From a friend: “Hey [Name], reaching out to say I’m thinking of you and the rest of our Boston Jewish fam. We live in bullshit times but we stand together. If there’s anything that feels helpful in this moment (things I have access to are herbal medicines, other healers, space & time) lmk? How are you holding up?”
From a mentor: “Dear Jewish friend, just want you to know I am thinking of you and stand with you.”
From a friend and colleague: "just saw the news about Pittsburgh and dammit I’m sorry we live in a world where this can happen and people want to kill Jews. I’m sadly not surprised this can happen in 2018 but I am both angry and deeply troubled. Thank you for standing as a leader In The Jewish community. Thank you for being brave. I wish you didn’t have to be. I’m praying for you as you lead your community and, as always, if I can ever have your back—let me know."
From a roommate: "Hey [Name]! Sorry for the late text but I wanted to send love about yesterday's shooting. 💜💜 Having a community you are part of directly attacked is painful and I’m here if you need"
From a coworker : “Have been thinking of you and the team all weekend, as well as how I can support building a world that destroys all forms of anti semitism. With all this hurt right now, sending you heart and solidarity.”
From a friend: “I just wanted to send a quick text and see how you are doing given the news in Pittsburgh. I’m here in case you need to talk.” Me: “Things are scary.” Friend: “They are. Let’s take care of each other.”
From a friend: “Sending hugs, I hope you are doing something relax and nice in such a crazy day :( 💜💜💜 we are all on this together! 😘😘😘 We have to be strong because when they want to create fear we need to be loud and support each other. Love you!”
From a colleague: "Hi, you have been on mind and heart in light of the act of terrorism at Tree of Life synagogue. I wanted to reach out to say that I see you and honor you and the Jewish community that you are part of. Sending light and love to you this week."
From a friend: “Hey! Just wanted to send a text after the terrorist attack on the synagogue today, in case you’re feeling especially tender. I love you. And we are all in this together!”
From a friend and colleague: "Just wanted to send you all my love, [Name]. You embody such beauty and vision of tradition and I'm so glad to have you - even at some distance - as a presence in my life. A big hug from [Name], [Name} and I."
From a friend: "Thinking of you and your community like every second. Lighting candles, praying and confronting minimization/justification/bypass in every conversation and action every day. Sending big love your way."
From a friend: "Hey bud, Just wanted to say that I love you and that I am with you."
From a friend: "[Name], I am thinking of you so much this weekend, holding you close in my heart and letting you know I love and cherish you and will always stand by you. It's a big deal to have been holding so much heartbreak... Always here to listen to you when/if you need <3"
From a friend: Thinking of you and your fam/friends after the anti-Semitic attack 💛
From a friend: Hey, I heard about what happened in Pittsburgh. I’m really sorry.
From a friend: hey, I just wanted to let you know I'm thinking of you 💕 and if you need to lean on someone, let me know. 🌻💖💖💖
From a fellow Black Lives Matter organizer: Checking in with my Jewish fam, of which I consider you part of. Love you and thinking about you today. My heart is just broken.
From a former boss: Hey there. I don't know if it's right or wrong to but I have been thinking of you and [your partner] and your family since Saturday. And I remember how scared you were when that awful person was elected in 2016. I want to know how are you are doing? I am so utterly disgusted by this violence and it baffles me why people do not see how this all is accelerating due to the one who shall remain nameless. I can't even type it out. And if you ever want to pick up the phone and talk like we used to face-to-face, I am here for you.
From a friend: Checking in on you beloved, such hard and triggering times, i love you and remember you, and your life matters to me. If there is anything you need, I’m here at your service.
From a friend: Good morning friend. I've wanted to reach out to you so many times over the past few days, but also in my white Midwestern way, wanted to give you time and space without interference and intrusion. Please know my heart has been open and feeling and loving and mourning.
