Pittsburgh Tragedy
October 29, 2018
Dear Friends,
I write you again in the wake of another mass shooting in our country. Some 228 years ago, George Washington wrote to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island, expressing the wish that “the children of the stock of Abraham” might enjoy the good will of other inhabitants of early America and that “every one” should “sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree.” It is disheartening that today we mourn the deaths of 11 individuals whose lives were taken on their day of prayer in a modern manifestation of an ancient form of hate: anti-Semitism.
The awful crime in Pittsburgh, seemingly carried out by a man full of rage and using an assault rifle, reminds us of the reality of evil and of the human predisposition to define others by category, discriminate, hold others in contempt, and lash out violently.
In the wake of other dreadful events, I have written that we are likely to be tested again. Our duty as members of an academic community remains the same: to seek the knowledge that enlightens and that can transform attitudes and that can make us safer—ever in a spirit of tolerance and generous understanding. We carry on in this task, recognizing that intolerance and hate have been present in every time and place.
We mourn the loss of life in Pittsburgh and hold the families and friends of those claimed by this act of hate close in our thoughts and prayers.
Sincerely,
Robert A. Brown
President