We unequivocally condemn last week’s horrific, antisemitic attack on Temple Israel in Michigan. American Jews, like all Americans, deserve to worship, send their children to preschool, and exist in society without fear of violent attack.
The attack also illuminates how deeply dangerous it is to equate American Jews with the State of Israel. This dynamic poses a serious threat to the safety and lives of Jewish communities and individuals across the country and around the world.
Jews are not a proxy for Israel, nor are they responsible for its actions. We must collectively reject rhetoric that attempts to remove that separation, because antisemitism thrives in spaces where that line is blurred.
We must call out those who have used the conflicts between Israel and Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran to claim that this attack was somehow justified. There is no possible reason that pre-schoolers and teachers and temple staff should live in mortal fear because of a conflict thousands of miles away. Moreover, support for Israel/Zionist beliefs do not in any way justify such acts of violence.
Political and ideological positions can be criticized and debated – but they are never an excuse for intimidation or violence. Political disagreement never justifies attacking a house of worship or the people inside it. To argue otherwise is to argue for a society of more extremism and more fear in every direction.
We remain extremely grateful to the Temple Israel security team that trained for this exact scenario and who saved lives with their courage and skill and we remain deeply saddened that their training was necessary. We hope for the full and speedy recovery of the security guard who was injured in the attack – and hope that everyone in our society will do their part to ensure that critical debates over politics, conflict and world events do not devolve into incitement, conspiracies and violence.
We commend the many leaders who have stood up for and shown up for Temple Israel and for the Jewish community. American Jews are not facing this alone. Those who continue to isolate Jews with narratives of their own abandonment are undermining the intercommunal solidarity that Jews seek.