To the Editor:

I am writing as both the president of the Greater Newtown/Danbury Chapter of Hadassah, and as a proud Jewish mother of two wonderful Jewish children. I was horrified by the hate crime that happened in our town in January. People often say when they have seen something disturbing "I can't unsee that." This is how I feel about the anti-Semitic graffiti spray painted on the package store. I will never be able to unsee "Burn the Jew." My son heard about the robbery and fire in school. He wanted to see where it happened, so we drove to the now boarded-up store. I had to explain to my children that it was more than just a robbery, more than just a fire, that it was a hate crime meant to terrorize all Jewish people. I cannot unsee the look in my children's eyes. I cannot unhear when my daughter said, "If anyone asks me if I am Jewish, I will say no."

That broke my heart, and I told my children, absolutely not, you should always be proud to be Jewish, and if anyone tells you there is something wrong with being Jewish, you need to stand up for yourself and tell an adult immediately. I also told them that if they ever hear or see someone being picked on because they are Jewish, Muslim, Christian, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, disabled, homosexual, human - anything, that they need to stand up for that person and tell an adult immediately.

As Hadassah president, I reached out to my region president to tell her what had happened and asked her what we can do. She contacted the Anti-Defamation League, and together we sent a message to my chapter members to tell them what had happened. I was fired up, ready to organize a unity rally to show that the Newtown community would not give in to hate. I contacted the store owner to tell him how outraged I was and that Hadassah would do whatever we could to help him.

Yesterday we found out that the whole incident was a lie. The owner staged the robbery, and fire, and spray painted the graffiti himself. He is charged with several crimes, but committing a hate crime does not appear to be one of them. It should be. He knew the effect it would have. He knew that anti-Semitic crimes are on the rise in our state and all across the country, so it seemed like the perfect decoy. Despicable acts like this only serve to increase people's unfounded hatred of Jews. Shame on him for defaming the Jewish community. Shame on him for trying to sully the entire Newtown community.

I am still fired up; I am still ready to stand up against hate here in Newtown, in Connecticut, and in our country. I hope that everyone in Newtown will stand with me.

Respectfully submitted,

Alicia Brown

President, Hadassah of Greater Newtown/Danbury

Newtown         February 17, 2017