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