I am pleased that the Philadelphia Inquirer published the following letter.

Rising hate

To the editor:

Several months after the deadly terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, my husband and I took a trip to Marrakesh, Morocco. Our guide was a friendly, knowledgeable man with whom we shared long days, meals, and informative conversations. We thought he had become a warm acquaintance we would keep in touch with. However, at the conclusion of our last dinner, his eyes and voice changed, and he gave us a prescient warning. “9/11 was only the beginning,” he said. “Do you know that as we speak, we are infiltrating your universities and the minds of your young?” The horror in Gaza today, beginning with the long-planned Hamas attack on innocents in Israel on Oct. 7, has unleashed a torrent of palpable antisemitism, staining long-respected American universities and making acts of antisemitism commonplace. How else to explain the conversation I had outside of a store where I shopped for Father’s Day cards?

While paying my bill, a Muslim woman and her daughter, about 10 years old, were next to me in line. The woman was wearing a shirt that read “Journalist” in bold letters. Walking out of the store together, I asked what newspaper or journal she wrote for. She explained that her shirt was to honor the journalists who were killed in Gaza. I then asked, “How can a two-state solution in this tormented area be achieved?” In her response, her eyes held the same rage as our Marrakesh guide, her voice the same hatred. “There can be no two-state solution,” she said. “Israel must be destroyed, along with the Jews who protect it.” Unless addressed, this overt rise in antisemitism — an expression of hate, divisiveness, and discord — foreshadows catastrophe for our country.

SaraKay Smullens
Philadelphia

Published in The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 19, 2024