‘Tonight we are all Jews’: Hundreds gather at JoCo synagogue to mourn Jewish massacre
More than 1,500 mourners gathered Monday night in Overland Park for a community vigil honoring the Pittsburgh Jewish community in the aftermath of the Tree of Life synagogue mass shooting that left 11 dead.
The interfaith vigil, held at Kehilath Israel Synagogue, attracted a standing-room-only crowd of worshippers, clergy, city leaders and politicians from a variety of backgrounds, religions and ethnicities.
“Tonight, we are all Jews,” Akhtar Chaudry of the Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council told the gathering.
The tone of the vigil, ushered along by a formidable roster of respected Kansas City area clergy, oscillated between messages of mourning and solace and those of fierce solidarity and resistance.
“We are united in grief but strengthened in our resolve to fight hatred,” Chaudry said.
The event, organized by the Jewish Community Relations Bureau, Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City and the Rabbinical Association of Greater Kansas City, was billed as “an opportunity for all Kansas Citians to grieve and show solidarity with the Jewish community.”
With Kansas’ 3rd Congressional District candidates Kevin Yoder, the Republican incumbent, and Democratic challenger Sharice Davids in the front row, and with U.S. Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver of Kansas City as one of the speakers, messages at times swerved into the political.
“This could have been prevented if we had better political leaders,” said the Rev. Rodney Williams, president of the Kansas City branch of the NAACP and senior minister at Swope Parkway United Christian Church. “This fight is a fight for every person who has come under attack simply because you dared to be who God created you to be.”
In the wake of the massacre, which the Anti-Defamation League is calling the deadliest attack on Jews in American history, some have said President Donald Trump’s divisive political rhetoric led to the Pittsburgh attack. Trump has dismissed such claims.
The alleged Pittsburgh shooter, Robert Bowers, is reported to have shared anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant sentiments on social media.
It was seemingly with that in mind that many speakers urged a spirit of unified and outspoken resistance.
“How long will we entertain conspiracy theories or give way in our hearts to assuming the absurd about the other?” asked the Rev. Adam Hamilton, senior pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection. “How long will the rhetoric of our leaders fuel the fires of suspicion in our hearts? How long will we listen to voices who lead us to be our worst selves instead of our best selves?”
Cleaver echoed the sentiment.
“I am convinced irreversibly that silence likens to complicity. … There is a time to keep silent, but my friends, this ain’t it,” Cleaver said to raucous applause and a standing ovation.
The evening concluded with the Kaddish, the ancient Jewish prayer of mourning. Rabbi Doug Alpert, president of Kansas City’s Rabbinical Association and the evening’s emcee, led a ceremony in which 11 candles were lit as the names of the 11 shooting victims were recited.
After the vigil, Mindy Corporan told The Star, “I wanted to be with the community and a part of the grieving process.” Corporan’s son and father were killed in the 2014 Jewish Community Center shooting in Overland Park. “I didn’t want to wake up tomorrow and not have been a part of that and been here to thank people who were there for me and my family.”
She was joined by Sunayana Dumala, whose husband, Srinivas Kuchibhotla, was gunned down at Austin’s Bar & Grill in Olathe last year in another hate crime.
“The coming together around me when I lost my husband gave me the courage to come back,” Dumala said. “It’s very powerful to see the community gathering, irrespective of their religion, faith, color, and standing for that one message, that we care for everybody and we love everybody.”