BY MICHAEL OLOHAN
OF NORTHERN VALLEY PRESS
TENAFLY, N.J.—Almost 1,000 members of Jewish congregations in Bergen County joined with interfaith partners representing Catholic, Presbyterian, Protestant and Muslim denominations for an interfaith vigil at Kaplen Jewish Community Center on the Palisades in Tenafly Oct. 29 to mourn and celebrate the lives of 11 worshippers murdered in an anti-Semitic attack at a Pittsburgh synagogue.
The Anti-Defamation League has called the attack the deadliest ever waged against the Jewish community in U.S. history.
The attack occurred Saturday, Oct. 27 when 46-year-old Robert Bowers entered the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, and shouting anti-Semitic epithets, opened fire on congregants participating in a Shabbat service.
Following a 20-minute rampage, 11 worshippers were killed and six people injured, including four police officers.
The suspect has been indicted on 44 federal counts—federal hate crimes—and faces a maximum possible penalty of death, or life without parole, followed by a consecutive sentence of 535 years’ imprisonment, CNN reported.
The charges include 11 counts of obstructing religious freedom resulting in death and 11 counts of committing violent crime using a firearm.
Communities united in vigil
The over two-hour-long vigil featured almost 20 speakers and songs from the Solomon Schechter Day School Choir, Tzofim Singers, singer Naama Levy, cantor Israel Singer of Temple Emanu-El and guitarist Adam Kohane of Temple Emeth.
Speakers included North Jersey Jewish leaders and Cardinal Joseph William Tobin, archbishop of Newark, and political leaders including U.S. Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-5) and Bill Pascrell (D-9) and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker.
Speakers throughout the vigil remembered and celebrated the lives of 11 Jewish worshippers murdered in Pittsburgh, reading excerpts from media reports describing their lives and the impacts they had on people around them and their community.
A flyer distributed at the vigil called for a “Solidarity Shabbat” Nov. 2 and 3 to remember the 11 victims and included a listing of 80 North Jersey community synagogues participating.
The flyer listed the names and ages of Pittsburgh victims, including Joyce Feinberg, 75; Richard Gottfried, 65; Rose Mallinger, 97; Jerry Rabinowitz, 66; Cecil Rosenthal, 59; David Rosenthal, 54; Bernice Simon, 84; Sylvan Simon, 87; Daniel Stein, 71, Melvin Wax, 88, and Irving Younger, 69.
‘We stand with them’
“The tragedy…has impacted Jews all over the world and those from many faith-based communities. Our thoughts and strength are with the families and friends of the victims of this tragedy,” said Jordan Shenker, CEO, Kaplen JCC on the Palisades. “We are here tonight to tell the Pittsburgh community: They are not alone. We stand with them.”
Jason Shames, CEO, Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey, said “we will use the power of grief to make our Jewish community stronger.”
‘So polarized politically’
Rabbi Chaim Poupko, president, Rabbinical Council of Bergen County, said “we live in a world that is so polarized politically and socially…we all log onto an Internet that can narrow a person’s views through social media instead of broadening those views.”
He continued, “So if we are to memorialize our 11 brothers and sisters…we must also think how we can turn radically to normalcy, how can we achieve a radical shift to normalcy, temperance and tolerance…toward embracing the views of others and arguing and honoring at the same time.”
Rabbi David-Seth Kirshner of Closter, president of the North Jersey Board of Rabbis, said “the love that is gathered in this room, that is so much stronger than a single person’s hate is all being channeled and sent to the community in Squirrel Hill and I’m confident that they feel our love and embrace today.”
“Rabbis and community leaders of every stripe have come together in this moment of pain to let us know that we will not suffer alone,” he said to applause.
“We are together because we share a common DNA of humanity of goodness and of love and to see all my brothers and sisters of faith here with us today…is the most unique and special bond to heal our hearts at this moment,” said Kirshner.
Incidents on the rise
Archdiocese of Newark Roman Catholic Cardinal Tobin prayed for the victims of the Pittsburgh shooting and said, “We strongly condemn the hatred that shattered the sacredness of Shabbat and birthed the heinous violence that extinguished 11 lives and left six more wounded.”
Tobin said incidents of anti-Semitism rose 57 percent nationwide in 2017, “the largest single-year increase on record.”
“Here in New Jersey, reports of anti-Semitic events increased 32 percent in 2017, representing the third highest number of reported incidents in our nation,” he said.
“And so we stand in solidarity with the members of Jewish faith communities and affirm that hate crimes toward our Jewish neighbors are hate crimes against all of humanity,” Tobin said, eliciting applause.
“We are committed to fight anti-Semitism in all of its murderous forms. We call upon all people, especially our elected leaders, in this week before national elections to reject divisive and hateful statements,” Tobin added to applause.
“[And] to reject intolerant rhetoric and demeaning caricatures that create an obscene ambient in which heinous violence is predictable. We further call upon all federal and state legislators to address the ongoing issue of gun violence,” he said to louder applause.
“This is a common denominator in so many of the recent acts of murder and terrorism,” Tobin said.
Pascrell read a poem that he composed about the tragedy and appeared emotionally distraught at times reading from his notes. “Anti-semitism is a cancer on the face of humanity, the oldest form of hatred on earth,” he said. “It can only be defeated when a community or the country stands together in a unified voice.”
Pascrell said the synagogue was attacked “because of their advocacy in support of refugees…this is the kind of hate we are fighting.”
Following an emotional reading, Pascrell was embraced by Gottheimer.
Gottheimer said “we must not ignore a clear resurgence of [anti-Semitic] attacks in our country and around the world.”
He thanked the first-responders who ran toward the shooting rampage at the Jewish synagogue.
“I will take comfort in the words of the late Sen. John McCain: ‘Do not despair in our present difficulties. We believe always in the promise and greatness of America because nothing is inevitable here, because Americans never quit, we never surrender, we never hide from history, we make history,’” Gottheimer said.
‘Blame does not heal’
“There is evil in disunity. I worry now in this country that in a time of grief and pain the response is to lift our hands and point fingers of blame at other Americans…but blame does not heal,” Sen. Booker told the crowd. “We should not be seeking blame in moments like this, but accepting responsibility.”
He said “few have been sounding the alarm” about an increase in anti-Semitism incidents.
“Will this be a time where we are called to love our neighbor and see the dignity in others?” he asked.
‘Now have a choice’
Booker said heinous, evil incidents “do not define us, but what defines us is how we respond and tell our truth.”
“We now have a choice to how we will respond,” said Booker.
He said the problem is a “poverty of compassion, a poverty of empathy,” and that “hope is the active conviction that despair will never have the last word.”
He said people must actively oppose anti-Semitism and racism in all forms. He said the “road to hell is paved with bystanders…Our story is overcoming hate, our story is overcoming violence. Our story is when black children were being discriminated, Jewish children got on buses for freedom rides because they knew that your justice is my business.”
Booker rallied the vigil audience to applause on several occasions.
“Our JCC exists to create meaningful experiences and build community, and last night’s vigil was a living, breathing example of how our center serves as the central gathering place for our Jewish community in both the physical and philosophical sense,” said Shenker on Oct. 30.
He thanked the Jewish Federation, the New Jersey Board of Rabbis, Rabbinical Council of Bergen County, and nearly a dozen area synagogues for an “outpouring of assistance” in helping to coordinate efforts and make the community vigil possible.