From a friend: Love to you and your people, ❤️❤️❤️ with grief and rage and solidarity and love
From a friend: “hi there, dear one. sending you so much love and my relentless solidarity. i fly to [another country] tomorrow night, so will largely be out of touch during the next two weeks, but will be holding you in my heart. ❤️“
From a friend: Just wanted to tell you i’m thinking a lot about you and the tree of life shooting and I love you. What a horrible few weeks (/month/year(s)) this has been. I’m sad and angry and am trying to make sense of it through plants because usually that helps but it’s hard. xo
From a friend: Hey [name], just wanted to say that with what happened on Saturday, I am here for you and I am thinking of you. I bet you are going through a lot, and I just want to be there to support you as best I can. Sending love <3
From a friend/colleague: "I am so sad about what happened in Pittsburgh this weekend and I didn't know what to say. If you go in the fridge in the staff lounge, inside the red and black lunchbox, there is a container of chicken soup. It's for you. The chicken is kosher."
From a friend: "Checking in on you-- you don't have to respond, but I'm sending love and solidarity and prayers in the wake of this latest wave of sh*t. I've been hanging out with Psalm 126 a lot, thinking about how the psalmist gives us a model for getting through hard times. She calls us to witness how God has been faithful before, because witnessing gives us perspective and has to be done in community, so it shatters isolation."
From a friend: I wanted to see how you and fam are processing and coping today. I am shaken myself. And furious. And scared. Hard to imagine it wouldn't be the same and more for you and everyone who has endured such attacks for centuries. Holler if you feel like it. <3 and strength.
From a friend: Sending you a tight hug right now <3
From a friend: I love you so, so SO much, and I love that you’re Jewish and proud of your identity. I’m so deeply saddened for you and your community. Feel free to text me anything at all you want to, or feel free to read this and not text back because you don’t have time/can’t etc. Sending you nothing but love and healing.
From the business manager of the building our congregation rents from: "I still have a pit in my stomach, since Saturday. Did your congregation gather yesterday? I hope so. Oh, this world we live in……"
Note from a colleague: I simply wanted to reach out to tell you that I am so sorry for the pain your community is feeling in this moment. You know this already, but I wanted to reiterate that you have every right to practice your faith in this country. You are not alone - there are so many of us who will stand with you when called upon. I hope you have been able to surround yourself with the people and places that bring you peace this week.
From a friend: "Sending love and thinking of you after this terrible weekend. Hope you're doing well and would love to catch up soon"
From a friend: "Hey friend. Just reaching out to you in these awful times to let you know you are in my thoughts. If there is anything I can do to help support you, please let me know. My pain sees your pain, and I want you to know you, your identity, and your feelings are valid. All my love ❤❤"
Friend a friend: I’ve wanted to share my condolences with you about the murders of the Jewish people in Pittsburgh. What a horror! I am sad and sickened by it. Tomorrow night I plan to attend a solidarity Shabbat service at the [Name] Synagogue, which shares space with my church. However, if your congregation is having a ShowUpForShabbat service, I would be happy to join you instead. I want you to know I stand with you.
From a friend: Hey checking in on you with Pittsburg recent events. You alright?
From a friend: From a friend: I wanted you to know how much I've been feeling for you and the whole Jewish community since last weekend. If you need anything ever, please let me know
From a (hijabi muslim) boss: "Just wanted to express my sorrow over [Pittsburgh]. I pray you and all your friends, family and congregations are always safe. In solidarity, Fatima."
From a friend: "Hey! Just wanted to say that your life is valuable and important xxx (Just in case you needed a reminder)"
From a friend: Right now I just wanted to say that I don't know how the shooting at the synagogue in Pittsburgh is impacting you, but I want you to know that I love you and care about you and want you to know the safety and protection you deserve. I'm so grateful for your presence in my life and in the world. Thank you for being exactly who you are.
From a mentor: "I know of no proper way to articulate the right response to the horrible attack this weekend—sadness, solidarity."
My best friend (Muslim) called me right after the synagogue shooting last week and said ¨Are you OK?" I hadn't even seen yet. ¨You haven't read the news have you?¨. She was the one who broke the horrific news to me, and messaged me at several points throughout the day just to check in.
From a friend who is a trans, Presbyterian pastor:"I hate that we have to keep sending extra love to each other because horrible things keep happening to our people. Thinking of you today."
