Why Synagogue Shootings Have Made Me Prouder to be Jewish
Six months ago, Gregory Bowers walked into Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle and proceeded to continuously fire at anyone he saw in the synagogue. He killed eleven people, and at least six others were injured. Bowers repeatedly yelled that all Jews must die, and Jews were committing genocide to his people.
On April 27, John Earnest entered Congregation Chabad in Poway, California, and killed one woman and injured three others with an AR-15 rifle. Before going to the synagogue, Earnest posted a malicious manifesto about how Jews were the root of all evil.
I’ve been Jewish my entire life; it defines me. When I was eighteen-months-old, I was enrolled in preschool at my temple. Then, I went to a Jewish day school for ten years. I’ve grown up praying three times a week and having Hebrew and Judaics classes everyday. For a long time, all of my friends were Jewish.
And as a young Jew in America, I’ve also grown up hearing the horror stories of the Holocaust, which only took place seventy-years ago. I’ve watched the movies, seen the pictures, talked to survivors. The adults in my life told me that we need to learn about the Holocaust so that it never happens again. And it hasn’t--yet.
But recently, we’ve seen an increase in anti-semitism all over the world. There have been threats, signs, and most horrifically, shootings. The two recent synagogue shootings had the sole purpose of killing Jews. And, in this young Jew’s opinion, if this doesn’t sound like a holocaust, what does? And yes, I understand that this is nowhere near the scale of the actual Holocaust. I know that not every single Jew is being forced into starvation, torture, or death. But the definition of the word holocaust is as follows: any mass slaughter or reckless destruction of life, and that certainly seems like what has been happening recently.
But that isn’t the point of this article, really. Because what I want to talk about is how the Jewish community has rebounded from these tragedies. After the Holocaust, we were shaken; we lost six million of our own, and millions more suffered alongside them. We were bound to remember that forever. But here we are, seventy-years later, stronger than ever. We tell the story of the Holocaust, so that we can make sure it never happens again. Every year, we take a day and remember those who we lost. We listen to the stories of those who were alive during the Holocaust, because we know someday soon they’ll be gone. We did not forget what happened to us, and for that reason, we’ve become stronger. We can show similar strength in the face of these shootings.
People have gotten up off their couches in outrage, and rightfully so. Lori Kaye, the sole death in the Poway shooting, is being hailed as a hero. She jumped in front of the gun to save her Rabbi; a true testament as to what Jews will do for others, and for their religion. The Jewish community has united through forums and vigils which have brought out thousands of attendees. Despite these tragedies, the Jewish community has shown their strength. In the past six months, I’ve watched my community, my own mother, stand up to the hate spewed upon us. I’ve looked with pride at the way the Jewish community has responded--while we’ve upped our security,we haven’t cowered or given in. The Jewish people have been through too much to back down now and we aren’t. Instead, we’re uniting.
It’s terrible that death is what it took to bring us all together, but I am unbelievably proud to be a part of this community which doesn’t back down in the face of impossible situations. Instead, we rise.
By Alexa Freedman