Paul Bass Photo
Memorial candles lit for Tree of Life Victims, at New Haven’s post-massacre vigil.
Attorney General Sessions,
I am writing to express my deep concern about the way your official statements about the massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh erase Jews, anti-Semitism, and white supremacy.
You characterize the massacre as “hatred and violence on the basis of religion,” adding: “Every American has the right to attend their house of worship in safety.”
Certainly those statements are true. But they are also grossly insufficient.
The Tree of Life massacre was not an attack on “religion,” any more than last month’s mail bombs were an attack on “political figures” or 9/11 was an attack on “employees in tall buildings.” Al Qaeda targeted centers of American financial and military power. The mail bomber targeted prominent Democrats.
And the Pittsburgh assailant targeted Jews. He didn’t shout, “All religious people must die.” He yelled: “All Jews must die.”
This white supremacist chose to attack a synagogue during Shabbat services. But he might well have chosen a non-religious Jewish target. He might have stormed a Jewish Community Center, as a white supremacist did when he shot five people in Los Angeles in 1999, and as a Neo-Nazi did when he gunned down three people in Kansas in 2014. He might have attacked a Jewish Federation, as a Pakistani American did when he shot six people in Seattle in 2006, complaining about Israel and the war in Iraq.
Each of these terrorists targeted Jews as Jews — not as religious people, not as people in a house of worship, but simply because they were Jewish.
What’s more, the Pittsburgh assailant targeted Jews because they were helping refugees, whom he termed “invaders” who wish to commit “white genocide.”
To address the terrorism at the Tree of Life Synagogue, your statement should read: “Hatred and violence on the basis of religion, ethnicity, national origin, or immigrant status can have no place in our society. Every American has the right to attend their house of worship in safety, to attend community and cultural centers in safety, to do humanitarian work in safety, and to apply for asylum in safety.” You should also note the alarming rise in anti-Semitic violence, vandalism, and speech in this country in the past two years.
The Tree of Life massacre took place at a religious institution, but it was not about religion. It was about hatred of Jews and immigrants. To pretend otherwise is to desecrate the memory of those who died in Squirrel Hill.
Sincerely,
Carole Bass