Everyone acknowledges that the Holocaust killed millions of Jews, right? Wrong. There are many people in the world that are part of white supremacsist and neo-Nazi groups that believe the horrid events of the Holocaust never happened. Their mission is to spread hate speech towards Jewish people and other minority groups. Recently, in New York City reports emerged that these groups had planned a “Day of Hate” against Jewish people.

The First Amendment protects our freedom of speech and press among other things like petitions, assembly and religion. However, this does not mean that all free speech is moral. Extremist groups abuse their right to free speech. When does free speech become harassment? There is a fine line between free speech and violence. Extremist groups can legally spread hateful messages, but as soon as hateful messages turn into violence and vandalism, these actions become illegal and seriously harmful.

On Feb. 25, extremist groups encouraged people to vandalize places of worship and spread hateful antisemitic propaganda in places around America. Luckily, the extremists never acted upon the proposed actions and Jewish communities and allies banded together for peace. Synagogues were packed with Jews and non-Jewish allies alike. Services were also held in public places as a form of protesting the hateful messages.

While the support for Jews across America is encouraging, this support does not outweigh the ongoing issue of antisemitism. Even though there are many allies and supporters of Jews, the few extremists that exist overshadow the encouragement.

As a Jew, the proposed “Day of Hate” is utterly disgusting to me. Even if you aren’t Jewish, it should still disgust you too. Nobody should be treated like they are less than others. The fact that people can be so hateful to others is astonishing, and in a world with so much diversity, this hate is detrimental.

Hate groups are not the only problem that Jews face. The rise of antisemitic celebrities influences so many people with their large platforms. Kanye West is a perfect example of this. The only way to halt antisemitism is for people to recognize the harm of celebrities like Kanye West and stop supporting them.

Don’t get me wrong, there was a point in time where I listened to a lot of West’s music because it was genuinely good and I enjoyed it. Now, you won’t catch me listening to Kanye West. Ask yourself this: “ Is it okay to support someone so hateful?”

Aside from the actual hate itself, one of the most surprising things about the “Day of Hate” is that nobody I knew had heard about it. I would discuss the “Day of Hate” with other people, some of whom were Jewish, and almost everyone I talked to had no idea what I was talking about.

People being unaware of the “Day of Hate” is most likely due to a lot of big news outlets, such as the New York Times, failing to cover the story. The New York Times is one of the biggest newspapers in the world, and is located in the state with the highest Jewish population percentage in America. New York City alone has approximately 1.7 million Jews, but where was the coverage of the “Day of Hate?” I bet the Jews there weren’t too happy when a large news outlet didn’t report on the troubling event.

In fact, I didn’t know the “Day of Hate” was happening until Orthodox Jew Tik-Toker Miriam Ezagui posted a video replying to a comment that warned Ezagui of the potential dangers on Feb. 25. I check written news outlets every day so I should never have to find out about something as horrible as the “Day of Hate” on a social media app.

After seeing that video I dug deeper into the story. So little came up in my search which was very disheartening, and people need to be aware of ongoing antisemitism in America.

The lack of reporting on this event greatly concerns me. Every display of hate should be well documented and released to the public to spread awareness of the effects that hatred has on the world. Nobody should feel less than others, because at the end of the day, we’re all human.