On Monday, the Islamic Society of Joplin – the only mosque within 50 square miles of Joplin, Missouri – burned to the ground in what authorities suspect was a hate-fueled arson attack.

This painful incident occurred a mere 24 hours after the Sikh temple massacre in Wisconsin, and the two tragedies broadcast to America (and to the world) the dangerous depths of Islamophobia and hatred for the other by white extremists in this country.

However, a different message is now being broadcast in Joplin, a town which just last year demonstrated its strong communal spirit in the wake of a devastating tornado. And it is a stirring message of tolerance and a rejection of hatred, a message that’s being delivered in the form of both communal support and the sudden success of a donation campaign to help rebuild the mosque.

Local religious institutions have stepped forward, showing an outpouring of support and offering communal spaces where citizens can hold an iftar – the meal which breaks the day’s fast during Ramadan.

But perhaps the most amazing element has been the sudden success of an online fundraising campaign to rebuild Joplin’s mosque. In less than 24 hours (at the time of this writing), nearly $160,000 of the $250,000 needed to rebuild Joplin’s mosque has been pledged, with donations from across the country (and world) continuing to pour in.

Ten years ago today, my wife was nearly killed in a bombing at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, an attack that killed the two friends with whom she was sitting and forever changed the trajectory of so many more lives.

Including mine.

That was 2002. Years later, in a desperate attempt to overcome those psychological demons that still haunted me after the attack, I attempted to go back to the source, to understand and — yes — reconcile with the family of the bomber.

This is the story:

In the summer of 2002, Hamas – targeting both Israelis and Americans – struck a cafeteria at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The blast, triggered by a remotely-detonated backpack laden with explosives, threw my wife, Jamie , across the blood-streaked linoleum floor and killed the two Americans with whom she was sitting.

Years later, after her physical recovery and our return to the United States, I embarked on a psychological journey that led to East Jerusalem and the childhood home of the terrorist who set everything in motion.

Not out of revenge. Out of desperation.

Dear Shmuley,

This morning in Colorado, a tragic shooting occurred at a cinema — there are many dead and injured. The perpetrator was a white male. I bet you’re surprised.

I hear you’re having a press conference today, but it’s not to talk about this tragedy and the danger white males with guns pose to society. No, you plan to talk about how to find and deal with Muslim extremists in your district who pose grave safety concerns.

You scheduled this press conference as a political stunt after the ghastly terror attack in Bulgaria on Wednesday, which left many Israelis dead. Never mind that it has yet to be determined who perpetrated that attack. You assume it’s an Arab or Muslim — you usually conflate the two.

It’s gross that you tried to take advantage of the tragedy in Bulgaria for political gain. (After all, you are struggling in your race against Bill Pascrell (D), and must do something dramatic to make gains.) But what’s worse is that you, in a Bachmann-like moment, immediately tried to fan suspicion of and hatred for Muslims for political gain.

Shame on you.

Something transformational is happening at this moment — something that has happened repeatedly across the globe and which as a phenomenon merits deep reflection.

What is happening? A society is once again being galvanized by someone who, in a moment of desperation, publicly attempted to destroy oneself. In this case, it was an Israeli man, Moshe Silman, who set himself ablaze at the conclusion of Saturday night’s massive social justice march in Tel Aviv (and whose life hangs in the balance).

The act, a political symbol of despair and powerlessness Silman executed by claiming the only thing over which he had power — his body — has spontaneously galvanized the country. Last night, thousands of protesters blockaded government buildings and blocked major highways across Israel, chanting, “We are Moshe Silman!”

Protesters block Tel Aviv's Ayalon Highway in solidarity with Silman.

Around ten thousand protesters marched in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening, marking the one-year anniversary of Israel’s social justice protests (while hundreds more marched in cities across the country).

Israelis fill Tel Aviv's streets, marking one year of social justice protests.

The protests, which continue to focus on social and economic inequalities within Israel, have also been infused with more political tones of late. However, tonight’s march was rather uneventful up until the march’s conclusion.

