On Saturday October 29, a domestic terrorist with neo-Nazi hatred shot and killed eleven congregants in the sanctuary of the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Many of us around the country heard the terrible news moments later. The next day, on a rainy Sunday evening we came to the same sanctuary at Temple B’rith Kodesh that a day earlier we entered for the Shabbat morning service. The doors that would normally open on the High Holy Days were wide open to accommodate hundreds of people. Thousands came.

The Holy Ark in the sanctuary was lit, the Torah scrolls as visible as they were a day earlier, when we prepared to read from the weekly portion. We read from the book of Genesis about Abraham welcoming the stranger. On Sunday, 3000 people entered the sanctuary with broken hearts with compassion and a sense of kinship. In the overflowing sanctuary I met a couple from the Church of the Transfiguration. They shared with me an email they have received a few hours earlier, “At such times of unspeakable grief the one thing we can do as Beloved Community is stand in solidarity with those who feel the depth of such hate crimes. What occurred in Pittsburgh in the Tree of Life Synagogue yesterday leaves all of us heartbroken. It will be very meaningful if you can join our Jewish Brothers and Sisters tonight in prayer and be in support of them.”

People of all faith traditions and walks of life came to stand with the Jewish community at a time of our great sorrow. In his opening remarks Rabbi Peter Stein noted “the incredible number of Rochesterians who have reached out to the Jewish community from the Mormon, Sufi, Hindu, Buddhist, BaHai, Quaker, Christian, Catholic, Muslim, and other faith communities, as well as from any number of places in the civic and public sphere.”*

Eleven memorial candles were placed in front of the Holy Ark for the eleven people whose lives ended so brutally. A generation of elders, some Holocaust survivors was wiped out, leaving families and communities bereft. Cities like Rochester came to stand with its Jewish neighbors to affirm, confirm, remember and reiterate America’s promise, Out of many one. The Founders gave it to us in 1776; it was stitched into the Great Seal, woven into our history of unity and reaffirmed in the sanctuary.

The massacre in the Tree of Life synagogue opened old wounds not only of the Holocaust but also of a long European history in which the ruling powers of kings and church incited, aided and abetted hatred of Jews. It is quite easy to see why experiencing a history of persecution, American Jews in the 18^th century were concerned about anti-Semitism and why George Washington assured them that America was different from Europe. In his famous letter to the Jewish community of Newport RI George Washington declared “the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”

American presidents have since used George Washington’s words to confront bursts of hatred. John Kennedy made statements on the commemoration of 170th anniversary of George Washington’s letter to the Jewish community. President Reagan did it twice, in 1982 and in 1986. George H.W. Bush mentioned the letter in 1989, and George W. Bush in 2001 when American Muslims were attacked. It was entered into the Congressional record in 2001 as an American article of faith.

The massacre at Tree of Life synagogue was not only the worst attack on American Jews; it was also, as all hate assaults have been, a blow to American democracy. The Founders, as Dr. Martin Luther King reminded us, gave us a promissory note proclaiming that we “all are created equal and we are endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” That promissory note is our legacy, our sacred inheritance and we must always claim it. The Founders started the process of equality and it is up to us the people to make it a more perfect union. We took great pains to continue their aspiration with the Civil War, abolishing slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, women’s rights, LGBTQQ rights, standing with the poor, supporting workers rights, and standing up for immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers, insisting on the rights of Native people and all people.

We have known all along that democracy would need us, the people, to be its guardians, because racism, xenophobia, homophobia, discrimination, anti-Semitism and other glaring hateful exclusions require resistance and must be confronted. Generations of immigrants, including Jews fleeing persecution came to America because they understood its democratic promise and its emblematic Statue of Liberty.

Grief was with us on Sunday. Grief is with us in the mourning period and in times of national distress, violence and tragic hatred. Yet hope is also here. Looking around our sanctuary I saw recent immigrants and refugees. There was a group of No One Left Behind a national organization dedicated to helping the people who served alongside U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan and saved American lives. There is hope because the city of Rochester, the local chapter of NOLB and its partner Temple B’rith Kodesh are committed to welcome immigrants and refugees.  Hope is a  beautiful group from The Worker Justice Center of New York standing with us. Hope is in small towns and large cities, in upstate NY and all over America. Hope is where civic organizations and faith communities like The Tree of Life and HIAS welcome the stranger: immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.

Hope is here because George Washington’s promise has a life in America. And right here in our city Todd Levine President of William and Mildred Levine Foundation has just turned Washington’s promise into practice. Levine decided to donate $1 million to the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester to create a center to end hatred. He wants his children to be raised in a world of tolerance and love. And so do we. This is why the sanctuary at Temple B’rith Kodesh was filled to capacity one week ago.

This is why we must vote in two days: When the government refuses its sacred historic obligation, it is we the people who will give to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.” In out vote, individually and collectively, from sea to shining sea we will say a resounding no to a Muslim ban; no to snatching children from their parents at the border; no to demonized refugees fleeing danger; no to deniers of global climate change; no to calling journalists the enemy of the people; no to overt and covert support of racists, neo-Nazis and anti-Semites. Our vote, yours and mine, on Tuesday must affirm our sacred values that among them are equality, decency, truth, and compassion.

*Details of the vigil can be found on TBK website.

My thanks to my Shabbat Havrutah Amitzot, women of courage and compassion and to Deborah Kornfeld and Lauren Ahavya Deutsch for their thoughtful comments.