Standing with Friends in Synagogue

Today, I wish to stand with my Jewish friends in the wake of the anti-Semitic violence last week in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when a gunman killed eleven worshipers at the Tree of Life Synagogue. Beit Knesset is the Hebrew term for synagogue. It literally means “house of assembly.” It is the focal point of Jewish communal life, a place for prayer, for study and connection. While the synagogue, Beit Knesset, is a sacred place, it is even more sacred when people assemble together in that place.

The Great Synagogue of Florence or Tempio Maggiore Israelitico di Firenze (Getty Images)

In thinking of the recent tragedy of men and women being gunned down at a house of worship, my mind also went back to a moment of inspiration when I stood in The Great Synagogue in Florence. It was a day when my appreciation for my Jewish friends was heightened all the more.

It happened many years ago when I had completed a teaching position overseas and was touring Europe on my way back home. With a Eurail pass and a Europe on $25 a Day guidebook, I saw some of Europe’s major cities by train. Three wonderful days were spent in Florence, Italy. It is an amazing city, beautifully set on the Arno River and full of art and history. I was in awe as I stood with my hand on the iron gates designed and built by Michelangelo himself!

Interior view of the Great Synagogue 

One surprise that awaited me was The Great Synagogue of Florence (Tempio Maggiore Israelitico di Firenze in Italian). I had not been a student of Italian history, so I had no idea of the existence of this remarkable structure until I visited it on one of my walks through the city. I was one of my favorite encounters in my self-styled European tour.

The synagogue was built between 1874 and 1882 as a symbol of the new freedom that the Jewish community was feeling after being granted emancipation by the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in 1848. One can only imagine the joy and exhilaration the Jewish community must have felt in being allowed to fully participate in society and finally being given the freedom to bring their heritage to full flower.

(The Great Synagogue has Moorish architecture inspired by the

Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Here is an interior view of the dome.)

When I stood in that sacred space, I was energized and awe-struck by the beauty and symmetry of that domed structure whose architecture was inspired by the Hagia Sophia in the old city of Constantinople. I took joy in the notion that this community, 100 years earlier, had found the freedom to dwell and to flourish. Even so, I had to recall that there would be darker days ahead for European Jews. Christian antisemitism would continue until faced with the horrors of Nazi Germany. A fresh wind then blew through the open windows of Vatican II in 1962 when the Catholic Church declared that our Jewish friends are indeed fellow pilgrims along the way. It was the herald of a new day, but when will we come to a full realization of that day?

It has been my privilege at various times over the years to stand with friends in synagogues for special events and bar mitzvahs. Today, I wish to stand again with my Jewish friends. I stand just as proudly as I stood so many years ago in the Great Synagogue in Florence. I also weep just as surely as if my own people were cut down.

America should be the place where all are welcome and where no one is excluded – no race, gender, class, or religion should be denied. All people of faith should be able to worship unhindered, certainly no group should be targeted or discriminated against. This is the ideal we stand for. We are not there yet, which is why we must call it out whenever we see violence or discrimination against another. 

We can stand together to make every Beit Knesset, every church, every temple, every mosque, a sacred place. 

For a remembrance of the eleven victims of the massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue, go here.

To hear Rabbi Jeffry Meyers at the prayer vigil go here.

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Photo of The Great Synagogue by Ruy Barbosa Pinto (Getty Images).
Interior photos courtesy of Wikipedia.



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