In memory of those who died in the attacks at Tree of Life in Pittsburgh on Shabbat Vayera 5779

Rabbi Mark Cohn 

Vigil for those who died at the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh, PA on Shabbat Vayera 5779. 

Soon after I started my work in Winston-Salem 17 yrs ago, 9/11 happened. And since that dark period in American history we have had countless vigils. 

And you know why?

Because people hate. 

People hate Jews. And they hate Muslims. And they hate Christians who are too progressive. And they hate people of color. And they hate gays. And they hate lesbians. And they hate transgender folk. And they hate immigrants. 

And in a time of terrible crises, sadly, we have national leaders whose language normalize behaviors that are dangerous and threatening and a President who blamed the synagogue for a deadly shooting because they didn’t have good enough security. 

Clearly worse than people hating is people not caring. Elie Wiesel was right when he said the opposite of love is not hate - it’s indifference. 

I am a student of history. Jews are a product of history and our history dates back some three thousand years. We joke that our holidays are about a theme - they tried to kill us. We fought back. Let’s eat. We will survive. What happened in Pittsburgh is a tragedy and the worst of its kind on American soil. We have seen far worse. But this time, friends, America and American safety and security is at threat. People say Jews are a nation’s canary in the coal mine. Not that we want special treatment. Please. We want fair and equal treatment. But: How a nation treats its Jews spells its future. We’ve not always been treated well here by individuals. But by governmental policy we have done better than elsewhere. Our safety though lies in our neighbors’ hands in many ways and we pray for good neighbors. And the outpouring of love we have felt reminds us that we have very good neighbors here in Winston-Salem. 

We didn’t get to this place out of nowhere. This is a continuation of events in Charlottesville in 2017, which was steeped in something much deeper, much darker, much older. As a nation, we have to have a significant look at ourselves and how we talk. And while civil discourse was a popular theme during the High Holy Days among many of my colleagues, one of my colleagues in NY spent a sermon on antisemitism and its growth in Europe over the last two decades and its growth in these United States over the last decade. Incidents are up sharply. And there is another antisemitism that is just as insidious and dangerous and that occurs on college campuses - not with gunfire but with violence at times and with steep antisemitism in the form BDS, displaying signs equating Israelis with Nazis, the burning of Israeli flags and the refusal to allow for discussion of the possibility that Israel is right - let alone has a right to exist. Cloaked in being anti-Israel, words that call for the death of Jews and the use Nazi symbols is antisemitism. 

I have to tell you it is quite something when it is my friends and colleagues in Israel who have reached out to me in the last few days because they are worried for my safety and that of my community when normally it is me and we who reach out to them. 

We are under attack as Jews. We always are. We just have times of calm and times of terror. And the leadership of a country sets the tone. And the tone has to change. Because when you are a country as massive as ours and with as much global influence - words matter. Whether in press conferences or in tweets, at rallies or at a table. As Jews we use words in study because words leads to action. So what are we going to do about what has occurred - beyond this evening?

Here are five suggestions:

1. Vote. Get politically or communally active. And realize what issues and policies we can advocate and support to make a positive difference. 

2. Give back. Someone today has it worse than you. Help him or her make it better. A generous heart will soften this world. 

3. Hug your loved ones. Just do. Unconditionally. Because life can be cut short. 

4. If you are Jewish, come to shul. Show the haters that they will never win. Fill these pews on Shabbat and remember that it is the chutzpah of our continuing to gather and practice our sacred tradition that angers them the most. It’s not a reason to pray - but it’s a reminder to make sure we appreciate how sacred our heritage is.

5. Learn why they hate the Jews: Because we love, because we accept, because we struggle with ideas about God, because we are ancient and modern, because we allow a multiplicity of ideas under one roof and even on one page, because despite many who have tried - entire kingdoms and empires: we elude removal and annihilation. 

