Delaware's Jewish community in mourning after shooting at Pittsburgh synagogue

Prayer must be followed by action, said speakers at a vigil held Sunday honoring the victims of a deadly shooting that left at least 11 people dead at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. 

"All of us are afraid, and we are in pain," said Rabbi Jacob Lieberman of the Temple Beth El in Newark. 

He described Saturday's shooting, during which the accused gunman, 46-year-old Robert Bowers, burst into the Tree of Life Congregation Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh and screamed anti-Semitic epithets as he opened fire on congregants. 

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Lieberman said the shooting happened during a bris, or baby-naming ceremony. The attack is the worst on worshipping Jewish people in American history, he said, addressing a large crowd gathered on the Green at the University of Delaware. 

"For our grief, this is an opportunity to mourn," Lieberman said. "For our outrage, this is a time to cry out.

"We are out in the open when we otherwise might be trying to hide behind closed doors." 

Sunday's vigil was attended by members of all faiths. 

Kim Zitzner, director of Catholic Campus Ministry at UD, prayed for all those affected by the tragedy, while Sen. Chris Coons, a Presbyterian, called for more services for the mentally ill and gun reform. 

"Why sanctuaries?" the Democrat asked, addressing shootings not only at churches and synagogues but schools. "Why places of such peace of joy?" 

"I believe in prayer. I believe in the power of prayer, but we must act." 

Sen. Tom Carper led the crowd in a prayer, something he said he's never done before. 

"Lord, make me an instrument of your peace," Carper said, and the crowd repeated after him. "Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy."

He had every member of the Jewish community raise their hands, before saying, "Today, we're not Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Muslim ... We're all Jew." 

"Yes," someone in the crowd muttered. "Yes." 

U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer and Gov. John Carney also spoke. 

Rabbi Steven Saks, spiritual leader of Adas Kodesch Shel Emeth in Penny Hill, said hearing about the shooting was surreal. Synagogues in the United States have been considered fairly safe places, and while many have guests ring a buzzer to get in, that's about it. 

Now, he said, they may have to emulate European synagogues, which have seen more violence and employ security guards, among other things. 

Saks said local synagogues also considered heightening security after a series of bomb threats were made against the Siegel Jewish Community Center in Talleyville, but of course there are downsides. 

“It makes the institution feel much less welcoming," he said. "It doesn't feel as homey as it used to." 

Robin Burstein, senior associate regional director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Philadelphia office, said, unfortunately, however, anti-Semitism is on the rise. 

In a February 2018 report, the Anti-Defamation League recorded 13 anti-Semitic incidents across Delaware in 2017, a fourfold increase over 2016’s numbers and more than double the decade’s previous high of six incidents recorded in 2010. 

The increase is primarily attributed to five bomb threats targeting the Siegel JCC in Wilmington – part of a wave of bomb threats targeting Jewish institutions around the world in early 2017.

But there have been other incidents. In October 2017, a white supremacist group posted a recruitment flyer at the University of Delaware alleging that Jews and Communists were conspiring to control the country, according to the Anti-Defamation League. 

In May 2017, a Kent County Jewish homeowner's driveway was vandalized with a swastika. 

In Sussex County, a personal printer was hacked to print anti-Semitic and racist flyers, while in New Castle County a woman received a post on Facebook using an anti-Semitic symbol.

Across the country, the number of anti-Semitic incidents was nearly 60 percent higher in 2017 than 2016, the largest single-year national increase on record and the second highest number reported since ADL started tracking incident data in the 1970s. 

Delaware had more anti-Semitic incidents than 22 other states.

John Elzufon, chair of the Jewish Federation of Delaware's Community Relations Committee, said Saturday's shooting could easily sway people's faith in God. But they shouldn't let it. 

"Yesterday was not about the absence of God," he said "It was about the presence of evil.

"What happened yesterday may make it hard to believe in God, but it makes it impossible to believe in humanity without God." 

Rabbi Michael Beals of Congregation Beth Shalom in Wilmington tried to tell his children something similar. In the car on the way to the vigil, his 14-year-old daughter Shira said she was frightened of going to synagogue again. 

"As a rabbi, to hear his daughter say that is crushing," he said. But he told Shira and his other daughter, 17-year-old Ariella, that "If we stop going, we give all the terrorists a victory." 

He doesn't want them to be afraid, he said. A few minutes later, he asked Delaware's Jewish community to do what they do best, light a candle and spread God's light. 

Elizabeth Flynn, the cantor at Congregation Beth Emeth, then sang, because she didn't have any words of her own to describe her grief, she said. 

"I will build this world from love," Flynn sang, her voice filling the cold air. "And you must build this world from love. And if we build this world from love, then God will build this world from love." 

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Contact Jessica Bies at (302) 324-2881 or jbies@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @jessicajbies.