Kol Ami News

Utah has a long history of being welcoming to people of the Jewish faith, stretching back to Brigham Young. That is a tradition that must continue.

Earlier this year, the Anti-Defamation League issued a startling report that showed the number of antisemitic incidents in the United States — assaults, vandalism and harassment — was higher in 2022 than in any year since the league began keeping records in 1979. 

Those who think hate crimes against Jews are a thing of the past — something belonging to black-and-white films from Nazi Germany — are sadly mistaken. They exist and are on the rise.

The report identified Utah as one of the safest states from such crimes, with six reported incidents in 2022. But that doesn’t give a clear picture of what congregations face each week, requiring security to be present during services and constant training in response to aggression and violence. That’s happening everywhere.

In 2021, someone etched a swastika on the window of a Jewish synagogue in Salt Lake City.  As Utah Rabbi Avremi Zippel told reporters at the time, “A swastika is not a political statement. A swastika is an image of hate. A swastika represents one thing and one thing only and that is death to the Jews.” And this, the Deseret News reported him saying, is becoming unfortunately more commonplace.

Rosh Hashanah, the celebration of the Jewish new year, begins Friday evening and ends at sundown Sunday. Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism and Samaritanism, will be observed Sept. 24-25 this year. It is the day of atonement, traditionally including 25 hours of fasting and earnest prayer. Many observant Jews spend most of the day in a synagogue.

These sacred days of observance would be a good time for the rest of the community to pledge to confront and resist hatred of any form directed toward Jews. Locally, it should be a time to renew the long-standing and historic bond between Judaism and the greater Utah community at-large.

That renewal includes remembering history. Jewish settlers came to Utah, or the territory of Deseret, as it was known then, not long after the first pioneers. They came because word had spread as to how friendly pioneer settlers were toward them. 

A history published on mormonsandjews.org notes some of these new settlers established profitable businesses. In 1865, Brigham Young “offered a hall gratis for religious services. On the High Holy Days that year, 50 Jews attended services, including some from Bozeman, in Montana Territory.”

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