Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
LOCAL RABBI URGES STAND AGAINST HATE
Rabbi Michelle Pearlman addresses commissioners on synagogue shooting
WEST CHESTER >> A Malvern rabbi gave an emotional address to the Chester County commissioners Tuesday decrying the anti-semitic terrorist attack in Pittsburgh last weekend, but expressing gratitude for the support shown members of her faith in its wake by the local community.
“Our Jewish community is raw after this terrorist event,” Rabbi Michelle Pearlman of the Beth Chaim Reform Congregation in East Whiteland said at the beginning of her presentation, that came at the invitation of the three commissioners. “Terrorism terrorizes.”
“We are in deep mourning for the 11 lives lost and the sense of security we used to take for granted,” Pearlman said as the audience at the commissioners’ Sunshine work session listened intently. “However, we are strong and with our brothers and sisters in Pittsburgh we will mourn, and when it is time we will learn from this experience and be strengthened.”
A gunman who is believed to have spewed anti-Semitic slurs and rhetoric on social media barged into the Tree of Life synagogue on Saturday and opened fire, killing 11 people in one of the
deadliest attacks on Jews in U.S. history.
The 20-minute attack at the congregation in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of the city left six others wounded, including four police officers who dashed to the scene, authorities said.
The suspect, Robert Bowers, traded gunfire with police and was shot several times. Bowers, who was shot during the exchange, has been charged with 29 federal counts, including hate crimes and weapons offenses. He told police that his aim in the attack was “to kill Jews.”
Pearlman said that the attack, while leaving her congregation “shaken” and “in shock,” nevertheless had not undercut its members’ sense of unity and strength, in part because of the support that had been shown by other
members of the community in its wake.
“What (the gunman) did not know is that our tree has strong roots: deep, deep strong roots,” she said. “It is the tree of life that holds us fast.
“But now we reach out to you for your help,” she told the commissioners. “That shooter did not understand that many before have tried to destroy us, and still we survive. We are fortunate because we have you, our friends and neighbors, to stand with us against hate.
“Your support is like water to us,” she said.
Pearlman’s address left the room in stunned silence for a long moment afterwards. Commissioners’ Chairwoman Michelle Kichline, who had opened the meeting by welcoming Pearlman, sat with her hands clenched in front of her face, briefly overcome with emotion, and quickly turned the meeting over to County Administrator Robert Kagel. “I’m sorry,
I’m having a hard time with this this morning,” she said.
Afterwards, Pearlman said that many in her congregation know some in the Tree of Life community. Some had been raised in the congregation itself, or had family religious ceremonies that took place there. “We always say it’s a small Jewish community,” she smiled.
The rabbi pointed out that her members had been worshiping with others from outside the congregation on Saturday during Shabbat, the Jewish day of worship, when the shooting occurred in Pittsburgh. On Sunday, at a hastily arranged memorial service, she was heartened to see flowers left by the synagogue’s sign on Conestoga Road as a tribute by neighbors. When she approached the building, she said, she was met by a volunteer from the Chester County Sheriff’s Office, Deputy Kevin Skymba, who offered protection.
Pearlman said that her message to the commissioners, and by extension the county, was that the attack went beyond being an anti-semitic act of terror on a particular congregation, to symbolize an assault on the nation itself.
“You understand clearly that this terrorist attack was not just an attack on a synagogue in Pittsburgh but an attack on our very democracy,” she said. “We will not let the rot of hate and anger overtake our healthy, living tree of life. With your help we focus instead on the water of friends who come to stand with us against hate.”
Pearlman said that an interfaith vigil organized by the Chester County Kehilah Jewish Federation will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday on the front steps of the Historic Chester County Courthouse at 2 N. High St. All are welcome.