OHIO JEWISH COMMUNITY MOURNS LIVES LOST IN PITTSBURGH
Overflow crowd at Sunday vigil gathers in shooting’s wake.
The tragic mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh on Saturday resonates deeply within the Jewish community of Columbus.
It’s why so many felt drawn Sunday night to the Jewish Community Center of Columbus on the East Side for a prayer vigil organized by JewishColumbus and the Columbus Board of Rabbis.
There were 500 chairs set up in the hall at the center, but they weren’t enough. An estimated 800 people crowded into the center with many standing out in the hall for the solemn, hourlong ceremony.
Eleven lives were lost Saturday when a gunman charged into the synagogue and opened fire on people gathered for sabbath services and a baby-naming ceremony.
Robert Gregory Bowers, who holds virulent anti-Semitic views, faces numerous federal and state charges in the killing of 11 people and wounding of six others, including four police officers.
“It was a baby-naming ceremony. A baby-naming ceremony. How do we as a community reconcile this? I don’t know. I have no answers. I don’t know what propels such evil to commit such an act,” said Joel Marcovitch, CEO of JewishColumbus.
Franklin County Commissioner Marilyn Brown said she was horrified by the news, but a part of her wasn’t shocked.
Brown said her grandparents were members of the Tree of Life synagogue, and she remembers visiting them in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Squirrel Hill when she was growing up. She is familiar with the terrain where the tragedy occurred.
As a Jew, Brown said, there are thoughts that go through your mind about how something like this could occur. But at the same time, she said, a gathering like the one Sunday night shows the strength of the community.
“Our community knows how to come together,” Brown said.
When Saturday dawned, it was promised to be a good day because of the planned dedication of the National Veterans Memorial and Museum in Franklinton, said Leslie Wexner, chairman and CEO of L Brands.
Then came news of the tragedy in Pittsburgh. Wexner said he happened to drive to the L Brands headquarters Sunday morning, and he looked up and saw that the flags were at half-staff. He said he started to cry.
“The randomness of this. It happened in the next city to the east that’s comparable to us. It could have been us. It could have been any one of our congregations,” Wexner said.
Wexner also expressed concerns about the tenor of American society and leadership and how it has contributed to the current situation in our country.
And while he never spoke the name of President Donald Trump, he left no doubt whom he was talking about. He mentioned a litany of controversies associated with the president. Wexner also noted that Trump’s recent identification as a nationalist is a “dog whistle” because the word “nationalist” is usually preceded by the word “white.”
“There is no question in my mind that the leadership of the country is flawed,” Wexner said. He concluded by saying that, at a time like this, people must step up and guard the souls of their family, the community and the country.
At the close of the ceremony, Cantor Jack Chomsky of Congregation Tifereth Israel told the audience about how he had known Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, who heads the Tree of Life congregation in Pittsburgh, since when they were both students at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City.
Chomsky said he exchanged messages with Myers, who wrote to him that seven of his congregants were among those slaughtered.
And yet, through the tragedy, Myers wrote: “The outpouring of love and support of the entire world has been overwhelming.”
‘It could have been any of our congregations.’ Leslie Wexner chairman and CEO of L Brands