Photo by Sarah Vinci | A candle was lit for each victim of the synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh during a vigil held by the URI community on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, Oct. 30, the University of Rhode Island’s Hillel Center and other interfaith organizations on campus held a vigil to honor the 11 Jews killed in the Pittsburgh shooting.
This past Saturday, 46-year-old Robert Bowers barged into the Tree of Life Congregation Synagogue shouting anti-Semitic slurs and killing innocent congregants in a violent 20-minute attack. Pittsburgh police were notified of the incident at 9:54 a.m. and rushed to the scene, but were too late to prevent any killing.
“I think we were all traumatized by the events that happened on Saturday and it’s an affront to everyone, not just the Jewish population,” Hillel Director Amy Olson said. “It’s really important to give people a chance to come together to find strength in community, to find strength in healing, to find some sense of hope and some way to feel like you can do something and take some action when you’re feeling so hopeless and hurt.”
To honor those killed in the attack, several speeches were made about the importance of staying together as a community during this time. Members of the URI Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies, URI Catholic Center, Muslim Community, URI Counseling Center and President Dooley spoke, offering words of wisdom and advice for moving forward.
The event began with a candle lighting ceremony. Olson read off the name of each victim, and Hillel Springboard Fellow Emily Yehezkel lit each candle as the name was read. Olson then continued with the reading of a poem by Chaim Stern, a famous figure in the Reform Judaism movement. The poem focused on overcoming the powers of evil, learning from past experience and bring humanity back when there is none.
“I think it speaks to our need to reach beyond ourselves, to not get caught in our pettiness, to not get sunk into hate and rage, but to really work towards healing,” Olson said.
Hillel Student Board President Max Zavell followed, speaking about his personal experience with the shooting. Zavell is family-friends with congregants from the Tree of Life Synagogue and received a text message at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday morning notifying him that they were alive and well.
“When I saw the text immediately that morning, that was the first I’d heard,” Zavell said. “It really means a lot to know that they’re all safe, but to also represent that community with such an integral, multicultural, united group of people from all over the world that live together peacefully.”
Yehezkel spoke next and referenced the way this event affected her as a Jewish professional. She is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor and proud of her religion. She never expected to reach out to her students regarding anti-Semitic attacks in 2018.
“My Jewish community is strong, my Jewish community is brave, my Jewish community has always been and will always be stronger than hate,” Yehezkel said. “Right now, the most important part of my identity feels threatened but I will remain strong and I know the Jewish students here at URI will as well.”
Paul Bueno DeMesquita, director of the Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies; Caitlyn Irving, a representative from the Catholic Center; Saleh Allababidi, a representative from the Muslim Community; Donnie Anderson, Executive Minister of the Rhode Island State Council of Churches; Robert Samuels, director of the Counseling Center; and President David M. Dooley also spoke offering their words of solace and the importance of community.
“Once again, we find ourselves in community, in the face of violence and hatred, against our fellow citizens,” DeMesquita said. “If we do anything in response to this tragic act of hatred and violence, it should be to renew our commitment to take action and not stand idly by as witnesses to the growing and continuing problems of violence, not just mass murders, not just gun violence, but the violence that has captured our own culture, and influencing and educating us in ways that make us numb.”
President Dooley spoke in a similar fashion, noting that the Hillel center holds an annual event in honor of Holocaust Remembrance, and to be called together as a community yet again to share grief is extremely unfortunate. Instead of speaking his own words, Dooley referenced Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
When referencing Gandhi, Dooley recited, “When in despair, all through history, the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been many tyrants and murderers, and for a time they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Think of it, always.”
To conclude the Vigil, Hillel Student Board member Shayna Sawyer led the singing of the Mishebeirach, a Jewish prayer for healing. Everyone in attendance joined in, producing a joyous sound that could be heard all across the campus.