Rabbi Elizabeth Dunsker was on her way to Congregation Kol Ami on Saturday morning when she heard on the radio about the shooting at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. Dunsker broke the news to congregants who got to synagogue early to study the Torah and hadn’t yet heard about the slayings.
Kol Ami held a vigil Sunday evening at its Brush Prairie synagogue to mourn the 11 people killed and six injured in what’s being described as the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the U.S. Dunsker said they mostly sang, as well as did readings about sadness and about hoping for peace and change; it was an emotional and difficult vigil.
“Essentially, we’re in mourning and we’re scared and we’re looking for hope, and we’re looking for safety,” she said in an interview with The Columbian.
The congregation was joined by many non-Jews and some people running for local office.
“Politicians have to hear that Jews don’t feel safe in the United States,” Dunsker said.
The Clark County Sheriff’s Office had several deputies who chose to be in the area of the synagogue over the weekend to increase police visibility. The Anti-Defamation League found that anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. rose 57 percent last year, the largest single-year increase on record since the organization began tracking them in 1979. The rise was due in part, the Anti-Defamation League said, to incidents at schools and college campuses.
In March, Clark College reported five anti-Semitic fliers found outside of Gaiser Hall, the Penguin Union Building and Scarpelli Hall and a social media post the college said was reported as “possibly discriminatory or harassing in nature.” The fliers depicted offensive portrayals of Jewish men and were signed by “Your Local Stormer Book Club” and bore the web address for The Daily Stormer, an American neo-Nazi and white supremacist commentary website.
Dunsker said Kol Ami has never been threatened or harassed, and that Vancouver has always been welcoming and thoughtful to the congregation, which has been around since 1989. People left flowers in front of the synagogue and other clergy have sent supportive notes to Dunsker, who is an active member of the interfaith community promoting religious tolerance and unity.
Kol Ami hosted last year’s annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Service, where people from a variety of faith traditions gathered to give thanks, pray and sing. There are lots of ways of worshiping God, and our differences is what makes the U.S. great, Dunsker said. The move to make everyone the same is dangerous, she said.
Members of the local Jewish community attended a vigil at Congregation Beth Israel in Portland, which Rabbi Shmulik Greenberg said was attended by many people.
Greenberg, of the Chabad Jewish Center of Clark County, said a congregant who came for shabbat services Saturday informed him of the massacre. The synagogue in the Sifton neighborhood has been in contact with law enforcement to ensure the synagogue’s security. People dropped off flowers and sent supportive emails to the Chabad Jewish Center.
“Judaism teaches us that to fix something in society it is not by making general statements toward others, rather each of us needs to act individually and collectively to make change,” Greenberg said in an email.
That means if we want to see an end to hateful rhetoric, each of us has to start by expressing opinions in kinder ways, with more sensitivity and respect.
“If we bring more good, that will push away the evil. We will continue to dispel darkness by adding light and combat evil by overwhelming the world with goodness and positivity,” Greenberg said.