From a friend: Sending love and solidarity. Some people in our country are full of so much hate. It is so evil, and they are so wrong. Love wins. You aren't alone. You have an army of people behind ready to fight for love and religious freedoms. Here for you. 💗💗💗
From a friend: "hey just wanted to offer support/virtual hugs if you need it today." this was the first message i received after hearing the news, before i even really had a chance to process. it means a lot that it came from a non-jewish friend.
From a friend: Hey friend, thinking about you lots in the wake of the Pittsburgh attack. Sending you lots of love. I'm here however I can be of support - food, journal sesh, oak hill park companion, etc. I look forward to the next time I see you and can give you a hug
From a friend & housemate: Hey I just saw about the awful shooting, thinking of u and yours and I'm around if there's anything I can do <3
From a friend: I'm as close as your breath. In solidarity, always. May peace abound and surround you!
From a pastor friend: Sending love & hugs & prayers. Planning to read Psalms of mourning tonight.
From a friend: I'm by your side today and always. Forward together and sending strength to you.
From a friend: I want you to know that you’re not alone and I will be here for you in whatever way you need. I will stand up for you, physically and emotionally defend you, and stand up against anti-semitism. I believe in you, You and other Jewish leaders were successful in getting your newspaper to endorse a candidate who firmly stands against hatred. You are courageous and relentless against injustice and you are the kind of person I want to be.
On Shabbat, I was sitting on our porch wearing my kippah, enjoying the gorgeous weather and waiting for a bunch of guests to arrive.
An older African-American woman walked by pushing her grocery cart -- looked at me, made longer than usual eye contact, and slowed down. I've seen her in the neighborhood but we've never spoken other than to say hello.
"I just need you to know something," she said. "We're all standing with you. I know it's hard now -- but know that we are with you and we're going to stop anti-Semitism. It just isn't right what happened in Pittsburgh, what happened this week up at that synagogue in Brooklyn. You are our community. We are in community together."
Me, through tears, "Oh my goodness, thank you. Thank you. What's your name?"
Through her own tears, "My name is Betty."
"Well, Betty. You just made my year. Something awful got stirred up in our country and it's going to take all of us to stop it. I know they're coming for you, too, and I won't let it happen."
"You're right. All of us. My son is just so worried about his Jewish friends. But you know, we're with you. Something got stirred up. But we aren't done yet."
"Together."
"Together."
And she pushed off her cart to do her shopping.
THIS REALLY HAPPENED. This is really happening all over. We have folks who are with us!!! Betty, thank G-d for you. Together. Together, we will.
From my financial advisor:
Hey [Name],
I’ve been thinking of you and all of my Jewish friends this last week. I’ve chosen to remain silent on these topics on social media because I’ve grown tired of how negative that service is and prefer to take a vacation from it.
Instead, I want you to know you are in my thoughts and prayers and of course I am always an ally. But for me, an attack on a Synagogue is an attack on my people and my faith as well so I have always felt more than that. Church today was a very powerful experience as several attendees had attended Shabbat services yesterday as well. I find I can’t understand anti-semitism which is why its so hard to process it when it happens. It seems like such a perversion of anyone’s and everyone’s values and beliefs.
Peace my friend.
I think perhaps this needs to be said very clearly: I’m not Jewish but I love Jews. By which I mean the Jewish community. And the Jewish tradition. And the Jewish faith. But mostly I just love Jews in general. I’m pro-Semite (is that a thing? Let’s make it one). And I’m saying this now because I realized something last night.
I’ve spent a lot of my life in loving solidarity with marginalized communities. I love Black folk too, with my whole heart and soul and body (hey Blackness - thank you for giving me myself). I love immigrants, especially Black and Latinx and API immigrants who seek a better life and are demonized and abused for it. I love Muslims and the Muslim faith and the Muslim community, which models with extraordinary grace what it looks like to reach out in solidarity even while suffering debilitating persecution. I love indigenous communities, whose spirit is indomitable in spite of the tyranny of colonization, and I lament their suffering and the suffering of their ancestors. I love queer and trans folk, and my gay and lesbian and bi siblings. I love the proud denizens of "flyover country", and rural folk, and poor folk, and differently-abled folk, and old folks and young folks. All of this is easy for me to say, and I’ve said it before.