There is a wonderful Jewish teaching that when it rains on a Jew in Paris, a Jew in Kiev opens an umbrella. We are connected as Jews - throughout the world. It’s why when someone hears I’m from San Francisco and Jewish, they will say, “Oh, do you know the Schwartzes?” There are innumerable connections for our congregants here with the Pittsburgh Jewish community and even with the Tree of Life Congregation. For some, this is their best friend’s community, their family’s synagogue, the synagogue of their time at college. I do not know my colleague at that synagogue but I do at other synagogues in Pittsburgh and they are all touched, deeply, by this tragedy. One of our temple members, Gene Mazo, wrote me yesterday with the following words relating his connections to the community there and his sorrow in not being here tonight as he teaches in New Jersey during the week. As background, Gene and his family were part of a wave of Jews who immigrated to this country during the beginning days of light that began to slowly come for Soviet Jews trying to get out of the Soviet Union. Jews who were forbidden to practice their Judaism and could be jailed for living Jewish lives or trying to emigrate. And if you have followed the story of the shooting, the shooter chose this synagogue because of their connection of honoring the refugee work of HIAS - which originally stood for Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. Here are Gene’s words:

First, one of my very best friends, David Shiften, is one of the four Jewish cops in the city of Pittsburgh (out of a police force of 900). David’s station is in Squirrel Hill. In fact, his precinct house is located only 4 blocks from the Tree of Life. David is known by all in Squirrel Hill as the Jewish cop in Pittsburgh, and he was on the scene yesterday (and, thankfully, is still alive). Second, I had a college classmate at Columbia, named Jonathan Berkun, who is now a rabbi in Florida -- and Jonathan not only grew up in Pittsburgh, but his father, Alvin Berkun, was the former rabbi of the Tree of Life Synagogue. Yesterday, the father happened not go to services because Jonathan’s mother wasn’t feeling well and asked Alvin to stay home -- and Alvin is now a retired rabbi, so he skipped a Saturday. It very likely may have saved his life. Finally, HIAS was the organization that brought me, and my mother and grandmother (and countless other Jewish refugees) to the United States in 1979. So all of this hits very close to home.

Jewish philosopher Emil Fackenheim wrote many books but he is best known for a single phrase, a new commandment. Fackenheim taught that, in addition to the 613 commandments of Torah, Jews should observe a 614th -- not to grant Hitler a posthumous victory. While Fackenheim’s remarks were directed toward the generation after the Holocaust, his wisdom is relevant for us today.  He wrote.

“We are commanded, first, to survive as Jews, lest the Jewish people perish. We are commanded, second, to remember in our very guts and bones the martyrs of the holocaust, lest their memory perish. We are forbidden, thirdly, to deny or despair of God, however much we may have to contend with him or with belief in him, lest Judaism perish. We are forbidden, finally, to despair of the world as the place which is to become the kingdom of God, lest we help make it a meaningless place in which God is dead or irrelevant and everything is permitted.”

And so we honor the memory of the victims of this past Shabbat’s attack by embracing our Judaism and living an active Jewish life.  And I would like for all of us to lovingly recall: 

Joyce Feinberg, 75

Richard Gottfried, 65

Rose Mallinger, 97

Jerry Rabinowitz, 66

Cecil Rosenthal, 59

David Rosenthal, 54

Bernice Simon, 84

Sylvan Simon, 86

Daniel Stein, 71

Melvin Wax, 88

Irving Younger, 69

This evening, in a darkened world, we stand together. Committed to love each other more. To bring more light into the world. To tend that ancient tree of life together so that it grows, more, everywhere, tended by us all, together.

I will close with the words we use every time we return the torah - words from Proverbs and Lamentations, words that form the inspiration for the name of the temple with which we are mourning tonight: It is a tree of life to those who hold fast to it (wisdom/Torah); all of its supporters are happy. All its ways are ways of pleasantness and all its paths are peace. Return us to you, God, and we shall truly return. We shall return to our better and our best selves. 

Close singing w/ eitz chayim hi - lamachazikim bah.