Statement by the leaders of the world parliament about the massacre in the synagogue of Pennsylvania
We are one with you, in that spirit. You never are alone.
T
oday we heard about a shooting at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood in the United States.
As we write this, at the synagogue attack, the tragedy took the lives of eleven men, with physical injuries to several others as well as first responders on the scene. This crime spreads a message of hate directed at an entire community, their religion and their right to gather without fear of harm in order to exercise their faith in the sanctity of their own worship house. It is incontrovertible that the perpetration was aimed at searching for these men, trapping them in their sacred space, killing and muzzling them, and rupturing their sense of world security.
Alongside other communities facing genocide, the Jewish people are profoundly familiar with the history of historical rupture; today is one of those days when the memory of hatred is once again too real.
As executive director, president and president-elect of the board of trustees of the Parliament of the Religions of the World, we want these friends in Squirrel Hill to know that we stand with you, just as we do with all groups that are hate targets. We are standing with your families and their communities. We also want you to know that we believe that aberrant hearts and minds are no match for our humanity as a whole, embodied in the global urges of faith to lead pure, strong, caring and compassionate lives.
We are one with you, in that spirit. You never are alone.
Chairman – Robert Sellers
Chairman-elect – Audrey Kitagawa
Director-general – Larry Greenfield
