(Times of Israel) — An array of Jewish groups representing every major religious stream has declared this coming Shabbat one of solidarity with the African American community in the wake of the Charleston, South Carolina mass killing.
A press release Tuesday including among its signatories representative groups of the Conservative, Reform, Orthodox and Reconstructionist streams calls “to speak out in synagogues this coming Shabbat on the issue of racism in society and to express rejection of hateful extremism” and to demonstrate support for African Methodist Episcopal churches in their neighborhoods.
On the evening of June 17, a gunman shot dead nine worshipers at Emanuel AME in Charleston. The suspect in the shooting, who is in police custody, is allegedly a white supremacist.
“We stand together, as a united American Jewish community in calling for a Shabbat of important introspection and examination of racism in the United States,” Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt, the rabbi of Congregation B’nai Tzedek in Potomac, Maryland, said in the statement. “We hope to convey our support to the African-American community nationwide and show all that we will not stand for violent acts driven by hatred.” Read the full story at Times of Israel.
