Opinion: Religious intolerance has no place in New Jersey

Words matter. What we say and how we say it are windows into our hearts and souls. As a proud Democrat, I often talk about core Democratic values. My colleagues across the aisle often do the same, touting Republican values. But let’s put those labels aside.

Let’s take away the political identifiers, the boasts about what turnpike exit we live off in this great state. Let’s forget about bank accounts, fancy degrees and all the other stuff we hide behind. Let us get to our shared core — as people trying to live, worship and raise families free from hate and intolerance.

Something is going very wrong. And not just here in New Jersey. The rise of Donald Trump and the “alt-right” was partly due to a rise in a populist, nationalist view of America. We see that in the rise of incivility, hate speech and religion-based violence.

Last year, neo-Nazis and white supremacists rallied in Charlottesville, Virginia. A young woman, Heather Heyer, was killed when one of those supporters drove his car into a crowd. The event was called the “Unite the Right” rally, but there was nothing right or uniting about it. Some of the marchers shouted “blood and soil,” an English translation of a Nazi slogan.

President Trump famously — or perhaps infamously — said about the violent rally, “You also had some very fine people on both sides.” There is no such thing as a “fine” Neo-Nazi or white supremacist.

So it is troubling that in this month, two different examples of religious intolerance, of hate-driven speech, occurred in New Jersey.

In Montville, Committeewoman June Witty posted on Facebook a meme that equated Democrats with Nazis. As reported by the Daily Record, the meme showed a chart listing shared beliefs between Democrats and Nazis: “socialism, abortion, censorship, no guns, media mind control” and that both “hate Jews and whites” and “worship the government.”

This is repugnant.

The outcry in Montville has been loud and unanimous; the Republican council censored Witty, and many in the community are calling for her to resign. When Witty took someone else’s hate speech and gave it new voice, she gave it her voice. No fig leaf can hide that. You would need a boulder.

At the other end of our state, in Mount Holly, a young Muslim mother of two small children went to her car on April 11 to discover not just that the air had been let out of one of her tires, but that a note had been left behind: “Go Home [racial slur] Terrorist You Not Wanted B---- USA USA USA.”

Mount Holly police are investigating. The woman, Kenya Robinson, told Advance Media, “Every night I’m pacing. I feel paranoid.” The woman wears a hijab and believes she was targeted not because she is a person of color, but because she is Muslim. Either reason is deplorable.

The New York Times wrote in February about an Anti-Defamation League report. The ADL found that anti-Semitic incidents went up 57 percent in 2017. That was the largest increase in a single year since the ADL began tracking anti-Semitic incidents in 1979. There were 1,986 incidents in 2017, up from 1,267 in 2016.

Some of the other statistics are equally troubling: a 250 percent increase in white supremacist activity on college campuses in the current academic year, and those are just white supremacist activities that relate to anti-Semitism. The ADL also noted that for the first time in more than 10 years, incidents were reported in all 50 states.

Last September, the Airport Diner in Wantage was spray-painted with swastikas, anti-Semitic phrases and numbers that are code for “Heil Hitler.” We have seen Jewish houses of worship firebombed in the past in Bergen County, and in the wake of 9/11, the vilification of Muslim Americans. Donald Trump perpetuated the lie that Muslims were celebrating in New Jersey as the Twin Towers fell.

We must speak out against religious intolerance in all its forms. There is no acceptable amount of hate speech. We can pass laws that will punish criminal acts, but we have to educate ourselves and our children to stop long before we and they cross that criminal threshold, because at that point innocent people have been hurt.

To members of my generation, the Holocaust is not a historical event; it is not many generations removed. It happened in real time. We have seen where hate goes. It is an ugly place.

Religious tolerance was one of the promises of America at its founding. Nearly 250 years later, no Muslim woman should be fearful for her safety or for her children’s safety. No elected official should use the evil of the Third Reich to try to score cheap partisan points.

We must be better than that.

I think of the words of then-presidential candidate John F. Kennedy in 1960, responding to concerns about his Catholic faith. In one of his most famous speeches, he said, “I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end.”

So do I.

Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck, is the Senate majority leader and represents the 37th Legislative District.