Rabbi: We will continue to practice our faith

Rabbi Marc Baker, CEO of Combined Jewish Philanthropies, spoke to Herald reporter Taylor Pettaway about the Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh that left 11 people dead.

“First and foremost like so many others, hearing the news yesterday just broke my heart. I was devastated, angry, mostly heartbroken and standing alongside the community in Pittsburgh. I was deeply wanting to send them love and support from Boston.

The fact that we could bring the community together (for the vigil) so quickly is such a credit to so many of our partner organizations, to the leadership of the Jewish community and to our friends in the interfaith community. It was love and support and action.

The great thing here today is the power of our community to come together. To come together to mourn together, to have each other’s backs and to come together to say we won’t stand for this.

It means more than you could know to stand here with our brothers, sisters, leaders from the interfaith community, law enforcement and elected officials. It’s overwhelming and uplifting to feel the outpouring of love and support and know they’re standing with us. It speaks to the fact that it wasn’t just an attack on a Jewish community; it was really an assault on our shared humanity.

It’s profoundly human to feel fear, especially in the face of hatred and violence. I think the most important thing is not to become our fear and not to let our fear overcome us and to find faith and stand wih others in the face of fear so we can be our best selves.

But this hasn’t stopped me. I was in synagogue this morning. It’s a form of spiritual activism and I’ll be continuing to practice proudly alongside all of the members of our community to make sure we send a strong message that we won’t retreat in fear.

We won’t be driven away from our places of worship because of hate and violence. On the contrary, we will stand strong and proud and continue to practice our faith.”