Letter to the Editor: Cheryl Dorchinsky

Letter to the Editor,

What happened on Womack Road in Dunwoody is not just a local scandal — it’s a gut punch to the soul of our community. We all saw it: signs, brazen and hateful, plastered with a Jewish slur right across from a high school. But the story didn’t end with a word on a board. It escalated, as so many things do when hate is left unchecked. When confronted, Mark and Anna Bouzyk didn’t back down. Instead, they hurled slurs at a grieving father — whose beautiful brave daughter, Rose, was murdered by a terrorist — finding what seemed like satisfaction in his pain. I keep asking myself: how did we get here? What happened to humanity?

When Hate Moves in Next Door

This isn’t some distant tragedy or an abstract debate about free speech. This is our street, our neighbors, our children walking past signs of hate on their way to school. When hate is allowed to take root in our front yards, it doesn’t just poison the air — it suffocates our sense of safety, our decency, our very identity as a community.
We’re told, sometimes by the very people who stoke these fires, that it’s not “real” antisemitism. That having “Jewish friends” or citing hate groups like Jewish Voice for Peace somehow makes it all OK. This is gaslighting, plain and simple. It’s a smokescreen that lets bigotry fester and gives the worst among us permission to act on their ugliest impulses.

The Enemy Within: Excuses and Enablers

Let’s be clear: there is no justification for hate, no matter who tries to dress it up as debate or dissent. When organizations or individuals use their Jewish identity to excuse or minimize antisemitism, they are not offering nuance — they are handing ammunition to those who would see us divided and afraid.
Why do we allow this? Why do we let people who have never set foot in Israel, who have never been forced to mourn a child lost to terror, dictate the terms of our outrage? If you have strong opinions about Israel, go there. Vote. Argue. But do not stand here, in the safety of suburbia, and give cover to those who would spit on a father’s grief.

A Community’s Choice

We have a choice. We can shrug and say, “It’s just words.” Or we can recognize that every slur, every sign, every cowardly justification is a brick in the wall that divides us. Silence is not neutrality. It is complicity.
We need to reclaim our streets, our schools, our sense of belonging. We need to stand with the grieving, the targeted, the vulnerable — not just with words, but with action. Bobbi Livnat and David Lubin inspired those actions. Peacefully, volunteers have stood outside their homes with Israeli flags and signs of love for Jews and Israel. The call was put out and our community answered. This isn’t the first time and sadly it most likely won’t be the last. Get involved, put up your own signs. Speak out at council meetings. Refuse to let hate go unanswered.

This is About Us

Womack Road is a mirror. It shows us who we are, and who we might become if we don’t fight for our values. Hate doesn’t need a majority to win — just enough silence to feel safe.
Let’s make it clear: there is no home for hate here. Not on Womack Road. Not anywhere. If you feel anger, good. Let it move you. If you feel sorrow, let it remind you what’s at stake. This is our community. Let’s defend it — with passion, with unity, and above all, with our humanity.
Am Yisrael Chai. 

Cheryl Dorchinsky, Atlanta