We at DJOP are horrified and saddened by the deaths this week at the Muslim Mosques in New Zealand. As Martin Luther King so eloquently said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” We believe when one House of God is under attack, we are ALL under attack. The Muslim community was attacked simply due to their religious beliefs and their faith.
We as Jews understand and know all too well what it like to be attacked for one’s faith. Unfortunately, the President of the United States, the leader of the Free World, who has the power of the pulpit, was unable or unwilling to adequately respond to the horror of what transpired in New Zealand. He said he does not believe that there is a rise in white nationalism around the world. He via tweet sent his “warmest sympathy”, which makes no sense, and nowhere does he mention that this was an attack against Muslims. His statement is what our bubbes would call a “shanda”.
The fact that the United States President does not stand more firmly against this sort of behavior is terrible. Our president specifically wanted a muslim ban and this is the kind of behavior that he implicitly supports.