“Intolerance festers and metastasizes in darkness and silence: it depends and feeds upon apathy and indifference. Each of us can play a part in preventing that from happening.”
— Dave Austin, Clerk, Haddonfield Friends Meeting
To our Friends community
On the morning of Friday, April 1, members of our meeting discovered two swastikas spray painted on trees located on either side of the entrance to our graveyard which faces the meetinghouse. We believe this crime happened sometime between Monday and Thursday morning.The Haddonfield police had already been contacted and are now investigating. We will be following up with them.
After speaking with the leadership of the school, the decision was made to cover these disgusting symbols of hate with paint so that the students and staff of the school wouldn’t have to deal with seeing them. That has been taken care of.
With the advice and assistance of our communications team, we have been in touch with local media outlets in the hope that they will report on this. I believe that silence in the face of hate is at best a sign of surrender, and at worst amounts to complicity.
Even though we are Quakers, there are times when we cannot and should not be silent.
It is a sad fact that hate crimes of all kinds, especially incidents involving antisemitic hate, have been on the rise in recent years across our state and our country, including locally.
No matter what the possible motivation for this incident might have been, we must as a community come together to stand against it. Intolerance festers and metastasizes in darkness and silence: it depends and feeds upon apathy and indifference. Each of us can play a part in preventing that from happening.
We will keep you updated on any further news regarding this incident. In the meantime, let us all hold our entire community in the Light, in the hope that healing can happen and that love and justice can prevail.
If you have additional questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.
In friendship,
Dave Austin
Meeting Clerk
Haddonfield Friends Meeting
