I was in first grade when I experienced hatred towards my religion for the first time. I sat at a table in my classroom with three other boys, discussing our plans for the upcoming spring break. While the boys expressed their excitement about going on Easter egg hunts and receiving baskets full of candy and toys, I sat quietly and hoped they'd avoid asking me my holiday plans, as I was tired of having to explain to people why I didn't celebrate Easter. But alas, they turned to me and eagerly asked what I was doing for the holiday, to which I responded that I didn't celebrate it because I was Jewish. To this day, I can still remember the look of disgust and shock on their faces when they realized that I was different than them, and the following insults that ensued still breaks my heart.

I wish I could tell you how a couple of 7-year-old's could express such hatred, or how the fact that I had been their friend and classmate for so long could disappear so quickly. I went from classmate to enemy, suddenly being judged and depreciated because I sat for a Seder dinner instead of an Easter dinner. The hardest thing for me to understand, however, was the fact that besides my religious beliefs differing from theirs, I was like them in so many ways. We read the same books, ate the same sandwiches at lunch, swung from the same monkey bars at recess. We were able to coexist so peacefully and happily until such a small factor created a huge rift between us. I came home that day in tears, sobbing into my mother's shoulder and begging for an answer as to why my friends hated me all of a sudden.

She told me that I should be proud of who I was, proud of everything that my ancestors fought for that paved for a bright and safe future for my family. She told me that she couldn't explain where the hatred came from in people, but that if I were to ever encounter hatred against my religion, beliefs, or anything that I was passionate about, that I should overcome it with everything in me. So that is exactly what I did. The next day in school, with the help of my teacher, I confronted the three boys at my table, and told them that there was no reason to hate me because I was Jewish. I summed up all of the courage in me to stand up to these cowardly bullies blinded by hate and tried to convince them that there was no reason we couldn't continue to play kickball together or share crayons just because I was Jewish.

I always thought the Holocaust ended with World War II. I always thought the hatred and prejudice against minorities diminished as the Civil Rights Movement swept the world. I always thought that love could conquer almost anything in the world. I learned that week that the adversity would never stop. But that wasn't going to stop me from being proud of who I was or from believing that all people, no matter their background or beliefs, should be treated equally.

What I cannot fathom to understand is how we have progressed so greatly in terms of understanding and acceptance, yet there is still so much hate and un-acceptance in the world. What happened in Pittsburgh this past Saturday is just one of the thousands of hate crimes that occur in the U.S. alone each year. Thousands of acts committed against innocent lives, just because their religion, skin color, sexual orientation, etc., differ from the average American. Men, women, and children alike are suffering at the hands of those who cannot come to love one another for the fact that we are all human beings. The message has been preached for decades--we were all created as human beings who should love and support one another and be able to coexist peacefully. The factors that make us who we are, such as our beliefs, aspirations, and physical attributes should be celebrated and honored by all, not used as fuel to commit heinous crimes or preach hateful words.

The words of a small, unknown writer like myself are unlikely to change the minds of the horrifically hateful people in the world. Quite honestly, I don't think there are many people on this planet that can. But maybe if we took a different approach to tackling that amount of hate on this planet, we could really change the world. Instead of one person trying to convince the prejudiced that their hate is unreasonable and cruel, if we can all ban together and spread love and acceptance to the point where it overcomes all of the hate, it can truly spark a change. Acceptance must be preached, whether it be on the basis of race, religion, sexual orientation, or beliefs.

We must honor the lives of those lost, past and present, by ensuring that the world remembers their names, their stories, and their legacies. The 11 beautiful lives lost in Pittsburgh this past weekend did not die in vain. The 49 beautiful lives lost at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando did not die in vain. The 9 beautiful lives lost at the Charleston church did not die in vain. We cannot allow their stories to be forgotten. We cannot allow the things that make them so wonderfully different to be diminished by people who cannot learn acceptance. We cannot allow history to continually repeat itself and just sit here watching countless innocent lives be lost to hate crimes.

We, as a nation, as a world...as human beings, must ban together to spread love and acceptance and stomp down on the hate that has stolen so many lives from us.