We’re fortunate in America that anti-Semitic violence is not the norm (although it is the most common anti-religious violence in America), but it still happens.  Evil doesn’t need a reason, but so often evil finds its justification in antisemitism.  Today, an elderly man, his 14-year-old grandson, and an unrelated woman died violently solely because they were Jewish.

I hope that they rest in peace, and I very much hope that there is some divine retribution, not just for the man who carried out those acts, but for all the people around the world who remain wedded to violent antisemitism.  You don’t have to like the Jews — just as I don’t have to like you — but you don’t get to kill the Jews just because you don’t like them, just as I do not get to kill you, whoever or whatever you are, just because I don’t like you.  In a righteous world, we’re allowed bad feelings, but not  bad acts.

UPDATE:  Irony seems like the wrong word for the fact that neither William Lewis Corporon, nor his grandson, Reat Griffin Underwood, was Jewish. The style of their deaths still makes them martyrs to antisemitism and the fact of their deaths still makes for a painful, incomprehensible tragedy for their family and friends.