Letters: How easily hate begins

In his April 26 letter, “Genocide begins with words,” Rabbi Jonathan Case writes, “Evil and bigotry, prejudice and hatred, demonization and ridicule are the enemies of all good folks.”

This made me recall a moment 10 years ago when I was a docent at our State Museum.

As I was leading a group of fourth-graders to our next stop, a smiling young boy approached me.

“Are you a Christian?” he asked.

The question caught me off balance. Flustered, I said I would answer when the tour was over, thinking he would have forgotten by that time.

But he remembered. So I asked him why he wanted to know.

“Because I want to see you in heaven,” he answered.

On hearing that I was Jewish, he seemed confused.

Children who are taught to believe things that are patently false might have a propensity to hate without ever realizing they are doing so.