A Massacre in New Zealand

As a Jewish member of the family of man, I can unfortunately relate to this act of terror. It is no different than what happened in Pittsburgh a few months ago. Just as Jews in a synagogue were slaughtered there by a white supremacist only because they were Jews, so too were Muslims slaughtered in a mosque only because they were Muslims.  The grief the Jewish community had then is now beings shared by our Muslim brothers in New Zealand.

No one should take any joy in this act. No matter how one feels about what is happening in Israel. Sure as I’m sitting here, some of us (a very small number, I hope) might be tempted to feel a sense of satisfaction that this time it is ‘they’ who are feeling what we have felt so many times before.  Because of what ‘they’ have done to us. 

But the truth is that ‘they’ meaning the entirety of the Muslim world has not done this to us. Not anymore than the entirety of the Christian world has done to the Muslim community by a fellow Christian. Muslims are not monolithic. The events of yesterday in a New Zealand mosque had nothing to do with the rockets fired at Tel Aviv yesterday. That was done by Hamas which consists of the devout Jihadist faction of Islam. (I have no illusions  about them.) Not the devout Muslims praying in New Zealand. Just as Rabbi Meir Kahane’s violent approach to Islam does not represent me. Nor do white supremacists represent Christians.

I have no idea if there are any Jews - let alone rabbis in Christchurch. It almost sounds like an oxymoron for a Jew to live in a city with that name. But it wouldn’t surprise me if there were. If there are, I hope that members of the Jewish community there show their solidarity with Muslims and stand together with them at this moment of great pain This is not the time to talk about our differences. Whatever their feelings about the Jewish state are. That is not the issue here. They have a right to their views as we do ours.

The common denominator here is that we were both attacked for who we are and what we believe. Jews have been attacked by both the Christian and Muslim extremists. Muslims were attacked by Christian and Jewish extremists. 

Lest anyone say that Jews have no extremists and would in any case never do what was done here, let me remind you that a devoutly religious Jewish  Kahanist by the name of Baruch Goldstein did exactly that at a mosque in Chevron (our Ma’aras HaMachpela which they consider a mosque) filled with praying Muslims - almost to this day 24 years ago! 

I think it also behooves all of us to not play politics here by blaming what happened yesterday on the political rhetoric of a politician we don't like. This is not the time for that. Politics ought to be left out of it. 

My hope is that the Muslim community will accept our heartfelt condolences as genuine. With the sincere hope and prayer that neither community ever suffer like this again. I believe that most Muslims will. 

For one brief moment in time we can and should be united in the common purpose of grieving for lost loved ones through acts of terror. It’s just too bad that it always takes a tragedy to do something like that.