Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
U.S. Reps Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Ted Deutch call for toning down rhetoric and ending hate speech.
Two days after the worst antiSemitic attack in American history killed 11 people in a synagogue in Pittsburgh, South Florida religious and political leaders gathered at the Jewish Federation of Broward County to condemn the attacks and the spread of inflammatory rhetoric that they say motivates radicals.
Clergy representing much of South Florida’s faithful called for toning down angry rhetoric.
“We cannot believe this could happen in a house of God in the 21st century,” said Khalid Mirza, chairman of the Muslim Communities Association of South Florida.
Rabbi Arnold Samlam of the Jewish Federation called the shooting, “the greatest tragedy to strike the Jewish community of America. … We look to a time in our Broward community and in our world in which the message of peace and kindness that is at the root of our religion and of all religions will be reflected through our society.”
Pastor Michael Anderson of the New Jerusalem First Missionary Baptist Church in Hollywood told a story about how even
a box of crayons can live together in harmony.
“The only thing that stays bland, the only thing that rejects color and the diversity of color, that is not as wise as a crayon box, is the surrender flag,” Anderson said. “It’s one color all the time, and it means we’ve given up.”
The shooting came just days after the Sunrise office of U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, was one of more than a dozen places targeted by mail bombs sent by a pro-Trump extremist. At the Jewish Federation, Wasserman Schultz, who is Jewish, wiped tears from her face and at times could not continue her speech at the Jewish Federation of Broward.
“This has been an incredibly emotional two days for our community and South Florida, for my own team, for the Jewish community across the country,” said the usually stoic congresswoman. “As I rode in here, I thought about how many times I’ve driven in and out of here. My children went to preschool here. My dad is here three times a week, both my parents come regularly. I’ve been to countless events here, celebrated bar and bat mitzvahs, and I guess I’m so overcome because this is our happy place.”
President Donald Trump has sharply condemned both the mail bombs allegedly sent by a supporter and the killings in Pittsburgh and expressed regret that an armed security guard was not present at the synagogue. That’s a sentiment shared by Andrew Pollack, a Trump supporter and father of a victim of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
“We as Jews, it’s terrible that we have to live that way, but I feel they should have been better protected at that temple. They should have had security. At my temple here in Coral Springs, we have security, armed security every Shabbat service. So my heart goes out to them. It is terrible, but it’s a societal problem. It’s not a gun issue, it’s societal,” Pollack said at a rally for Ron DeSantis in Coral Springs on Sunday. “The guy could have had a musket in that temple and probably killed the same 11 people with a musket.”
The politicians at the largely Democratic news conference Monday had a different take, with Wasserman Schultz calling for an assault weapons ban and U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch reminding the audience that Trump had promised to deliver universal background checks and a ban on bump stocks.
“If there had been a security guard sitting by the front door, my guess is that there would have been one more casualty that we would be talking about,” Deutch, D-West Boca, said before adding that confronting hate speech was now of paramount importance. “[But] the political rhetoric is too hot. It’s too dangerous. Everyone has a responsibility to be aware of what they say, to understand the impact of their words.”