I also love Jews. And I’m noticing as I say this that I’ve spent my whole adult life in progressive movement spaces that claim solidarity with all who are marginalized and I’ve never heard a non-Jew say that they love Jews.
I know why this is. I know that Whiteness complicates things. I know that my colleagues and partners and friends of color often see the word “Jew” and read it as “White.” And I know that my White Jewish friends often get seduced by their Whiteness. I know that Jewish Whiteness gets weaponized against people I love - Black and Brown communities in particular - BY white Jews. I know that Jewish Whiteness does harm in my community.
The man who killed eleven precious members of Tree of Life also believed that Jews were doing harm to his community. He lived in fear that everything he had would be taken from him. In the face of that fear, it made sense to him to do what he did.
I am also very afraid. I have had trouble sleeping through the night since Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court. And since the UN report on climate change was released. And since Black elders started getting pulled off of buses on their way to the voting booth. And since the caravan formed in Central America and I began to fear that human beings might die by the hundreds when they reach our militarized border, which “protects” (hoards) a land of wealth and abundance. I'm afraid we might lose. I'm afraid we might lose everything.
I am a woman who also loves God. And if we are going to lose everything, then the fight is not a battle for life or death. It is a battle for love, love even when all else is lost. Because God has made it clear that love will always remain, long past the proud, arrogant human things we use to divide ourselves from God's love. And I will fight with love and for love alongside the people who God loves, as I have been doing my whole life. And lest we forget: God loves the Jews. Strictly speaking, for people of the Book, they are God’s first love.
I’ve been thinking a lot today about the story in Exodus when the Amalekites attack Israel, the first time they were attacked after being liberated from Egypt. And about how the Israelites would have lost, except Moses had faith that even when everything seemed lost, God would deliver them. And God made it clear that as long as Moses held his hands up to Heaven and kept faith with God, that Israel would be delivered from the Amalekites. But Moses was not capable of holding his arms up for the time that was needed. He didn’t have it in him. If Aaron and Hur had not been there to hold his arms for him, if they had not been willing to let God work through them, all really would have been lost.
Sometimes we don’t have it in us to win the battle, or even to keep the faith. That’s okay, if there are enough of us who are willing to hold us up in our weakness. Today and every day, like Aaron and Hur, I’m holding up the arms of my Jewish siblings, who I love. And I am grateful for the times they have kept faith with me and mine in our weakness. Together we’ll keep the faith, and pray that God will deliver us from our fear.
To my friends who lead Jewish communities. One of the worshipping communities that I lead meets in a bar in Dallas (hence the lack of light) and is made up of various kinds of outsiders. We wanted to sing, be in solidarity and pray with you so we wanted to offer this song back to you that you taught us. Please let us know how we can support you. [Video recording of Olam Chesed Yibaneh, We Will Build This World With Love from the bar]
From a friend, publicly: I want to share my outrage and heartbreak over yesterday’s shooting at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. To Jewish people in my life, you are not alone. I am so sorry about this attack. It is a tragedy to lose the victims of this shooting. I have been grateful to learn from Jewish people over the past 2+ years about anti-Semitism as cyclical, dangerous, and foundational to many types of oppression and White supremacy. We all have a stake in getting free together. Taking anti-Semitism seriously and standing with Jews is essential. With love and solidarity, [Name]
From the same friend, privately: There are few things sweeter than being in community with you and the Jewish community that claims you/you claim and that means through everything not just the easy and good ❤️❤️❤️ I love you so much
[From a friend/colleague]:
Sending prayers and love to you and [your partner] as you both have the difficult task this week of supporting your respective groups of students while you yourselves are undoubtedly hurting. I am available this afternoon anytime before the planned vigil if you and [a rabbi I work with] need help with anything. Also, [my partner] and I and members of our LDS congregation will be attending the interfaith vigil at [local synagogue] this evening and would be happy to help transport students or anything else that might assist.
Take care, [name]