“Six summers ago, Americans watched in horror as hundreds of white supremacists and neo-Nazis marched through Charlottesville, Va., at the Unite the Right rally. Torch-bearing marchers wore swastikas, chanted racist and antisemitic slogans such as “white lives matter” and “Jews will not replace us,” and terrorized black neighborhoods, the University of Virginia, the small downtown core, and the local synagogue. As activists gathered to counter their taunts and threats, one Unite the Right protester intentionally drove his car into the crowd, causing severe injuries to counter-protesters and the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer. Images of the march rocketed around the world, and for a fleeting moment, the horror these images evoked felt almost universal. Although the ideas behind the march were given many names — ascendant fascism, racism, white supremacy, neo-Nazism, antisemitism — there was widespread acknowledgment among observers that it was abhorrent. The event signified a new era of violent antisemitism and Jewish vulnerability in America.”

Read the complete essay in Sapir