Tomorrow, the Anti-Defamation League will release new figures indicating that the number of incidents against Jews and Jewish targets in the United States reached 780 in just the first half of this year. At least a dozen white supremacists have been arrested for such shootings, plots and threats since the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history a year ago, at a synagogue in Pittsburgh.
As acts of hate are on the rise, churches and mosques as well as synagogues have been targets. What we discovered is that these religious communities have formed a bond, coming together to help each other recover. That’s what’s happened at the synagogue in Pittsburgh, called Tree of Life, which is actually home to three congregations, so three totally separate synagogues under one roof. In the past year each has searched for its own antidote to hate.
Tree of Life is the largest of the three congregations in the building. Its rabbi, Jeffrey Myers, says they’ve barely begun making sense of the storm that upended their lives and emptied this sanctuary.