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essay
In Charlottesville, Th e Local Jewish Community Presses On
A
synagogue!” followed by chants of “Seig
t Congregation Beth Israel in
Charlottesville, Va., we are deeply Heil” and other anti-Semitic language.
Some carried flags with swastikas and
grateful for the support and
other Nazi symbols.
prayers of the broader Reform Jewish
A guy in a white polo shirt walked
community. Our thoughts and prayers
by the synagogue a few times, arous-
are with the families of Heather Heyer
ing suspicion. Was he casing the
and the two Virginia State
building or trying to build up
Police officers, H. Jay Cullen
courage to commit a crime? We
and Berke Bates, who lost their
didn’t know. Later, I noticed that
lives on Saturday, Aug. 12, and
the man accused in the automo-
with the many people injured
bile terror attack wore the same
in the attack who are still
polo shirt as the man who kept
recovering.
walking by our synagogue; appar-
The loss of life far outweighs
ently it’s the uniform of a white
any fear or concern felt by me
supremacist group. Even now,
or the Jewish community dur- Alan
Zimmerman
that gives me a chill.
ing the past several weeks as
When services ended, my heart
we braced for this Nazi rally
broke as I advised congregants
— but the effects of both will
that it would be safer to leave the
each linger.
On Saturday morning, I stood outside temple through the back entrance rath-
er than through the front and to please
our synagogue with the armed security
go in groups.
guard we hired after the police depart-
This is 2017 in the United States of
ment refused to provide us with an offi-
America.
cer during morning services. (Even the
Later that day, I arrived on the scene
police department’s limited promise of
shortly after the car plowed into peace-
an observer near our building was not
kept — and note, we did not ask for pro- ful protesters. It was a horrific and
bloody scene.
tection of our property, only our people
Soon, we learned that Nazi websites
as they worshipped).
had posted a call to burn our syna-
Forty congregants were inside. Here’s
gogue. I sat with one of our rabbis and
what I witnessed during that time.
wondered whether we should go back
For half an hour, three men dressed
to the temple to protect the build-
in fatigues and armed with semi-auto-
matic rifles stood across the street from ing. What could I do if I were there?
Fortunately, it was just talk — but we
the temple. Had they tried to enter, I
had already deemed such an attack
don’t know what I could have done to
within the realm of possibilities, taking
stop them, but I couldn’t take my eyes
the precautionary step of removing our
off them, either. Perhaps the presence
Torahs, including a Holocaust scroll,
of our armed guard deterred them.
from the premises.
Perhaps their presence was just a coin-
Again: This is in America in 2017.
cidence, and I’m paranoid. I don’t know.
At the end of the day, we felt we had
Several times, parades of Nazis passed
no choice but to cancel a Havdalah ser-
our building, shouting, “There’s the
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vice at a congregant’s home. It had been
announced on a public Facebook page,
and we were fearful that Nazi elements
might be aware of the event. Again, we
sought police protection — not a battal-
ion of police, just a single officer — but
we were told simply to cancel the event.
Local police faced an unprecedented
problem that day, but make no mistake,
Jews are a specific target of these groups,
and despite nods of understanding from
officials about our concerns — and
despite the fact that the mayor himself is
Jewish — we were left to our own devices.
The fact that a calamity did not befall the
Jewish community of Charlottesville on
that Saturday was not thanks to our poli-
ticians, our police or even our own efforts,
but to the grace of God.
And yet, in the midst of all that, other
moments stand out for me as well.
John Aguilar, a 30-year Navy veteran,
took it upon himself to stand watch over
the synagogue through services Friday
evening and Saturday, along with our
armed guard. He just felt he should.
We experienced wonderful turnout for
services both Friday night and Saturday
morning to observe Shabbat, including
several non-Jews who said they came to
show solidarity (though a number of con-
gregants, particularly elderly ones, told me
they were afraid to come to synagogue).
A frail, elderly woman approached me
Saturday morning crying as I stood on
the steps in front of our sanctuary to tell
me that while she was Roman Catholic,
she wanted to stay and watch over the
synagogue with us. At one point, she
asked, “Why do they hate you?” I had no
answer to the question we’ve been ask-
ing ourselves for thousands of years.
At least a dozen complete strang-
ers stopped by as we stood in front the
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synagogue Saturday to ask if we wanted
them to stand with us.
And our wonderful rabbis stood on
the front lines with other Charlottesville
clergy, opposing hate.
Most attention now is, and for the
foreseeable future will be focused on
the deaths and injuries that occurred,
and that is as it should be. But for
most people, before the week is out,
Saturday’s events will degenerate into
the all-to-familiar bickering that is part
of the larger, ongoing political narrative.
The media will move on — and all it will
take is some new outrageous Trump
tweet to change the subject.
We will get back to normal, also. We
have two b’nai mitzvah coming up, and
soon, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur
will be upon us, too.
After the nation moves on, we will be
left to pick up the pieces. Fortunately,
this is a very strong and capable Jewish
community, blessed to be led by incred-
ible rabbis. We have committed lay lead-
ership and a congregation committed
to Jewish values and our synagogue. In
some ways, we will come out of it stron-
ger — just as tempering metals make
them tougher and harder.
Join the Reform Jewish com-
munity’s response to the hate and
bigotry in Charlottesville. This
week, #BeTheLightForJustice: Take a
photo of yourself holding a candle of
unity, then post it to Instagram or
Twitter using the hashtag. Next, learn
about action steps to take for direct
responses to terror from the Union for
Reform Judaism. •
Alan Zimmerman is the president of Congregation
Beth Israel in Charlottesville, Va.
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