Anti-Semitism and Racism in Baltimore, Maryland
By Adam Neuman
I live in Baltimore Maryland. It seems to have a thriving Jewish community, but there are many things that are downright disgusting about my city. In my city I can think of countless times where Jews, African Americans, and even Whites have been picked on for the most absurd reasons imaginable.
For example, my mom and I were driving down Park Heights Ave. in Baltimore. Baltimore is not what you would consider a safe city in terms of crime and murder. We rank fifth in crime and murder in terms of all cities in the United States Of America. And if you take all cities with a population of over 500,000, we rank second in the nation in crime and murder. Back to the story. As we're riding down the street we see a Jewish boy no older that 14 (I'm guessing). He's carrying a bag with wine and challah, no doubt for Shabbos since it's a friday afternoon. As he strolls down the street he is approached by three teens (14-17 years of age, I'm guessing). These teens are clearly stronger, and when they see the kid they start to shove and punch him. They take off his yarmulke and throw it into the street. They call him names and continue to shove. As he pulls out his phone to call for help, they try to take it from him. He drops his bag and begins to run.
My mom and I, seeing all of this, scream for him to come into our car. He hops into our car full of tears, and he tells us where he lives. We take him to his house and he thanks us. The funny thing about this is, at first I didn't think it was such a big deal. I mean there's plenty of anti-Semitism every where. And then it hit me while I was lying in my bed one night. It hit me that I could think of countless times that this same type of situation happened. Whether it's a Jewish kid getting harrased by older kids, or women getting raped near my local food store. Whether an African American is being told that he's stupid in my orthodontist office, or a shooting at a local school that is no more a mile away from me. Whether it's a sniper shooter and his son shooting in Maryland, Virgina, and Washington, or the girls in my class being told that they can't walk places on a Shabbos afternoon because there are so many rapists on the loose. I try to think that these problem occur just as bad elsewhere, but it's just not true.
As Alex P. wrote in his article in the May issue "Jewish Life In My Hometown Baltimore", there is also a giant drug problem. Baltimore is sometimes referred to names such as "Drugtown U.S.A". Sometimes it's referred to as "Heroin City". I'm not trying to trash my town, because there are many nice and unique things about it. I'm just saying that Baltimore has a lot of problems and difficulties that must be dealt with. I love my city and this article doesn't change that, but there are many more flaws than I ever imagined there would be.
The message I'm trying to bring across is that there is so much hate in this world for no reason at all. There are crazy people out there that just hate for the sake of hate. It's hard for people like you and me to imagine a person who takes pride in killing people, or raping people, or just flat out bothering people. There are actually people out there who can kill someone, and have no problem sleeping that night. It's literally so disturbing that I can't even bear to write anymore on this topic. So when your feeling down about one of your personal problems, think of this topic. And when you think of this topic, I can almost guarantee you'll realize how small your praticular problem really is.
Write to Adam at write@ttt.org.il
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