In his small book ‘Portrait of the Anti-Semite’, published in 1948, Jean-Paul Sartre spoke of anti-Semitism leading straight to National-Socialism and said ‘… if we do not respect the person of the Israelite, who is going to respect us? If we are conscious of these dangers, if we have experienced with a sense of shame our involuntary complicity with the anti-semites, which made executioners of us, perhaps then we will realise that we must fight for the Jew neither more nor less than we must fight for ourselves.’ To some, this might seem obscure, yet it goes straight to the heart of both self-respect and respect for others, without which power, ideology, hatred and delusion will reign.

We must fight in every way we can to make clear to the world that an act such as the slaughter in Pittsburgh is anti-Semitic pure and simple, not to be tied to the Trump bandwagon in order to deflect it for political gain, and certainly not to be downplayed, away from its root cause, as media reportage attempted in describing a murderous attack on ‘Americans at worship’, going on to say that in the climate that is America today another minority group (other than Jews) will most likely be next. What a shocking avoidance of confronting an age-old act of anti-Semitism committed on American soil due to the hatred and impassioned, thoughtless, absolutely inaccurate assumption in the mind of the anti-Semite of what Jewish people are.

Clear thinking and saying it how it is appears to be beyond the capacity of most in this digital age. It’s creating a dangerous situation.