Rabbi and media personality Shmuel “Shmuley” Boteach on Tuesday advised that all Americans need to take a hard look at themselves following the horrific mass shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, saying we all bear some responsibility when it comes to “stoking the fires of hate.”
“Everyone is stoking the fires of hate right now – whether it’s politicians, whether it’s Hollywood actors and actresses, whether it’s writers, we’re all guilty,” the rabbi, a Hill contributor, told Hill.TV co-hosts Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton on “Rising.”
“Instead of anyone accepting responsibility and blame and pointing at ourselves — the man in the mirror — we’re just trying pointing the finger at everybody else,” he added.
Eleven men and women were gunned down on Saturday at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. The suspect, Robert Bowers, faces 29 federal charges, including multiple hate crimes, for the rampage that has left Jewish communities nationwide on edge.
The attack on the synagogue marks the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history.
Boteach denounced the violence, calling it “demonic form of hatred,” saying this form of hatred is nothing new, citing the Jewish community after often the first victims of hatred.
“It’s also the world’s oldest hatred — it has lasted thousands of years, we were just hoping that America shores were largely immune to it,” he told Hill.TV.
The rabbi has also defended Trump’s response to the mass shooting in an op-ed for The Hill, saying that the president is not to blame for the attack.
Trump condemned the massacre as an “assault on humanity,” but the president was later criticized on social media for tweeting about a World Series game shortly after the shooting took place.
Progressive Jewish leaders in Pittsburgh, meanwhile, started a petition saying President Trump is not welcome in Pittsburgh until he denounces white nationalism. The petition has garnered more than 50,000 signatures.
But Boteach argues that the degree of hatred in America instead “demands harmony and unity” from everyone.
“It is going to come from leadership. It’s going to have to come from the president, it’s going to have to come from Democratic leaders, it’s going to have to come from faith leaders, it’s going to have to come from cultural leaders.”
— Tess Bonn
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