May 2 • 2019 5
jn

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Antidote to Hate:
Keep Showing Up

editorial

J

ew hatred in America strikes again.
This time at a Poway, Calif., syna-
gogue.
Six months after the Tree of Life syn-
agogue massacre in Pittsburgh, Jewish
communal institutions have been fur-
ther “hardened” with bullet-proof glass,
steel-reinforced self-locking doors and
sophisticated surveillance equipment.
Evacuation procedures have been estab-
lished, escape routes identified.
Guns are no longer exclusively in the
hands of the bad guys. Now, they can be
found under the suits of hired protec-
tors and occasionally strapped beneath
a fellow congregant’
s prayer shawl.
A far cry from days of yore, when
expectations of security — if they exist-
ed at all — were relegated to unarmed,
300-pound men with deputy fire mar-
shal-looking badges, squeezed into red
mini-compacts with twirling amber
beacons.
After Poway, we still feel vulnera-
ble. In some ways, more so than after
Pittsburgh. With anti-Semitism on
the rise, we started taking our security
more seriously. But the shock of 11
deaths at Tree of Life, the relatively easy
access the killer had to the congregants
and the absence of competent, armed
protection, stoked our angst and accel-
erated our precautions.
The killer in Poway had a tougher
time, but still succeeded. One dead.
Three wounded, including the rabbi
and an 8-year-old girl. Whether the
Chabad-affiliated synagogue was “hard-
ened” or not, he gained entry and fired
several rounds from his weapon before
leaving — perhaps fleeing when con-
fronted by a good guy. Without some
extra evacuation training, and a bit
of luck, the casualty count could have
been more catastrophic.
Welcome to the new reality. Hatred
stoked by heated rhetoric that is turning
angry thoughts into evil actions against
our community. Poway reveals some-
thing we’
ve known for some time …
despite precautions, there is risk associ-
ated with living our lives.

In the coming weeks, we’
ll walk
for Israel, reflect on Holocaust
Remembrance Day, pause on Israel’
s
Memorial Day and then celebrate its
independence. We’
ll present lifetime
achievement awards, honor day school
benefactors and alumni, celebrate 8
over age 80, recognize community
activists, fete supporters of high school
youth, convene for a blockbuster film
festival and listen to an array of com-
pelling speakers. We’
ll attend bar and
bat mitzvahs, graduations, tot Shabbats,
consecrations and weddings.
Working with law enforcement and
elected officials, our Jewish communal
leadership and agencies will continue
to improve the safety and security of
our gathering places. Meanwhile, what
are we to do? Quite simply, keep living
our lives openly as Jews — albeit with
added vigilance. And whether it’
s a
community-wide celebration or an inti-
mate baby naming at a synagogue, defy
the haters and keep showing up. ■

See stories about the weekend shooting
beginning on page 12.

Online Comments

Readers reacted to the news of
the synagogue shooting in Poway,
Calif., on the JN’
s Facebook page.

Ginger Hopkins: Condolences,
thoughts and prayers for the family
and synagogue.

Karen Gilmour: Just reprehensi-
ble!!

Drew Lewis Pikstein: Please,
Lord, make this hatred stop!

Susan Averbuch: “In every gener-
ation, one has risen against us ...”

Al Wright: They did catch the guy.
It’
s really weird how it happened.
I believe there’
s more to the story
that we will know. The only thing
to me that really matters is the
hatred against the people that were
injured and hurt. I’
m tired of hatred.
I’
m tired of the anti-Semitism. It
needs to stop.

Jim Van Eaton: The shooter was
confronted by an off-duty border
patrol agent in the synagogue who
returned fire at him and he left.
Good guy with a gun stops a bad
guy with a gun.

Phil Raimi: This is our synagogue
— words cannot describe the
sorrow we feel about this heinous
act. Please pray for the family of Dr.
Howard Kaye and his daughter for
their tragic loss of his wife and her
mother, Lori Kaye z’
l.

Benji Rosenzweig: I used to have
nightmares from the stories my
grandparents told me about what
life was like in Europe in the ’
30s
and ’
40s. We are light years away
from that, but the echoes are the
same. To compare the two is a
stretch, but to think that it didn’
t
start this way is naive.

The JN welcomes comments online
at thejewishnews.com or on its
Facebook page. Letters can be sent
to letters@renmedia.us.

Shooting victim 8-year-old Noya Dahan is

wrapped in the Israeli flag.

PHIL RAIMI