Last week two Black assailants killed a cop in a cemetery, then drove a mile to a kosher grocery store and killed three Jews that were inside. After a long shootout with the cops, both the shooters were also killed. I've been in shock for days.
It bothered me that officials were so slow to label it a hate crime, because it was so obvious. The killers walked across the street, ignoring all sorts of people they could have killed, making a bee-line for the kosher market. IOW the kosher market was targeted. Though slow to announce it, officials finally said it was a hate crime, an act of domestic terrorism.
A quasi manifesto was left in the van, three pages long, filled with hatred towards cops and Jews. All sorts of guns, and a pipe bomb were also left in the van. It was obvious that this was only the beginning of what they intended to be a killing spree. Next door to the grocery store was a school, with all sorts of little children hiding on the second floor. I'm terrified that would have been next. Baruch Hashem for the police, who stopped the carnage at its beginning.
One of the shooters was associated with a group called the Black Hebrew Israelites. It is not clear whether he had officially joined, but he espoused their ideas. The group is a cult that is on the terrorist watch list. They believe that whites are the devil, that Jews are fake Israel, and that Blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans are the True Israel. In other words, a form of Replacement Theology.
I have always said that Replacement Theology (also known as Supersessionism) is the manure that fertilizes anti-Semitism. It's typical form is to believe that physical Israel has passed away, and the Church is now Israel, replacing physical Israel, and inheriting Israel's promises. Until the holocaust, this was the typical belief of Christians. However, after the Shoah, most Christian churches recognized it as one of the reasons for the deaths of the six million Jews, and repudiated it (most notably the Catholic Church). Today, the doctrine is held only by evangelicals and fundamentalists and fringe groups. The RT of the Black Hebrew Israelites is an extreme version, but it shows the connection to anti-Semitism. After all, if they are the true Israel, what are Jews except pretenders?
It seems like every time I turn around lately, there is another shooting of Jews here in America. Pittsburgh. Poway. Now Jersey City. The USA is supposed to be the safest place for Jews, and it doesn't feel very safe anymore.
