Speech/Video for the Pittsburgh Shooting Vigil

This speech was recorded, so you can watch it here too: https://youtu.be/97s7zfwczYc

In times like these, we may have several different instincts. No matter how close we are to the victims, no matter how close we were to the congregation, nor to the city, nor to the country, nor even how close one may be to Jewry.

Some will wish to curl up and cry: close himself off to the world be it with increasing armed security and growing increasingly jaded and suspicious of others, be it by staying in on holy days for fear of identification: fear violent reactions to preconceptions.

And yet what good will this alone do? That murderer wins if we do this; the work of a terrorist is to take a small attack and to allow the rest of us to spiral out because of it. If we fall for this ploy, we do his work for him.

Some may wish to flee: to return to the land of Israel where Jewry is by no means safe. We see reports every day of Jews being attacked or threats of violence sent out, or far worse, kept in and ingrained into the minds of children. Even with this truth, many wish to find a place where danger is present but shadows are not, because others will not stand for us. The left turns their backs on us, the right see no special situation we have, and history has shown that anyone attack us.

And yet what good will this alone do? If Jews turn our backs on Jews after others turn their backs on us, we are not so much better.

And some of us will wish to fight back:

“Anyone who strikes a person with a fatal blow is to be put to death.” Leviticus 21: 12

I am quite confident that everyone here has felt this at some point: the need for just and equal retribution. And yet what good will this alone do? The 11 souls will not come back to us, nor can we deal him 11 fatalities. There is no equality here and all violence provides is another reason for extreme radicals to do this again. This murderer needed no excuse; don’t give others another reason.

And some of us will respond with nothing. They will go about their days pretending that they are not affected. We live across an entire ocean, and some may never feel inclined to go to religious services anyway. Why care if it doesn’t relate?

And this type of thinking is difficult to avoid at times; I won’t lie when I say that in the last few years I have seen a sense of helplessness turn to melancholic apathy within myself. And when others see that, they see an excuse for inaction as well.

In my book, not a single one of these responses alone work. They aren’t useful, and they lead each and every one of us down a path where we lose. We may lose something of our individual identities, and we lose what binds us together. Worse yet, those who take this as a profit, who see the world as being 11 people closer to being cleansed, they succeed, and they are brought together.

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After this tragedy, I called my family and my parents both separately told me that it might be a good idea to stop wearing my kippah. It is not the only tangible, visual symbol of my Jewish identity, nor indeed is it the most religiously significant of them, yet they both understood, as I know full-well, that it is the most recognizable to the communities that would mark me as the other; they were not afraid of people hating the religion I practice, but hating me as a practitioner of something that is clearly misunderstood. Otherwise, we would not cower in the shadows as we too often do.

I did not listen. These people died for my religion and I will not stop, as this would be a disgrace to theirs: their practices, their lives, and their memory.

Nor will I stop being proud of my beliefs nor my practices. I have people come up to me and say that it is nice to see another Jewish face, when they’re feeling alone in a place that does little to welcome them. I have others say they’ve never met a Jew their whole lives and I can make a connection, and hopefully shed some more light on something that leads and saves my life. The risk, as is indeed often felt is a backlash to those who think they are being funny—cutting me down to size—or people who like to exercise their hatred without the remorse. Even so I wake up every day and pray, unfazed:

אנכי עברי

So far I have criticized many responses, but not offered anything constructive. I believe however we are not so helpless. Tonight, we cry and we mourn the death of so many in our faith community. We mourn the ongoing death of our faith in innate human decency. We mourn the death of faith in security of North American diaspora Jewry, and it pains me to realize but it may be that some mourn the death of faith itself. Sadness is not useless on its own. Sadness brought us together.

And we remember that Zionism is to many a savior. However, there will always be a diaspora-community, and if we leave them, they are not secure. Jewry, where is it not present, will be misunderstood, and Jews will be subject of attacks based on ignorance. We must always have a presence, yet we must work with those in the Jewish State to support us when we are weak.

