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To Those Who Stood With Us
I had already decided to attend Shabbat services last weekend when I heard about the nationwide initiative for #SolidarityShabbat. I even looked into flights to Pittsburgh. I didn’t just want to commune with fellow Jews in my own community. I wanted to go closer to the scene, to show solidarity not just in my hometown, but in the town that suffered and will forever endure the tragedy and horror of the worst anti-Semitic attack in American history.
But I will admit the following. When I saw that the synagogue I choose most frequently to attend when the mood strikes would be hosting spiritual leaders from around town, including students from a local seminary, I was turned off. I almost decided not to go.
When I saw the hashtag #SolidarityShabbat I didn’t even think about solidarity with everyone else. I wanted solidarity with other Jews. I wanted to turn inward, to close ranks, to come together to recognize and memorialize this horrific event as our own, with our own, on our own.
I thought, that’s great that Muslims and Presbyterians and Baptists and Methodists and Catholics and all others will show up for services this week. Where will they be next week? Next month?
At the end of the day, I thought, we Jews are in this fight alone. Because, after all, haven’t we always been?
