Reflections on rising Anti-Christian and antisemitic violence in light of the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
Two weeks ago, on the morning of August 27th, a mass shooting occurred at the Church of the Annunciation in the Windom neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The attack took place during a scheduled school-wide Mass attended by the students and faculty of Annunciation Catholic School. People of all religious backgrounds received this news in horror and shock; how could a place of prayer being targeted and such a painful tragedy take place in a house of worship? Incidents like this challenge our faith that ours is a God that rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked.
The fact that this horrific assault took place in America's heartland questions our belief in the country as a place for Freedom of Worship and a safe haven for the virtuous and the persecuted. After centuries of unspeakable violence between various religions and within religions the founders finally made a declaration that all people of virtue are born with a God given right to pursue their conscience and serve God as they understand him and in accordance with what he demands of them. These battles included nomadic pagan tribes, Catholics and Muslims during the crusades, Catholics and Protestants following the reformation, during many British rebellions and counter rebellions, to name a few examples. America was the great hope for humanity, for people of conviction and for a world that allows for of coexistence.
For me, this most recent church shooting and the assassination of Charlie Kirk were in some ways more painful than Jewish targeted violence. Just two days earlier, six religious jews were murdered in my city, Jerusalem, at an intersection that I myself have passed through many times. These were people from my community and my faith. So I wondered why the public execution of a Christian martyr hit me so close to home. I guess it is because I feel like antisemitism is not new, we expect it, whereas this atrocity seemed to be an all out war on God. It was a call to eradicate the possibility and mere notion that a faithful and Godly person can walk the earth. It dawned on me that if religious motivated violence has spread to Christian children and preachers than we are really in trouble; if Catholic schoolkids and a pundit such as Charlie Kirk are not safe - where does that leave us?
I don't draw these conclusions lightly. The recent shooting at the Annunciation church is part of a growing pattern within the context of other incidents of targeted murder and violent persecution of faithful Christians in recent history. These incidents include the Nashville shooting at The Covenent School, a Christian elementary school in Nashville on March 27th, 2023, the racist shooting at Mother Emanuel Church during a bible study meeting in Charlston, South Carolina June 17th, 2015 and the deadliest mass shooting at an American place of worship that took place at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas on November 5th, 2017. Though I reject the Christian theology regarding the nature of God, I feel it is my duty to speak up because there is something dark and evil when anyone is murdered for daring to serve God and all of us who live faith based lives must stand in solidarity against this.
What was especially appalling was the response of left-wing politicians and commentators who took the opportunity of children being murdered during prayer to denounce prayer and people of faith who live their lives centered on prayer. Before the condition of the victims or the number of survivors were even known they preemptively attacked conservatives for the commonly used phrase of "thoughts and prayers" in response to moments such as these. There is a time for analysis and a time for action, but when the dead are still lying in a pool of blood and the living are barely hanging on, reflection and prayer is all we can offer as we stand in hope for the best possible outcome.
Here are some of the vile comments spoken, tweeted and shared.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey: “Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now, these kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school, they were in a church.”
Jen Psaki: "Prayers is not freaking enough. Prayers does not end school shootings. Prayers do not make parents feel safe sending their kids to school. Prayer does not bring these kids back. Enough with the thoughts and prayers."
Gavin Newsom: “These children were literally praying as they got shot at.”
There is one defense to their mindset and this is the response that Psaki herself shared on her show. Imagine standing in front of a high rise fire where people are trapped inside and the firefighter is kneeling in prayer instead of going inside. Alternatively, a reckless teenager drives way beyond the speed limit without a seatbelt but justifies this behavior saying, "I said the blessing of a traveler so God will protect me on my journey".
There is a time and a place for prayer but God also demands action, especially in protection of the innocent. For example, in Judaism it is a sin to build a porch or a rooftop without a proper gate or guardrail. When Rabbi Machlis, a well known Rabbi in Jerusalem, heard from his granddaughter and her husband that the Grand Canyon has insufficient bannisters and railing support for hikers and visitors, he insisted that we immediately find the contact information for the Government office responsible for maintaining that Park and then asked for my assistance to draft and send a strongly worded letter urging them to fix this oversight immediately.
We all agree that action must be taken to prevent school shootings, but feirce debate rings out every time this happens regarding what that action should look like. For democrats, the answer is legislation regarding gun ownership. Democrat politicians and activists hold strong political beliefs regarding gun control; they want to see severe limits placed on the Second Amendment. One can guess or speculate their true motives and still agree that the high incidence of mass shootings in the US, especially in schools, is reprehensible. Every time there is a mass shooting they renew their calls for more restrictive gun laws; efforts that prove futile every time because this language only galvanizes gun rights activists and causes an increase in gun purchases and ownership.
