False alarm, real symptom

I think it’s only fair to say a few words about the outcome of the stumbling stones scrawled in Piazza Santa Giulia last week. As most people probably already know, nearby surveillance cameras revealed that the stones weren’t deliberately defaced, but were actually a game played by children aged between 3 and 5.
I can’t help but think it was fortunate that the scrawled stones were discovered on a Saturday, and that the Jewish community was consequently notified last, when everyone—institutions, organizations, newspapers—had already assumed the vandalism was deliberate. Otherwise, someone might certainly have accused the Jews of being paranoid, of wanting to see anti-Semitism where it doesn’t exist at all costs, etc. Fortunately, however, we only intervened at the end of Shabbat, when many had already expressed their firm condemnation and the demonstration had already been planned.
It’s certainly gratifying to note that in this case there was no act of anti-Semitism or deliberate insult to the memory of the eight elderly women deported and murdered in Auschwitz. It was also gratifying to note the widespread public outcry and unanimous solidarity (at the institutional level) that this alleged act of outrage elicited. It must also be said, however, that the almost unanimous belief that it was a deliberate act did not arise out of nowhere: it is symptomatic of a toxic climate, of a period in which hostility toward Jews has grown exponentially, and in which even the need to remember the Holocaust is often questioned, if not at the institutional level, certainly at the level of individuals and on social media; even in schools, disturbing signs of this have been seen.
So the outrage was believed possible because it was indeed possible. It’s a sad but necessary observation. The institutions’ prompt response is nevertheless a positive sign, demonstrating that the problem of anti-Semitism is now publicly acknowledged, not denied. The false alarm about the stones was a disturbing but, at the same time, somewhat comforting symptom.

Anna Segre