My name is Gene Simmons.
I’m Jewish.
My mother, Flora, was 14 years of age when she was in the concentration camps
of Nazi Germany.
Hate, which knows no boundaries, happened on a scale humanity could never imagine during World War II … to Jews, Catholics, Romani and homosexuals. And it didn’t happen that long ago.
Antisemitism is on the rise around the world. Yes, even here in America. And lest we dwell too long on antisemitism as a Jewish problem, it bears noting that hate comes in many forms. And hate makes no distinction between antisemitism, racism, Islamophobia and homophobia.
When Martin Luther King Jr. marched on Birmingham, standing alongside him were Catholic priests and Jewish rabbis. The photos are there for all to see.
Don’t for a second think that antisemitism or any other kind of hate is not your problem.
It is.
What history teaches us is if you don’t speak up, you’re next.
United we stand!
Divided… we fall!
Gene Simmons is co-founder of Kiss and an entrepreneur.
This article is part of Variety’s Antisemitism and Hollywood package and was written in September.