Dear Friend,
On Saturday a 19-year-old gunman filled with hatred entered the Chabad of Poway sanctuary, which was filled with worshipers on the last day of Passover. He murdered one woman, Lori Gilbert Kaye, 60, when she heroically jumped in front of the Chabad’s rabbi, Yisroel Goldstein, to protect him. Rabbi Goldstein’s life was saved, even as he was shot in both hands. Two more congregants, one just 8 years old, were wounded before the gunman fled the scene.
Today, we all share the pain and grief of the Poway of Chabad congregation and all others affected by Saturday’s murderous rampage. We also share the worldwide horror that places of worship have become common targets for carnage. We join with people the world over to decry the hatred that has spurred the anti-Semitic, Islamaphobic and anti-Christian outbursts that have killed so many worshipers in their safe spaces over recent weeks and months. We must combat this hatred, which is also the root of genocide and mass atrocities.
“Without scorn and disdain, there can be no genocide,” Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback of Stephen Wise Temple on Sunday told a citywide Yom HaShoah gathering in Pan Pacific Park, which drew hundreds to remember the Holocaust, at least half of them survivors and their families. The timing of this solemn event following Saturday’s violence could not have been more apt.
The answer to hate, the day’s program taught, is remembering those who perished and honoring survivors, as well as sharing love and helping others.
Eva Brettler, a child survivor of the Ravensbrück and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps, spoke at Sunday’s event, imploring the audience: “Please don’t keep hatred as your companion.”
Jewish World Watch sends our condolences to the mourners of the Poway synagogue shooting.
On Yom HaShoah, we reaffirm our promise that we will continue to fight hatred of people simply for who they are through education, activism and by working with survivors. As our co-founder Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis z”l wrote: “We believe you can choose. You can act. You can transform the world.”
Sincerely,
Susan Freudenheim
Executive Director