Acton’s leaders and its citizens must speak clearly against bigotry
May was Jewish American Heritage Month. And the swastika was met only with silence and the rug it was swept under.
Quietly painted over — no police report, no public statement. Just gone, as if it had never been there. That’s how school administrators treated an antisemitic hate crime.
School administrators said the town was mourning the tragic loss of three students; they were distracted. But this wasn’t the first hate crime on school grounds brushed aside. In November, antisemitic and homophobic slurs were found in school bathrooms. Some were reported to the Acton police, but more were found and washed away without a police report, according to the school resource officer. No investigation. And this spring, once again, silence.
My father was born in hiding in Nazi-occupied France in March 1944. Last summer, I stood with my wife and children outside the house where he was born. I didn’t feel rage, but rather sadness that even now, humanity still treats one another with such cruelty, with little respect for life.
I’m disappointed, not angry. I was told, “It’s complicated.” I was told that a few residents called the school, not many. That doesn’t mean people aren’t hurt; rather, especially in small Jewish communities, we’ve learned to stay quiet. To keep our heads down because it’s safer. But where are our allies?
I’m grateful to our town for hoisting Pride Month flags above every streetlight downtown. But May was Jewish American Heritage Month. And the swastika was met only with silence and the rug it was swept under, no public statements — not from the Select Board, the School Committee, non-Jewish church leaders, from the DEI Commission, until the press asked. Don’t just “check the box” with statements in this paper. Speak loudly on social media. Let everyone know you stand against hate and indifference.
Silence is the soil where hate grows, and it has consequences.
Brian Farber
Ash Street
