Opinion
Green's America: The Pittsburgh massacre was just a taste of things to come
Violent attacks on Jews since the The Tree of Life killings confirm that this is not your grandmother’s America
May 4, 2023 10:28
2 min read
Violent attacks on Jews since the The Tree of Life killings confirm that this is not your grandmother’s America
May 4, 2023 10:28More than four years have passed since the deadliest attack on Jews in American history. On October 27, 2018, a white nationalist named Robert Bowers shot 11 worshippers to death and wounded six more at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The wheels of justice grinding with their customary slowness, jury selection in his trial began this week.
It is hard to remember what American synagogues were like when we moved here, nearly 20 years ago.
True, there were concrete barriers outside shuls in Manhattan, but these were the exceptions that proved the rule. In Boston, we could walk into a synagogue without being challenged, or having to make an explanation, or give a proof of identity.
Robert Bowers (Photo: Butler County Prison)
After living under what felt like siege conditions in Stockholm, it was hard to believe. Perhaps some of it was it-couldn’t-happen-here naivety on the part of our hosts.
When I was touring in the US in the Nineties, we sometimes wandered on to planes without an ID check. This seemed to be asking for trouble, and it was.
The “American exception”, a phrase which originated when historians tried to explain why American never had a serious socialist movement, now stands for any unusual aspect of American life.
The United States has been the exception for all the people who have come here, by choice or not, because America, whatever you think of it, is exceptional.
Security forces outside the Tree of Life synagogue after the shootings (Getty Images)