And nor shall we tread lightly. I will pray that G-d’s love not touch this undeserving man, but neither may we touch him either. We must be the bigger people. We do not have the numbers on our side to stand alone and be violent, nor should those who do abuse the power they have. What we can do is to create a movement that will protect us for now, and then to create the conditions in which radical element will not have existed anyway. We will act now to create a lasting change on every level of society and show that we are better: that ours is the path of kindness. We will never have unconditional mercy, for no people does, but we will remember. We will use our anger that these memories give us to impassion others, but not to lash out as our enemies do.

What we won’t be is idle. No individual response any of us have is necessarily misguided so long as it if can be harnessed. Alone it is crippling but together it is the start of something greater. Some will comfort, some will lead, some will lie low and regain the strength needed for the next fight. We are a people and we are only strong when we act consciously and act together: within our community and across all others.

  עם ישראל חי 

As we begin, I would like to walk everyone through some of the recent tragic events:

On the morning of Saturday the 27^th of October, Shabbat morning services were held at the Tree of Life Congregation, in a complex that houses 3 synagogues.

The building is in Squirrel Hill, a heavily Jewish neighborhood of Pittsburgh, and perhaps the most densely Jewish in Western Pennsylvania.

               The services however, were not only for ordinary morning services, and also were set to have a baby naming.  

               Almost immediately there was a police presence on site, with traffic and other safety reports being issued.

               By the time the assailant was apprehended, suspected Robert Bowers had fatally wounded 11 people, and injured many others.

         As a side note, I do not think that it is anything short of a miracle that the youngest fatality was a man, David Rosenthal, who was 54 years old. We can only imagine that the young families and the children were in everyone’s mind as the gunman attacked. Given that this was a baby-naming, we could have expected younger victims as well, and while we may never know exactly what happened, I believe that those who gave their lives for their faith also decidedly gave their lives for the continuity of their local community.

               Those victims are

1.     Joyce Fienberg, 75, of Oakland

2.     Richard Gottfried, 65, of Ross Township

3.     Rose Mallinger, 97, of Squirrel Hill

4.     Jerry Rabinowitz, 66, of Edgewood

5.     Cecil Rosenthal, 59, of Squirrel Hill

6.     David Rosenthal, 54, of Squirrel Hill

7.     Bernice Simon, 84, of Wilkinsburg

8.     Sylvan Simon, 87, of Wilkinsburg

9.     Daniel Stein, 71, of Squirrel Hill

10.   Melvin Wax, 88, of Squirrel Hill

11.   Irving Younger, 69, of Mt. Washington

However, we have seen some of the most positive reaction that we could have expected. All across the globe we’ve seen support, across all communities. We’ve seen Jewish communities, wherever we may find them, holding vigils and memorial events publically, or privately lending their prayers.

Across other communities, we have seen moments-of-silence held before sports’ games, we have seen leaders of Christian leaders, Muslim leader, and leaders of many other community-leaders leading their communities in contemplation and prayer, prayers for the families affected, prayers for the safety of all communities, and prayers that this will not happen again.

We have also seen incredible support from the Muslim community which in 24 hours raised $70,000, and as of last night has raised over $140,000 for support for the community.

 We have also learned that the shooter, Robert Bowers, chose this congregation to attack because they supported HIAS, an organization founded over 130 years ago by Jewish immigrants to the United Sates. This organization supports refugees from all over the world. HIAS has been so successful in fact that the state department personally asked them for support with thousands of refugees in Vietnam in 1975. This is cited as the reason Bowers chose to single out this congregation. Since this atrocity, HIAS has raised tens of thousands of dollars to continue in their efforts to help those including Central American migrants, and Syrian refugees.

               It is also widely cited that this man was spurred on by the increasing demands for border militarization, anti-immigration policy, and general xenophobia that we see with political figures like President Donald Trump.

Although I will be speaking later, I would like to address you all on a personal note here as well. I have been to this congregation, and sat in this very room where the violence took place. Indeed, it was during Tisha B'Av that I was there commemorating with my girlfriend as we lit candles to memorialize so many atrocities against the Jewish people, which all seem to fall around the same day:

               The destruction of the 1st and 2nd temples, the Spanish Inquisition, and the expulsion of Jews from Britain all seem to fall around this time. Although this was back in July, this tragedy seems to sting me just a little bit stronger, as I will now be counting this massacre at the Tree of Life Congregation among those events in my mind.