Around 4,500 people gathered at a service Monday evening in northwest Washington to condemn the murder of the 11 people who died Saturday at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.
The shootings in Pittsburgh hit close to home for many who attended the event, which was sponsored by The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington and Adas Israel Congregation, where the service was held.
“I’m a regular synagogue-goer. I come to Adas Israel frequently. My husband is here every Shabbat. This could have been us,” says Stephanie Lynn, of Chevy Chase, Maryland, “I personally feel vulnerable and I’ve never felt vulnerable as an American Jew before.”
Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser all attended the service in Cleveland Park. The region’s three top political leaders expressed solidarity with Jewish residents while denouncing hate in each of their respective communities.
“Hatred has no home in the Commonwealth of Virginia,” Northam said, mentioning the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia, where 19 swastikas were spray painted across the outside of the building earlier this month. It was the second time the community center has been the victim of anti-Semitic vandalism in less than two years. “These despicable acts shouldn’t have happened one time, much less twice,” Northam said.
Nationwide, anti-Semitic hate crimes have increased dramatically since 2016, the Anti-Defamation League told NPR.
“We know that this is an extremely difficult time in our nation. People feel comfortable and free to spew messages of hate. They feel empowered to spread and act on hateful ideologies.” said D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.
President Trump has been widely criticized for what some say is normalizing the rhetoric of white supremacists and other hate groups. After the 2017 Charlottesville rally in which protester Heather Heyer was killed, Trump said that “many sides” were to blame for the violence at the rally — a comment met with widespread criticism from members of both political parties. Trump later condemned the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups.
At the White House on Monday, press secretary Sarah Sanders responded to criticism that Trump has normalized the hateful rhetoric that may have provoked the Pittsburgh shooter by saying “we all have a duty to confront antisemitism in all its forms and everywhere and anywhere it appears.”
At the event in D.C., Ron Halber, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, was met with a standing ovation when he demanded that bigotry be met with strong opposition.
“We insist that when racism and antisemitism and bigotry arise from anywhere in our society, it is immediately, wholeheartedly condemned without reservation or equivocation from across the political spectrum,” Halber said.
He added that the country must return to its core value of civility.
This story originally appeared on WAMU.
