GUILFORD — The media has properly condemned the recent mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh as an act of anti-Semitism.
I have a good friend in Marlboro who grew up in the Squirrel Hill section, attended that synagogue, and had his bar mitzvah there. Indeed, his uncle was the architect, and one of the victims was the first cousin of his sister's husband.
Although I am a Christian, through my friend I have mourned my Jewish brothers and sisters.
But this was more than an act of anti-Semitism. It was a crime against humanity. I am human. It was a crime against my brothers and sisters, against me.
Only when we are able to see a crime such as this not as a crime against Jews or Muslims or Blacks or Native Americans but a crime against humanity, against us, against me, will we realize the peace we so desperately and unsuccessfully seek.