Oct 27, 2019 3 min read

”Anti-semitism is a noxious weed that should be cut out. It has no place in America.”

That observation was made by William Howard Taft, the 27th president of the United States and, later, a chief justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. It’s been close to 90 years since Taft exited public life, and casual expressions of anti-Semitism are nowhere near as common as they were in Taft’s time. But the “noxious weed” of anti-Semitism has yet to be fully cut from American life.

We found that out in the most dreadful way one year ago today.

Sometime after 10 a.m. on that rainswept Saturday, the word began spreading that there had been a shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood during Shabbat morning services. Within an hour or two, the full depth of the horror became apparent – 11 congregants were dead, and six people were injured. It was the awful handiwork of an apparently friendless Baldwin resident who had become an adherent of white-nationalist and neo-Nazi dogma.

Terror had landed on our doorsteps.

Even with 1995’s Oklahoma City bombing standing as a precedent, it became commonplace in the years after 9/11 to equate terrorism with jihadists who hailed from distant lands. But the Tree of Life massacre, along with attacks in Charlottesville, Va., El Paso, Texas, and elsewhere, has made one fact abundantly clear – our greatest terrorist threat comes not from without, but from within. More specifically, in the form of terrorism inspired by white supremacist ideology.

And it’s time the United States formulated a coherent counterterrorism strategy.

In the 18 years since 9/11, more Americans have died at the hands of domestic terrorists than foreign-born extremists. Yet more focus has been put on combating international threats by the Trump administration, online forums remain a breeding ground for vile, white nationalist rhetoric that dehumanizes Jews, Muslims, blacks, Mexicans and pretty much everyone not white, Christian and native-born, and weapons of large-scale slaughter remain all too easy to obtain.

John Horgan, a Georgia State University psychology professor who studies violent extremism and terrorism, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last week that the situation has become “so much worse” in the year since the Tree of Life shooting. Horgan also noted that the subculture of hate “is insidious. It’s pervasive. And it seems to be becoming an attractive counterculture to an increasing number of young people.”

Also, one particular elephant in the room should not be ignored: the president’s dehumanizing descriptions of undocumented immigrants, Muslims and political opponents, some of whom happen to belong to minority groups, is not helpful. It adds an accelerant to the fire of white nationalism.

What can be done? Among other things, our leaders need to vigorously condemn white supremacists and their poisonous ideology. Law enforcement needs the resources to effectively combat the threat. And, while respecting free speech, technology companies should not give a platform to white nationalist groups.

We may never be able to cut out the “weed” of hate. But we can – and must – work harder to stop it from spreading.