Like so many others, I participated in Indianapolis’ Community Service memorializing the victims of the most virulent anti-Semitic attack in American history. At our Community Service, as at the hundreds of similar commemorations, the right words were spoken and the right sentiments expressed.
However, I would like to add an additional message – a strongly worded message – about what our obligation to the victims ought to be. It was printed as an Op-Ed piece in Haaretz and written by Ronald Linden. It is entitled,
“We Pittsburgh Jews Don’t Want Your ‘Thoughts and Prayers’”
“So many people – who know we live in Pittsburgh and that we have called the Squirrel Hill neighborhood home for more than 40 years – thought about us and wrote or called when they heard about the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue. We have been moved and heartened by their concern.
“We told you, our friends and our family, that we were safe, in the sense that we were fortunate enough not to be among the victims of Saturday’s terrible hate crime.
“We are not really safe, of course, because the vile, murderous bigotry can – and has – hit all our communities, especially those who are consistently ‘othered’: people of color, Muslims, LGBT people.
“The sentiments behind the worst anti-Semitic atrocity in American history have been legitimized and weaponized by cowardly, unprincipled political leaders who will now fall all over themselves to send their thoughts and prayers.
“Keep these facile words. Instead show us guts.
“Stand up to the purveyors of hate, instead of cozying up to them.
“Stand up to the NRA, instead of licking their boots for campaign contributions.
“Stand up for our communities, our diversity, for the founding dream of our society and our country.
“That dream is missing, not lost, but it will take courage to find it again. Today’s victims, like others before them, deserve no less.”
Whether we agree or disagree with Linden’s thoughts, his heartfelt words are worth considering as he buries his dead. May God guard us from such tragedies.
B’Shalom
Rabbi Stanley Halpern