As someone who regularly writes and comments on anti-Semitism, I’ve been getting asked a lot, “What is going on in New York?” Even my six-year-old daughter, overhearing radio and television interviews, has been asking, “Why do other people hate Jews?” They are both complicated questions without easy answers, especially for a kindergartner.

As with other forms of bigotry and hatred, a great deal of Jew hatred stems from pure ignorance and fear of “the other.” Like almost no other minority group in America outside of the Amish, visibly Orthodox Jews (Haredi or ultra-Orthodox) are distinctive in every way; they dress differently, they often speak Yiddish or Hebrew and at least meld it with English, and follow Biblical laws long since forgotten by the secularized world. In an Orthodox neighborhood on a Saturday afternoon, seeing throngs of modest and well-dressed Jews walking the streets instead of driving is common. Orthodox Jews are the epitome of the “other” and live and work in a tight communal circle — a boon for intracommunal cohesiveness but counterproductive for intercommunal understanding and acceptance.