AFTA mourns with the families of the victims of the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh on Saturday, October 27, 2018: Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal, David Rosenthal, Bernice Simon, Sylvan Simon, Daniel Stein, Melvin Wax, and Irving Younger

We share the heartbreak of our Jewish AFTA members and the larger Jewish Community.  We must join together to fight hate and injustice. We must remember and honor the victims of such hate and let them know their lives made a difference in this world.

There are several pernicious ideologies co-existing in our country.  These ideologies have been growing, spreading and remitting since before the birth of this nation.  We have seen their manifestations in horrific variation around the world. Here in the U.S., in this moment, the rhetoric from our leadership is ever more toxic. We are seeing a resurgence of a destructive message and tone, affecting every individual, every family, every community, that is, all of us.

In this moment, performative activism must take a back seat to conscious social action. We must make this appeal to ourselves first and then to our beloved communities: In the face of this hate we must grasp for and hold dearly onto hope. We are reaching out to friends, colleagues and communities that continue to be targets of this violence. None of us is safe if all of us are not.

In solidarity

See here for a list of regional vigils/actions:

https://www.adl.org/coming-together-after-the-tree-of-life-synagogue-shooting

Signatories:

Lisa Bibuld

Sarah Berland

Victoria Dickerson