May 23, 2022 — Buffalo NY
This piece originally appeared in the Buffalo News.
Until May 14, mentioning I was from Buffalo would inevitably turn to talk of chicken wings (Duff’s), lamenting the Sabres and tailgates with Bills Mafia. Sadly, our city has now joined Pittsburgh, El Paso, Poway, Charleston, and far too many other places whose names are associated with modern American mass shootings.
I am heartbroken for my hometown and the Black community, which are such a vital part of the Queen City. Working to eradicate the hatred behind this mass murder of people of color is more important than ever. And while that work is the responsibility of all of us who seek to be defined as members of a community of conscience, there is a special place for the Black and Jewish communities.
We share so much as two peoples who have known oppression and marginalization, as two peoples who marched together in Selma, and as two peoples who even share members as we both embrace Jews of color.
And now we share the dubious distinction of being targets of mass shootings fueled by the same toxic white supremacist ideology, the Great Replacement theory, which fueled the murder of 10 Blacks at the Tops on Jefferson Avenue and 11 Jews four years ago in a Pittsburgh synagogue.
As explained in American Jewish Committee’s Translate Hate glossary, the Great Replacement is a racist and anti-Semitic “conspiracy theory that claims there is an intentional effort, led by Jews, to promote mass (nonwhite) immigration, intermarriage and other efforts that would lead to the “extinction of whites.” This malignant idea was cited as what motivated both gunmen in Pittsburgh and Buffalo.
There is so much we must do. A top priority must be Congress acting against the dangerous social media algorithms that fuel the hatred plaguing our society. In many ways, this is a digital war in which we are in pitched battle. And we can win that war without trampling over the First Amendment.
One bill, sponsored by Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-N.J., and Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., seeks to slightly modify Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields social media websites from liability for content its users post.
The bill would remove that immunity for platforms with 10 million or more users when their algorithms contribute to a violation of civil rights. Facebook and Twitter would have an incentive to more aggressively police content that could lead to violence. It is not censorship. It is common sense.
These murders only make such legislative action more critical. As Jews and Blacks, along with our allies, we must marshal support for such legislation. Our lives may depend on it.
Rabbi David Levy, a Buffalo native, is director of the New Jersey office of the American Jewish Committee.
