Just Another Loser with a Laptop?

Jew-hate-attacks were posted on the web pages of two Boulder synagogues and the Boulder Rabbinic Council yesterday, according to Jeffrey Finkelstein who maintains the sites and compared the hacking to someone painting cyber swastikas on synagogue walls.

It’s hard to imagine a more cowardly act than vandalism, real or cyber. Those who stoop to electronic Jew-baiting are no different from those who place a burning cross on the front-lawn of a Jew. They are both snakes crawling under rot and refuse, occasionally spewing forth their venom then retreating to the safety of their anonymity.

Given the persistent pathology of anti-Semitism, that such an attack occurred is not big news. That it occurred in Boulder is.

Boulder is the quintessential liberal town. It is the epicenter of New Age culture anchored by the Naropa Institute, a tolerance-teaching Buddhism-inspired college. It is, arguably, America’s most fervent preserver of what remains of the Age of Aquarius; where medical pot abounds and the annual 4/20 “smoke-in” attracts thousands. A utopian quest for universal peace, uncompromising tolerance, energetic environmentalism and spiritual growth pervades Boulder’s atmosphere.

So why here?

Hopefully, we’ll find out when the hacker is caught. In the meantime, my best counsel to my fellow Members of the Tribe: Vigilance. The Ku Klux Klan began with cross-burnings that begat tar-and-feathering that begat lynching. Hitler and his Brownshirt goons began the “Final Solution” with simple-minded local vandalism that begat a Fascist orgy of nation-wide vandalism – Kristalnacht – that begat Auschwitz. The snake may slither forth again and the next time it may be more than just another loser with a laptop.