What is truly pathetic is that their thinking is totally backwards. Charlie Kirk was murdered in a gun-free zone. There was another attempted mass shooting in a church that was thwarted because parishioners were law-abiding gun owners. In the recent terrorist attack in Jerusalem that took the lives of 6 passengers, the terrorists were neutralized by an off-duty cop and a gun-carrying civilian. Sick and evil people walk the earth and I feel very safe in Jerusalem knowing that the city is literally saturated with guns. I once volunteered in the NICU and noticed that a Dad of one of the preemies came to visit his baby with a gun on his hip. A nurse on the post-surgical ward when I was recently hospitalized also walked around on duty with a gun. People travel the bus, go to synagogue, shop for groceries openly carrying a gun. Good people with guns cannot prevent evil acts but they can thwart them, minimize the damage and serve as a deterrent.
In the two weeks between the school shooting and the assassination of Charlie Kirk, I thought a lot about this topic and had many ideas and suggestions for Christians in America and how they must improve the security around their churches and schools. And while I am not negating the importance of such actions I realize now how backwards this conversation has become. Think of it in the Jewish context: Jewish men must pray in a quorum three times a day, hence a "synagogue" can be the conference room in an office building, the boarding gate in an airport or even a hallway in an arcade or a mall.
While I totally encourage law-abiding people of faith to consider weapons training, gun ownership and volunteering to provide security for their local schools and houses of worship this is not a feasible answer. Nor should it be. We cannot normalize a world where political violence against conservatives or the targeted killing of people of faith is acceptable.
What is even more critical to understand is that on our own we are helpless to the forces of evil. God alone can protect us. In Psalms 127 we acknowledge that if God does not protect the city the Guard stands in vain on his post - hence the title for this article. Charlie Kirk lived and breathed this chapter. He built a political empire and at every opportunity he gave all the glory to God. "If God does not build the house his children toiled for naught."
So even if we agreed with the gun control agenda there is no excuse to diminish prayer and there was a justifiable backlash against this demeaning rhetoric. Amongst the responses, Vice President Vance posted on X: "Why do you feel the need to attack other people for praying when kids were just killed praying?"
Karoline Levvitt responded to the criticism of "thoughts and prayers" from the White House podium: “I saw the comments of Ms. Psaki and frankly I think they're incredibly insensitive and disrespectful to the tens of millions of Americans of faith across this country who believe in the power of prayer, who believe that prayer works.”
But there is a glaring contradiction that they did raise - a question that begs an answer: how can we believe in prayer when children were killed in a church and prayer did not help them? Two conflicts must be resolved here. First is how can a loving God allow evil to happen; how can bad things happen to good people? The second, does prayer have the ability to effect change - what can it really accomplish?
I believe that we need to ask what is the purpose and the goal of prayer to understand its power. Something can only be judged if it works if we know what is the goal and the yardstick by which it should be measured. I want to start by examining the word "prayer," which in Hebrew is Lehitpalel, a reflexive verb. Prayer is a form of introspection, looking inward. The root of the word is Palel, which means to judge. Prayer is an opportunity for self-analysis and self-evaluation.
This explanation is a start but is wholly insufficient. Why do we need God in the equation? Is prayer just a spiritual or formulaic version of meditation? No. Another meaning of the word is to beg. Prayer is not just about reflection, it is also supplication.
Psalms 27 is a chapter I and most orthodox Jews say every day this month in the weeks leading up to Rosh Hashono - in this chapter is a classical verse: One thing I ask of God this I will request, to dwell in the house of the lord all the days of my life. We see from this verse that prayer definitely includes supplication, asking God to give us our wants and needs; yet through the meditative process of standing before God and articulating our wishes and hopes we clarify to ourselves that which is most important to us.
One of the most iconic and pivotal moments in Jewish history that define Zionism as an integral part of Judaism is when Moses stood before God and desperately pleaded that he be allowed to experience just one moment in the hold land. An entire Parsha (Torah portion), Vaeschanan, derives its name from Moses' entreaties before God to enter Eretz Yisrael. Vaeschanan translated means I will plead before God. Moses prayed and God said no.
So here lies the deeply mystifying paradox. Why is it that when we pray, God ignores us? This seems to be proof that there is no God at all.
Julius Cis gave a profound answer to both of the above mentioned questions when he participated in a conversation with Christians on the nature and belief in Jesus Christ as the son of God. While he demonstrated deep respect for Christians and encouraged them in their faith he advocated that Jewish people reject the trinity and follow our tradition on the nature and unity of God.
He was asked, how can you view God as loving when he destroyed the world with a flood? He responded that God did not destroy the world, he preserved it. He saved Noah and his sons because they proved to be the only people on earth that had any semblance of righteousness he also saved every species and his desire was to eradicate an immense amount of evil that was in the world and started fresh so he didn't destroy the world.
