Ari Mittleman: Jews need passionate allies

Gov. Tom Wolf visited the Tree of Life - Or L’Simcha in Pittsburgh on Dec. 6. Joined by Rabbi Jeffrey Myers and state Sen. Jay Costa, he announced an investment of $6.6 million in state funding to transform the devastated synagogue into a place of hope, remembrance and education.

For Jews and non-Jews, the dreadful images from that October Saturday morning in 2018 will not soon be forgotten. The attack was the deadliest incident of antisemitism in American history.

Unfortunately, less than 14 months later, another violent antisemitic attack occurred. Two years ago this week, at dinnertime, television viewers across the nation were fixated as two killers exchanged hundreds of rounds of gunfire with courageous police officers in Jersey City, N.J.

Fueled by the same deranged antisemitic hatred as the attacker in Pittsburgh, the killers took the lives of three innocent victims at JC Kosher Super Market. Earlier in the day, a police officer who by happenstance discovered the stolen van was killed by the shooters.

Growing up in Allentown, walking to synagogue each Saturday and attending the second oldest Jewish day school in the commonwealth, I could never fathom the possibility of a tragedy like the attack in Pittsburgh or Jersey City. Not once do I remember a concern about our community’s security.

Alas, three years after the massacre in Pittsburgh and two years after attack in Jersey City, the threat of another violent antisemitic attack is quite real. Incidents of antisemitic violence have increased to unprecedented levels. According to the FBI 2020 hate crimes report, Jewish Americans were the target of 58% of all religiously motivated crimes last year.

Wolf recognizes this, and his announcement at Tree of Life plays an important role in addressing the rise in hate and crimes borne of hate. As Martin Luther King Jr. eloquently made clear, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Policymakers in Washington have also been hard at work in recent months realizing this is a non-Jewish problem as much as it is a Jewish problem.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, is laser focused. Mayorkas led the development of the first ever National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism. Furthermore, the department has established a new Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3) to improve the department’s ability to combat this type of domestic terrorism and targeted violence. His visionary efforts were announced in Pittsburgh in October.

Sens. Bob Casey and Pat Toomey are considering the House version of the Build Back Better legislation. This includes a $100 million boost for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program administered by FEMA. These critical grants assist in security enhancements for nonprofits and houses of worship. Once passed, total funding nationwide would be $280 million. Congregations across Pennsylvania have and will continue to benefit.

When we do not pause and reflect on the tragic attacks in Pittsburgh and Jersey City, we deprive ourselves and future generations of important lessons.

Following the remarkable efforts of local, state and federal law enforcement, the terror that December evening on the shores of the Hudson River came to an end. In the days following, media observed that both a Catholic and Jewish grade school were adjacent to the crime scene. Similarly in Pittsburgh, the world witnessed diverse Pennsylvanians from all faiths speak up and say that together the community is stronger than hate.

It is all too easy to focus on differences and the perpetrators of evil who exacerbate these differences. This is often at the expense of the much harder task of celebrating what unites diverse Americans of faith who stand up and speak out and strive to bring us together.

American Jews certainly benefit from creative policymaking, but what is needed most are passionate, diverse non-Jewish allies. Wolf demonstrated this at the Tree of Life. The single most powerful way to conquer hate is to show where it can lead. We witnessed this in Pittsburgh and in Jersey City, and we should never endure seeing it again.

Ari Mittleman is the author of “Paths of Righteous: Stories of Heroism, Humanity and Hope.”