Antisemitism - The Punchline

According to Canada's Bnai Brith, a young religious Jew is the latest victim of antisemitic incidents in St. Agathe. There have been acts of vandalism, burglary and egg throwing directed at religious Jews.

On August 16, a family was walking to synagogue. Teens followed them down Rue Principale, the town’s main street, four boys and six girls shouting insults at the family and throwing coins at them...The tallest of the group, obviously wanting to impress the others, slapped a son on the cheek...He then put some kind of ring on his finger and punched the son on the side of the eye and he began to bleed.

And what was the official town response?

St. Agathe des Monts Assistant Director General Benoit Fugère was upset to hear about the latest incident.

“I was not aware of this,” he said, “but I can only believe that this was an isolated incident. We have very good relations with the Jewish community and I do not believe St. Agathe has a problem with racism....”

And the, excuse the pun, punchline?

“I do not believe going to the media is necessarily the right thing. It might just accelerate the problems.”

I never manage to figure out this logic.

If, without press and media, we have antisemtism, verbal and physical violence, the media can't be the cause. It can, yes, make things hot, but it can only contibute eventually to a solution.