"The world was on on on the brink of Destruction. God does not want to see evil in this world and he makes it clear in the Bible that those people who conduct themselves in way that are awful and mean and vicious and crude some of them sometimes deserving of death as a punishment of their deeds now we have to understand God who gives us his law must know ultimately what is right and wrong and I'm not going to question God's reasons for doing things I'm just going to thank God that he's given us ability to know who he is through his Bible."
This sheds light on why do bad things happen in the world. But what about God saying no to our prayers? His response changed my entire perspective on life, an impact that has stuck with me ever since.
He said: "When you flip a coin and you pray to God in the name of Jesus Christ that it be heads and its heads was it Christ that answered it and if it lands on tails was it Christ that answered that? Or is there not a possibility in life that certain things will happen regardless of your prayers?
The idea of prayers is to give a person faith in the God-given ability to make the right decisions we do not hope that the right things will fall into place all the time. God gave us the freedom of choice to choose between good and evil and we must be able to make those choices. Granted, God wants us to pray. He wants us to seek his guidance in every way; both Jew and non-jew to seek him, to love him and to put him in our lives. But to think that certain prayers are answered and therefore Jesus is in your life and then if certain prayers aren't answered does that mean Jesus isn't your life isn't the issue - because life deals three blows: yes no and maybe. And that doesn't necessarily mean always that Jesus answers your prayers."
What Julius was saying is that turning to God in prayer gives you the clarity and courage to make the right choices in life.
Before we explore real world examples where this played out I want to share the story of a fictional character, Maritza Cruz, in the TV show "Third Watch." This show portrays the lives of NY cops, paramedics and firefights who worked out of a station on the corner of King and Arthur. Seargent Cruz, as she was referred, was small and petite but as fierce as they come. She never shied away from a fight and refused to ever be seen as weak or vulnerable.
During her training in the police academy, if they wanted her to climb a 50 foot wall she practiced until she could climb one double the size. She failed to save her sister from addiction and instead she overdosed in her arms. Undeterred she crossed rooftops, went undercover and made a deal with the devil to bring the dealers to justice. Another time her entire team blew up in front of her in an ambush, she survived because her officer jumped on top of her seconds before the explosion. Before the day was done she uncovered the identity of the mastermind and singlehandedly confronted him and cuffed him in his own penthouse.
Maritza was a force of nature and refused to compromise on her singlehanded quest to protect the innocent and rid the world of evil. Her only rule was that she could never ever be seen as weak or vulnerable. When she was assaulted posing as a prostitute undercover she had to be dragged to the hospital for witness collection and tried every possible recourse to bring the assailant to justice without having to reveal herself as the victim. When the truth did come out she insisted that her colleagues and subordinates not treat her any different and refused any gesture of sympathy.
If a witness refused to give up the identity and location of a shooter she threatened to plant drugs on him and he knew it wasn't an empty threat. There was no barrier she couldn't level and no ethical line that she wasn't willing to cross. She was your perfect antihero.
Until the day she came face to face with an obstacle she could tackle on her own: leukemia. She threw the test results into the river and just cried as she stared over the railing at the water. Her doctor tried to convince her to start chemo and was perplexed at her refusal. Her gums were bleeding so badly she had to miss a stakeout. A prisoner she was interrogating called her out on it. "That's nasty, he said, when he saw blood pouring out of her mouth. Again, she brushed away tears as she drove away, noticing simple scenes of every day life happening around her: a mom crossing the street with her child, a young couple greeting each other. There was a medication that could give her the chance to live so she too could have the opportunity for these experiences but she wouldn't take it. She would not and could not ever risk being weak or vulnerable.
In a subsequent episode she meets a Santeria pastor. She tells him how she saw women being hurt and mistreated and despised them for turning to prayer and waiting for help that never came. Prayer stood against her entire life trajectory; she became a cop so she would be the solution and provide the protection that these women were lacking.
"These women lit a candle and that is what brought you into their lives, to help them. Maybe you came along as an answer to their prayers." Through conversation and encouragement the pastor introduced her to God and to the healing nature of prayer. The next day she revealed to a fellow officer that she chose to get help and would soon be starting chemotherapy. Faith in God and turning to him gave her the courage to face her deepest fear; it gave her the strength to allow herself to become weak and vulnerable.
Back to the world of reality, real people in the here and now. Prayer is what sustains people of faith through happy times and the large and small challenges of life. Choosing a career, standing up for one's principles, navigating college and higher education, getting married and raising children all require resilience an determination. Pro-life activists are a testament to the supernatural power of prayer. They faced a congress that was uninterested in taking up this issue on both sides of the aisle and a precedent in the Supreme Court. Reversing course on the cultural and legal attitudes towards abortion seemed impossible. Yet year by year the pro-life March became larger and larger as more voices joined in prayer once a year in D.C. proclaiming the truth about life in the womb. Groups such as "forty days of prayer" galvanized activists in the movement until the fateful day that a Supreme Court decision was overturned without a shot being fired. This is in contrast to the Dredd Scott decision on slavery that was repealed only after a bloody civil war. Today, according to some polls, the number of Americans who identify as pro-life is on the rise. Prayer shifted an entire society and political landscape.
