• Last Thursday, two African-Americans in Louisville, Maurice Stallard and Vickie Lee Jones, were gunned down by a white supremacist who just minutes before had tried to enter an African-American church.

• Throughout last week, pipe bombs were intercepted on their way to prominent critics of President Trump, starting with George Soros, the Jewish activist philanthropist vilified in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, and then to President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, CIA DIrector John Brennan (c/o CNN), Attorney General Eric Holder, Rep. Maxine Waters, Robert De Niro, Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Cory Booker, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Sen. Kamala Harris, and philanthropist and activist Tom Steyer. On Friday, the bomber was apprehended.

• On Saturday, a man driven by virulent anti-Semitism and anti-immigrant and racist beliefs used an AR-15 to murder 11 Jews worshipping at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh: Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal, David Rosenthal, Bernice Simon, Sylvan Simon, Daniel Stein, Melvin Wax, and Irving Yonge. Wounded were Paul Leger and an as-yet-unnamed congregant as well as four brave police officers who acted to stop the massacre:  Ofc. Michael Smidgen, Ofc. Timothy Watson, and two officers as-yet-unnamed. What seems to have moved the murderer to act were anti-Semitic and racist conspiracy theories about the caravan of refugees from Central America and about Jews working with others to welcome them. This is the most lethal anti-Semitic attack in the history of the United States.

Along with just and compassionate people of all beliefs, races, ethnicities, and political views, TAUP mourns these senseless murders and deplores these attempted murders.  We join our national and state affiliates in denouncing unequivocally anti-Semitism, racism, the fear and loathing of those would-be immigrants seeking only shelter from the violence in their countries, violent hatred toward those who oppose President Trump and toward the free press, just as we oppose political violence of any type.

TAUP represents 3100 faculty, librarians, and academic professionals with a diversity of political views. Some may take issue with political stances TAUP adopts. We welcome discussion where there is any disagreement.  We assume all of our members, regardless of party, condemn political violence of all types as well as anti-Semitism, racism, and the demonizing of immigrants.

  It is true that President Trump has denounced the attempted bombings and the attack in Pittsburgh.  Still, as some members of his own party have pointed out, he has been woefully irresponsible at best in how he uses the bully pulpit on Twitter and elsewhere to speak about his opponents, about people with disabilities, about immigrants, about white supremacists, about African-Americans, and about the press, to name just a few. He has all-too-often flirted with excusing or even encouraging violence. We can debate the relationship between any particular bit of rhetoric and any particular act.  But all of us across the political spectrum must raise our voices to reject rhetoric that demonizes specific groups or countenances violence, especially when the speaker has such great influence. To not do so is dangerous.

We must also model alternate ways of speaking and acting.  We urge everyone in TAUP and the wider Temple community to be kind to each other and stand with each other to reject hatred of all sorts.  In this vein, we point out a disturbing piece of news from last week that risks getting lost in our horror at other events–the Trump administration’s announcement that, in defiance of science, justice, and common decency, it may seek to define transgender identity out of existence.

We have been working on programming to fight white nationalism and are seeking people who are willing to help. Contact us if you’d like to contribute to this project or have ideas for others to counter hate.

It is also crucial to vote on November 6th and work to get others involved. The most immediate way to counter the threats facing our nation is to exercise one of our most sacred Constitutional rights and to encourage others to do so.  If you are looking for opportunities to get involved in next Tuesday’s elections, contact us.

Together, we can emerge from this difficult moment stronger than before if we see clearly the challenges facing us and meet them in courageous solidarity.