The Jewish community needs to step up and fight antisemitism. That was a key message at “Antisemitism in our Backyard,” a conversation with State Rep. George Hruza, R-St. Louis County, and Rabbi Brigitte Rosenberg of United Hebrew Congregation. Nearly 50 attendees gathered to learn about efforts to stop hate on Monday evening, July 7, at the home of Laura and Michael Ellenhorn.

“Antisemitism is here, and we’ve got to do something about it,” said Laura Ellenhorn. “We need lots of people at the table helping us with it, whether it’s public officials, funders, or philanthropists. It’s people who just care.”

Words can have nuance and mean different things to different people, Rosenberg told the group.

“Our leaders still need to think about what are the words that are being heard, not what they want to say, but what are the words that are being heard,” Rosenberg said. “And we need to be the ones to define antisemitism. What we as a community need to do is stand up and support one another, which is really what the Missouri Alliance is about and why we’re here.”

The Missouri Alliance and its founding director and former state representative Stacey Newman organized the event, during which Hruza suggested some antisemitic speech is the result of a lack of knowledge.

“I think a lot of these kids who say, ‘from the river to the sea,’ they don’t know what it really means,” Hruza said. “It means the annihilation of the Jews. That is not what they think. When it’s explained clearly, then they say, ‘No, that’s not what I mean at all.’”

Rosenberg said stamping out antisemitism is crucial to the future of Judaism.

“We can’t allow it to grow any further than it has,” she said. “One of my fears is for young people, who turn around and say, ‘What do I need from Judaism if this is what I’m going to get for it?’ We need to stand up to it. Our Jewish values do call on us to help others. They call on us to make our world a better place.”