Jews are diverse. We come from myriad backgrounds and hold a variety of beliefs and opinions. We do not say this because we believe it makes us special — on the contrary, it makes us just like every other group of people. We say it because it is the truth, and when it is forgotten or ignored or disbelieved, it endangers us and harms the community as a whole.

The flyers that a group designed with the word “FRAUD” below Lt. Gov. Josh Green’s face (“Lt. Gov. Josh Green target of hate campaign,” Star-Advertiser, Aug. 26) seemed to be directed at Green as an individual, motivated by his support for COVID-19 vaccination and other public health policies. But when the same flyers were later posted in Honolulu with the word “JEW” added, the message of the flyers was that his Jewishness is somehow linked to his supposed status as a fraud and his advocacy for certain COVID-related policies. Put simply, these signs were no longer a condemnation of Josh Green specifically, but an attack on all Jewish people. That attack was baseless and hateful, and is dangerous not only to Hawaii’s Jewish community but also the broader Hawaii community and beyond.

Jews are people just like you. Like you, we send our children to school, where they grow up together with your children. Like some of you, some of us attend religious services every week; like some of you, some of us live secular lives. Like you, we have diverse beliefs, we may debate and argue, we often disagree with our family and friends and acquaintances. Like you, we don’t think or act the same way as everyone else who shares our religious, ethnic, racial or cultural affiliations.

Antisemitism — discrimination, prejudice, hostility, or violence directed against Jews because they are Jewish — relies on the idea of Jewish people as different from other people and inherently separate from the rest of the community. This is the same logic that enables racism and other forms of hatred. Someone who believes hateful stereotypes about Jews is prone to believe negative stereotypes about other marginalized groups as well. Likewise, if one believes negative things about other marginalized groups, they are primed to believe antisemitic things. The dangerous worldview that enables anti-Asian and anti-Black racism and other racism, Islamophobia and other religious hate, belief in the inferiority of Kanaka Maoli and other indigenous and aboriginal groups, and numerous other oppressions is the same one that underlies antisemitism.

Antisemitism is based on the same worldview as other forms of hate. Antisemitism singles Jews out and puts us in danger. That danger ripples out into our community. And our community is your community, too.

Josh Levinson submitted this piece on behalf of leaders in 14 Jewish organizations serving Hawaii, Kauai, Maui and Oahu. The co-signatories are: Chris Gerson, Daniel Bender, Rabbi Itchel Krasnjansky, Josh Levinson, Rabbi Levi Gerlitzky, Rabbi Mendel Zirkind, Rabbi Mendy Krasnjansky, Rabbi Michoel Goldman, Rabbi Rachel Short, Sandra and Donald Armstrong, Sara Silverman, Sheri Levin McNerthney, Steven Guttman, Una Greenaway and Victor Greenspan.