Psalms, daily devotionals, formulaic supplications for various moments and spontaneous utterances in quiet or out loud are some of the ways through with human beings reach out to God in happy times and darker times in history. The experience of Jews during the Holocaust is a testament to the ability of Human Beings to be uplifted through prayer in even the most horrifying circumstances. When all of their humanity was stripped of them, standing naked and with shaven heads, they held onto their dignity.
In 1939, just before the Nazi invasion, Rabbi Wasserman returned to Poland to be with his students and he was ultimately murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust. He led his students in prayer and together they faced certain death with the words "Shema Yisrael" on their lips. The courage to choose to leave the safety of America and return to a war zone is only possible knowing there is a God above who held his hand up until his last breath. Prayer transformed Rabbi Wasserman, his students and so many Jews across generations from victims into martyrs.
But facing death with bravery is one thing. The greater mystery to me are the people who rebuilt after everything precious had been stolen from them. One of the greatest examples is the story of the Klausenburger Rebbe, Rabbi Yekusiel Yehuda Halberstam. After losing his wife and eleven children he rebuilt a Hassidic dynasty in America and Israel, established a hospital the Laniado Hospital in Netanya and established numerous other institutions for Holocaust survivors and the Jewish community. What is most mystifying of all his post-war accomplishments is that he had the courage to remarry and have seven more children. I was so enamored by his story that I traveled to Netanya several years ago for the express purpose of visiting the hospital that was built by this giant of a person.
Prayer was so integral to his existence that when he met with General Eisenhower in the Feldafing DP camp in 1945 all he asked for was a Jeep for his use in helping others and sets of the "Daled Minim" (four species) so he could make the blessings with them during the upcoming Sukkot holiday. Back when he was a prisoner in the concentration camp he was shot in his arm. He knew that he could not go to the infirmary for care - it was not a health care facility it was a factory of death. As he tended to the wound he cried out to God and made a bargain: if I survive this hellhole I will immigrate to Israel and I will establish a hospital that will defy that Nazi ideology of death and destruction as it will be a medical facility based on Godly values of the worth and dignity of the person. Fueled by the memory of this prayer he turned down the convenience and comfort of a life in NY and continued on to Israel, a then unestablished third world country. He pushed passed bureaucratic hurdles, lack of funding and numerous other obstacles. Today Laniado is a premiere destination for birth and other medical procedures nationwide and Klausenburg has become a name that is recognized worldwide.
I have experienced and directly witnessed this power in my own life. When my son was four years old I left him due to a mental illness. I was hospitalized in a psychiatric ward. Actually, it was many hospitalizations over that summer followed by a year of outpatient care that failed to help me. Eventually I deteriorated so much I fell into a deep depression, went into isolation and completely disconnected from the world for many years. As I was emerging from the depression (around eight years ago) I started to reach out and reconnect with my sisters, but I did not feel I was deserving of a relationship with my son. I had abandoned him. I wondered if he would even want to have a relationship with me anymore. My aunt who was raising him heard that I was in touch with my sisters but was avoiding communication with her or my son. She called me one day to let me know that if this was something I was willing to do she would support it.
"Dina," she said. "Your son's Rebbe (teacher) told me that every day he asks his classmate to pray to God for his Mom to have a full recovery. He still misses you and is waiting for you." And that is how I knew and was encouraged to try to be a Mom again. For years since then we have had so many meaningful interactions and opportunities of love and connection which would never have come to be but for the power of prayer.
But prayer is not just about passive acceptance limited to words and thoughts. Throughout the month of Elul we blow the shofar to inspire us to turn to God. Every Friday night women light Shabbat candles creating the unique opportunity for women to ask for blessings to fill their home. Jewish men put on Tefilin in the morning, leather boxes and straps wrapped around their hands and forehead. Several organizations and activists work tirelessly to procure and deliver these crucial articles of religious observance to soldiers in the IDF. The Bible states that this Mitzva is the greatest protection against one's enemies in war. Rabbi Breitowitz shared that many soldiers are embracing a full life of oberservance showing that God has an ironic sense of humor. Relgious factions in Israel fight feircely against the draft as they are worried that Yeshiva students will be led astray Torah observance and instead the army is possibly becoming the greatest influence to bring secular Jews to Teshuva. Such is the transformative power of prayer not just on the world stage to influence history and politics but even to change hearts and minds and radically alter an individual person's life.
