Five years after January 6, 2021, Athena Strategy’s Kathy Boockvar and Philadelphia City Commissioner Seth Bluestein sat down with Aaron Dorfman, Executive Director of A More Perfect Union, to reflect on the rise of political violence, how we got here, antisemitism, and how local communities can help. While we may be living in challenging, divisive times, the discussion reminded us that we are not powerless, and each of us have a role to play.
It has been shocking to be a witness over the last five years to the acceleration of political violence and the public acceptance of it, amplified by many in positions of power fueling the erosion of trust and amplifying false narratives. The speakers noted the frequent correlation of political violence and antisemitism, often intertwined and fueled by similar narratives, and both recalled having received chilling threats laced with antisemitism.
Despite the rising temperature, all speakers agreed that violence is not inevitable. They offered a formula grounded in the Jewish value of Tikkun Olam (repairing the world) and practical suggestions to grow civic engagement and rebuild community:
- Proximity Builds Trust: Distrust can thrive in isolation. Talk to your family and your neighbors about how elections work and the strict code of conduct that bipartisan election officials follow. Encourage those who are skeptical – and those who are not!- to become poll workers.
- Modeling Respectful Conflict: We must lean into disagreeing better. This includes listening to each other, and not shying away from civilly discussing the hard issues, without delegitimizing the other person’s view.
- Accountability: Leadership demands calling out violent and inflammatory rhetoric even when it comes from your own camp. We cannot be neutral when it comes to threats and violence, and we must hold accountable those who instigate them.
Rebuilding trust and lowering the collective temperature is going to take every one of us. So let’s commit to speaking out and showing up for each other, call out inflammatory rhetoric when we hear it, and demand more accountability from our leaders.