$30 worth of hate: “Hitler should have gassed you Jewish scum”
A Sydney rabbi received a torrent of antisemitic messages attempting to conclude a deal on Facebook marketplace.
Having settled the price of $20 for a hand-carved walking stick, the apparently happy buyer turned into a purveyor of ugly antisemitics texts when learning the rabbi wanted $30 for shipping the purchase.
The rabbi, who has asked not to be named, engaged with a buyer on a Facebook marketplace,
The buyer messaged the rabbi he “raped little boys” and that “Hitler should have gassed you Jewish scum” during an exchange of comments on Facebook last week.
He made contact with Dr Dvir Abramovich, Chair of the Anti-Defamation Commission saying “when I woke up in the morning and saw the stream of abusive and abhorrent messages, I went through a series of emotions: shock, panic, and then pity.
I also felt violated at how sudden and quick the situation changed, since it was over $30, and it revealed a deep hatred. I found that beyond disturbing.
I was shocked at how comfortable she felt to be openly and continuously abusive and antisemitic. I panicked at her motivation to contact me privately with more virulent attacks on my family and me. And finally, pity that she is filled with such bitterness.’
Dr Abramovich told J-Wire: ”
“This latest attack must not be allowed to become the new normal, and if ever there was a time when good people needed stand up to this kind of pure hatred, now is the time. I wish I did not have to say this, but the
escalating drumbeat of antisemitism is now a fact of life in Australia.
With a swastika epidemic in Melbourne and Jewish children subjected to horrifying harassment and assaults in schools, It’s hard to overstate the anxiety many Jewish people are feeling, and I am not surprised that many are on edge.
This particular outburst, frightening for its vicious, sickening intensity, is heartwrenching and is part of a wave of antisemitic violence and rhetoric that is enveloping our country. Every individual regardless of their faith and ethnicity deserves to feel safe, and I am deeply concerned that violent words, as revealed in these posts, may turn deadly as we have seen in massacres around the world. This terrifying incident provides further evidence that racists and extremists are less inhibited about expressing their poisonous sentiments, and is a reminder that our fight antisemitism, which is spiralling out of control, is far from finished.
I call on all leaders to lock arms and to say to all those bigots who declared a war against the Jewish community, that their actions do not represent who we are, and that such ugly intolerance will never find a home here.”
The Facebook marketplace message platform is person to person and is not public.
