Webster Dictionary defines “anti-semitism” as “the hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic or racial group.” In the past 5 years, there have been multiple cases of anti-semitic related incidents in Kansas City, Kan. and St. Louis Mo. From shootings to protests, anti-semitism has not left this world, and the millions of Jews in America alone are still being affected by it every day; anti-semitism can range from harassment to murder. The only way to help stop this spread of hate is to have people realize that anti-semitism is not dead. People need to realize, although the Nazi political party is dead, their ideas still exist in this world. The only way to stop the spread of hate is to educate.

In a survey of 20 random BLHS students, 100% knew what the Holocaust was, but 25% of students did not know the location of the Holocaust, when it took place or those who were killed. In the same survey, 85% said that they had heard some type of Jew jokes in school or on social media. Finally, 5% said that they did not think anti-semitism was still a problem. In the past year, 54% of religious-based hate-crimes in the US were anti-semitic based, states the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In the same article, it states that anti-semitic crimes have risen 37% in the past two years. Hatred disguises itself in many forms and is created by many different things.

In 2017 there were 938 cases of religious hate crimes against Jews, states the Jewish Virtual Library. On April 13, 2014, at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City, (JCC) there was a shooting where two people were killed outside of the building. Later that same day, one woman was killed at Village Shalom, which is an assisted living facility. The man was reported to be yelling “Heil Hitler” while he continued to shoot, states KCTV5. Three years later, in St. Louis Mo., a Jewish cemetery was vandalized. Over 110 tombstones were knocked over, and $30,000 in damage was made that night, states the Riverfront Times.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there are many ways to help prevent hate crimes: to stop or put down stereotypes that aren’t true, to educate yourself and others about the problem and to take a side. Neutrality only helps the oppressor, and to stop hate from spreading, it is necessary to spread truth and education.

Overall, anti-semitism did not die with Hitler, and it did not die with the secret state officers or with the Nazi party that supported the death and extermination of Jews. It lives on in the small jokes that people laugh off, the stereotypes people believe in, not wondering if the jokes are true or not. It lives in the hate and ignorance that is passed down from family to family. Ignorance is the root of all hatred, and education is the one thing that can defeat hate. Education is needed to teach the youth of tomorrow of what the world could be without hatred fueled by ignorance.