Prayers for Pittsburgh and Jews Everywhere

Another mass shooting in another house of worship.  On Sat., Oct. 27, eleven people were killed at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  The hatred that led to this senseless killing breaks my heart.  It is a threat to civil society.

Unlike other mass shootings, which have seemed far from me, this one felt a little closer, although through degrees of separation.  One of my retired clergy colleagues lives in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood where the shooting took place.  His Weight Watchers group meets at Tree of Life, and the doctor who diagnosed his prostate cancer, Jerry Rabinowitz, was killed in the attack.  

A woman from First United Methodist Church in Elmhurst told her pastor in tears that two brothers of her friend were also killed.   David and Cecil Rosenthal were inseparable from each other and from their community.

The Anti-Defamation League reports that this was the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the history of the United States and that it comes at a time of rising anti-Semitism across the country.  I am grateful for President Trump's resounding repudiation of this hate crime against Jewish Americans, which he called "pure evil."

As United Methodists, we condemn "all overt and covert forms of religious intolerance" (2016 United Methodist Book of Discipline ¶162B).  We recognize that Jews and Christians have faith in the same God, and we lament the role of the church in the persecution of the Jewish people.  We share with Jews a call "to work for justice, compassion, and peace in the world in anticipation of the fulfillment of God’s reign" (for the complete text of "United Methodist Guiding Principles for Christian-Jewish Relations," see 2016 United Methodist Book of Resolutions ¶3292).  

One resident of Squirrel Hill is Ronald Linden, a political science professor at the University of Pittsburgh.  He challenges all Americans to confront the voices of hatred against Jews, as well as people of color, Muslims, and LGBTQ persons.  He says in Haaretz: "Stand up for our communities, our diversity, for the founding dream of our society and our country."

If you are feeling overwhelmed, consider Rabbi Rami Shapiro's paraphrase of Jewish wisdom:

"Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief.  Do justly, now.  Love mercy, now.  Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it" (Shapiro, The Wisdom of the Jewish Sages, 41).