABOVE MENTIONED
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Otto R. Graepel 12-06-2008 @ 7:57AM
Jews are already victims again and Catholics as well as an Atheist has been given permission by the Governor of a state to trash both religions by placing a sign in front of a Menorah and Nativity Scene that insinuates that religion is observed by fools. Is'nt this a violation of "Political Correctness?" Does this not become an act of terrorism because it is the main objective of the terrorist to have only one religion (theirs) on this planet?
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