It was at that point a 52-year-old Israeli man, Moshe Silman, set himself on fire after handing out a letter to fellow protesters, part of which read:

The State of Israel has stolen from me and robbed me, left me with nothing…

Two committees from the Ministry of Housing have rejected me, despite the fact that I have undergone a stroke and was granted 100% work disability…

I blame the State of Israel.

I blame Bibi Netanyahu and [Minister of Finance] Yuval Steinitz, both scum, for the humiliation that disenfranchised citizens go through day in and day out, that take from the poor and give to the rich.

Five years ago, I visited the East Jerusalem home of a Palestinian family I’d never met. It was an attempt at dialogue — an attempt, for all of us, to meet with and better understand the other.

We were on opposing sides of an ever-expanding equation, and were supposed to be enemies. This was the working assumption upon which we were simultaneously operating and trying to smash.

That much was clear.

When I crossed the threshold, the matriarch was standing before me, arms crossed, as her older son my age beckoned me to a couch. Porcelain cups of tea steamed on a platter as a clock’s swinging pendulum marked my breaths. Click. Click. Click.

As we sat, and after I ceremoniously burnt my tongue, sipping too eagerly, we began to chat with the help of a translator.

To my great surprise, and to the surprise of my hosts, as we began the delicate task of reconciling a rift none of us had personally created, we agreed on nearly everything: the horror of violence on both sides, the desire for peace, the need for two self-determining states — for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to end.

However, there was one thing we were unable to agree upon, one thing which remained incomprehensibe to this Palestinian family: that there were Israelis and Jews abroad (of which I was one) who sought an end to the conflict and to the occupation of Palestinian territories.

I was an anomaly. An aberration. A (welcomed) freak.

During my wife’s first pregnancy, we made the decision not to learn the sex of the child before birth. There were many reasons for this decision: the purity of discovery at the moment of delivery; an effort to prevent family and friends from inundating us with gender-defined baby gifts before the little one had even emerged; a Shalom-Auslander-like superstition that knowing would somehow invite a divinely-orchestrated disaster.

However, the truth is that one motivation outweighed all others, at least for me: a terrible fear that our child would be a boy.

It was a fear stemming from the fact that, as committed Jews, I knew we would circumcise him. And I also knew this: we desperately didn’t want to do so.

During the height of Newt Gingrich’s 2012 presidential campaign, the Sheldon-Adelson-backed Republican candidate caused waves when he called the Palestinians an “invented people” and declared that the Palestinian Authority was only interested in Israel’s destruction.

Why did Gingrich express such extreme views late last year on a matter that, at the time, was not central to his campaign? Simple: those are not Gingrich’s views, but the views of Sheldon Adelson, who at the time was writing ten-million-dollar checks to prop up the Gingrich candidacy.

On Sunday, a New York Times editorial wondered aloud why Adelson is now pumping staggering sums of money into the campaign of his second choice, Mitt Romney.

The answer is, itself, staggering:

The first answer is clearly his disgust for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, supported by President Obama and most Israelis. He considers a Palestinian state “a steppingstone for the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people,” and has called the Palestinian prime minister a terrorist. He is even further to the right than the main pro-Israeli lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which he broke with in 2007 when it supported economic aid to the Palestinians.

Mr. Romney is only slightly better, saying the Israelis want a two-state solution but the Palestinians do not, accusing them of wanting to eliminate Israel. The eight-figure checks are not paying for a more enlightened answer.

Daphni Leef — who last summer sparked the largest social protests in Israel’s history when she set up a tent along Rothschild Boulevard — attempted to reignite those historic protests on Friday by again setting up camp (along with hundreds of fellow protesters).

However, in stark contrast to the relatively accommodating stance police took toward the tent protests last summer, the authorities yesterday responded violently and with intentional symbolism as a mass of riot police beat and dragged Leef across the boulevard before arresting her.  They also forcefully prevented demonstrators from occupying the site where Israel’s protests began in 2011.

Saturday evening, approximately 7,000 Israelis took to the streets to protest Leef’s brutal arrest and to begin anew last summer’s massive protests which, at their peak, drew nearly 500,000 Israelis into the streets.

Israeli activists block a street in Tel Aviv during a protest on June 23, 2012.