Join Solidarity Shabbat: We Stand with Pittsburgh

CALL TO THE JEWISH COMMUNITY IN MONMOUTH AND GREATER MIDDLESEX COUNTIES:
JOIN SOLIDARITY SHABBAT: WE STAND WITH PITTSBURGH
A SHABBAT HAPPENING ACROSS NORTH AMERICA
Unify Our Community with this Expression of Resilience and Jewish Peoplehood

This coming Shabbat, the Jewish community in the heart of NJ, including Monmouth and Greater Middlesex counties, will join all Jewish communities across North America for SOLIDARITY SHABBAT: WE STAND WITH PITTSBURGH by attending Shabbat (sabbath) synagogue services on Friday evening, Nov. 2 and Saturday morning, Nov. 3, 2018. Services take place at more than 60 synagogues, Jewish temples, and congregations throughout our area. 
 
This continental expression of resilience and Jewish peoplehood is one of many efforts to unify our local community, support community members of all faiths in Pittsburgh, and strengthen collective resolve to express our religious freedom while caring for one another.  
 
Last Shabbat, we witnessed the deadliest act of anti-Semitism in Jewish North American history. This Shabbat, we respond with our greatest show of solidarity.
 
The Jewish Federation in the Heart of New Jersey is supporting this continental effort to express our unity and strength as one people. Together we will stand alongside our brothers and sisters in Pittsburgh mourning the loss of 11 innocent members of the Tree of Life congregation.
 
We urge every person in Monmouth and Greater Middlesex counties to join in on Solidarity Shabbat: We Stand with Pittsburgh. Attend synagogue this Shabbat.
 
There are no words to express our grief for the families and the community of the Tree of Life synagogue. We are all mourning this unspeakable loss, but we know that the Pittsburgh community is also greatly strengthened by the tremendous outpouring of support across the Jewish Federation system and our communities throughout North America. We are thankful to our friends and family around the world who have joined us at this moment to support our community during this incredibly difficult time. 
 
Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs Naftali Bennett, Pennsylvania’s Governor Thomas Wolf, representatives from the U.S. administration as well as Jewish Federations of North America’s national leadership – JFNA Board Chair Mark Wilf and President and CEO Jerry Silverman – have travelled to Pittsburgh to stand side-by-side with the community. Jewish Agency for Israel Chair Bougie Herzog will also arrive in Pittsburgh this week. 
 
Countless State and local elected officials and civic leaders, interfaith clergy, and neighbors of all faith traditions have showered our local Jewish community with outpourings of support and solidarity – both individually and at dozens of vigils attracting many thousands of attendees this week throughout Monmouth and Greater Middlesex.  We thank them all.  
We cannot let hate win. We cannot let fear win. We cannot let anti-Semitism win. We must stand unafraid, in our places of worship and pray freely, with Pittsburgh and for Jewish people everywhere.
 
From New Mexico to New Jersey, Los Angeles to Toronto, Jewish community members – united with good, decent people everywhere – will mourn the victims and affirm the importance we place on religious freedom by all being together, in synagogue this Shabbat. 
 
Come together this coming Shabbat -- Solidarity Shabbat.

0Comments

Add Comment
Subscribe to posts