Responding to Hate Crimes against Jews in Chicago

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A Chicago rabbi shares his formula to combat anti-Jewish hatred and build Jewish pride.

Over a span of three days, some of Chicago’s most beloved Jewish institutions have been brutally attacked. Someone smashed windows in two synagogues on the city’s far north side over the January 30-31 weekend and painted swastikas on one of them, before briefly attacking a young man who was on his way to pray.

Photo credit: Gedalya Wax (age 16)

Windows were also smashed in two Jewish schools, the Kol Tuv kosher grocery store, and the popular Tel Aviv Bakery. Local Jews also found a drinking fountain in a heavily Jewish neighborhood defaced with swastika graffiti.

“What’s going on?” one of my friends asked in anguish. “This is getting too close to home,” another friend posted on Facebook.

I met with the Rabbi Dr. Leonard Matanky, whose Congregation K.I.N.S. windows were smashed in the weekend rampage. Instead of seeming anguished or distraught, he radiated calm. Instead of focusing only on the pain that the vandalism and attacks were causing, he was upbeat, looking ahead to the week’s events at a local high school, Ida Crown Jewish Academy, where he also serves as Dean. “I’m meeting with the mayor tonight,” he told me the day after his synagogue was vandalized, “but I really have to get back to school for the basketball game.”

In the midst of so much negativity, Rabbi Matanky insisted on not losing sight of the good. In an Aish.com exclusive interview, he explained how he’s managing to stay positive – and how Jews around the world can counter antisemitism without succumbing to despair.

Chicago synagogue vandalized. (Photo credit: Rabbi Levi Pessy Notik, Free Synagogue)

“I got a call Sunday morning that there were broken glass doors at Congregation K.I.N.S,” he recalls. As he surveyed the damage, reports came in of other attacks in the neighborhood. His first feeling was relief that no one had been hurt, “but it didn’t feel good looking at the damage. It got a little creepier when a member of the shul forwarded me a video that her daughter had taken at 3:30 in the morning from her window, showing the vandal screaming and battering the nearby synagogue’s doors. Being on the receiving end of so much hate was terrifying.”

The local community sprang into action. Alderwoman Deborah Silverstein (who is a member of Congregation K.I.N.S) organized a meeting at the vandalized synagogue the next day. Local rabbis attended, along with congregants, the Chicago police commander and area detectives.

For Rabbi Matanky, the meeting was necessary and encouraging. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot attended; her presence was meant to be a direct message to the Jewish community. Mayor Lightfoot listened to the assembled members of the Jewish community.

Rabbi Matanky and Ida Crown Jewish Academy students

“As the mayor herself told us, she cannot stand by in the face of any form of hatred; she understands that shuls need to be places of safety.” Mayor Lightfoot commended the Jewish community for helping the police: “What was felt in that room was a sense of gratitude for taking this incident seriously.”

Yet throughout the meeting, Rabbi Matanky was keenly aware of another pressing commitment that evening. That night was the final home basketball game for Ida Crown Jewish Academy’s boys, and the seniors on the team were going to be honored by a special show at halftime.

“There was this contrast,” he notes. “While this is going on, I’m looking at my watch to make sure I can make it back in time to make it to the bleachers.” He made it back in time.

He insists that the basketball game – and the ordinary day of school that preceded it – was the best way to respond to antisemitism. “School continues as usual, Torah is being taught,” Rabbi Matanky explains. “Our response to the hatred is not to let it get the best of us. Yes, we need to work against it, but at the same time to lead our lives as normal as possible.” He stresses that for children especially, the comforting routines of school and Jewish rituals are powerful ways to create a sense of security and safety.

Rabbi Matanky

Sending our kids to Jewish schools sends the message that Judaism is something to celebrate.

“If our Jewish identity is based only on Jewish tragedy, then we can’t have hope for the future,” Rabbi Matanky notes. Children need to see the “wonder and joy” in Jewish life too. “Jewish education provides our children with an identity that’s positive. Instead of an identity that’s created by others through antisemitic attacks, we need to create our own.”

Chicago police quickly tracked down the perpetrator and arrested him.

Rabbi Matanky’s goal is to make sure students find the joy in Judaism and grow up free of fear. He’s doubling down on sharing Jewish pride and strengthening the commitment to Jewish life.

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