‘When They Do More Evil, I Do More Jewish’: Rabbi of Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue on Spike of Antisemitic Attacks
by Algemeiner Staff
Amid a wave of incidents of anti-Jewish harassment and violence, the rabbi of the synagogue that in 2018 was the site of the worst antisemitic atrocity in American history had a simple, powerful message for those seeking to sow fear: “when they do more evil, I do more Jewish.”
Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue — where in Oct. 2018, eleven worshippers were killed and six people wounded after a white supremacist gunman attacked Shabbat morning services — appeared on MSNBC’s “Stephanie Ruhle Reports” Wednesday, as US Jewish communities grappled with an uptick in antisemitic attacks following hostilities in the Middle East.
Asked for his message to American Jews frightened by the trend of incidents, Myers said that “we’re experiencing once again what many have called domestic terrorism.”
“The goal of domestic terrorists is to change your own behavior,” he continued. “My answer to my fellow American Jews is: I will not let domestic terrorists terrorize me. When they terrorize me, I do even more Jewish things.”
“The answer is not to do less and to hide, it’s to be proud of who you are, and to do more of what you are that makes you Jewish; to help your fellow human beings in any way that you can; to follow the precepts of our Jewish law, and to be the best possible version of yourself you could be. So when they do more evil, I do more Jewish.”
Watch the interview below:
As anti-Semitic attacks surge, Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers from the Tree of Life Synagogue says Jewish people in the U.S. can't allow domestic terrorists to terrorize them.
"When they do more evil, I do more Jewish."#RuhleReports pic.twitter.com/gdUbMyosal
— Stephanie Ruhle Reports (@RuhleOnMSNBC) May 26, 2021