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BLUE ASH, Ohio – The reality with which millions of American Jews were forced to attack when they woke up on October 27 – according to which, even in 2018, a man overflowing with antisemitic bile could enter a synagogue and sniff 11 lives in the space of a few minutes – was staggering and heartbreaking, said Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp Friday night.
This was not new.
Twelve years ago, Terlinchamp held a new position in a Seattle synagogue when an armed man shot and killed six women at the Greater Seattle Jewish Federation. She would soon be called to address the Jewish community in her hometown and guide her throughout the mourning process as she struggled herself.
"I have grown so old in a very short time, just in a few minutes," she said Friday. "This week, I felt the same thing: how do you help people and how do you assume them?"
The answer Friday night after a week of national silence Shivawas looking for a community in Sholom Temple, where she led a mixed group of Jewish worshipers and non-Jewish sympathizers during the first Sabbath services since the weekend of the Pittsburgh attack.
Terlinchamp said that the presence of other people mired in the same sorrow strengthened her and reminded her of a phrase in the Book of Psalms: "Those who sow in tears will reap in joy."
The men and women who attended the ceremony claimed to believe that this was true even though they were struggling to handle the attack. Michael Freeman, who attended with his five-year-old twins, said that hatred was not a lesson he was expecting to teach them so early. Tom Glassman came to pay tribute to ancestors who did not feel safe to worship or seek the solace of a Jewish community in times of mourning.
"My emotions are different from those of others," he said. "I'm angry so I know it's real."
Other participants wore hijab and niqab; even more came with groups from their churches.
Cathy Heldman, Regional Director of the American Jewish Committee in Cincinnati, said her organization had received floods of calls since the attack. Many of them were people looking for a place to attend Shabbat services. Others were expressions of solidarity from synagogues and Jewish organizations from other countries.
"It's a good feeling," she said. "I think it will really help the healing process for all of us."
Terlinchamp said she had already heard stories that reinforced her conviction of recovery, resilience and love. One of them: As a result of the shooting, police officers from Amberley village had escorted worshipers from a nearby synagogue to help them feel safe.
"I thought to myself, 'It's beautiful that they know our community so well,' she said." But at the same time, I felt really sad because was not necessarily true for our Muslim community and our black community. "
Cases of anti-Semitic violence and harassment were on the rise even before the attack, according to rights organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League. The same has been true for hate crimes against other religious and ethnic groups.
A few days before the Pittsburgh attack, a white-armed man killed to death two black shoppers inside a Kroger from Kentucky and reportedly told an armed passerby in the parking lot: "Whites do not shoot at whites. "
Some, such as American university professor Carolyn Gallaher, have linked the peak of the 2016 presidential election to the overlap of President Donald Trump's anti-immigration policies and the stated goals of white nationalist groups. ;far right.
The president has taken over from David Duke, former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, and denounced the Pittsburgh attack as part of the "terrible persecution" legacy of the Jewish people – a group including his daughter, Ivanka, and her husband – but also expressed sympathy for some conspiracy theories about billionaire Jew George Soros, an influential political donor regarded by many far-right as a versatile and anti-Christian boogeyman.
Terlinchamp has witnessed many reactions during the week following the Pittsburgh attack, particularly among those that link it to political tensions and to those who think it disrespectful of the dead. What each Jewish person she spoke to had in common was paralyzing pain, she said.
She believes that services such as the one she will lead on Friday will help them get through, and she feels motivated to extend her healing efforts to all minority groups affected by today's hatred of others. .
The love that his community felt from his non-Jewish neighbors, the forces of order and politicians allows him to feel "supported, strong and courageous".
"To know that we do not have to be brave alone is a very big deal," she said.
Knowing that they can provide it to others is even more important.
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