By Roger Nash
Greater Sudbury’s Jewish community, at the Shaar Hashomayim (Gateway to Heaven) Synagogue on John Street, mourns those killed in the shootings at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.
We pray in solidarity with the Jewish people of Pittsburgh and around the world, and with those of other faiths, worldwide, who suffer from violence and hatred. Sudbury’s Jewish community prays with particularly deep solidarity, as one of those killed in Pittsburgh, Joyce Feinberg, was a cousin of a previous president of ours.
Jewish citizens have been part of Sudbury’s life from its very beginnings as a mining town. We are well-integrated into its growth and flourishing.
We, like other faiths in town, have sent soldiers to fight and die in the Great Wars. We view Sudbury as blessed with strong interfaith friendships and mutual help across the City’s vibrant mosaic of different cultures.
Christianity, Islam and Judaism have done much work together, here, to help fellow Sudburians. For our Jewish community, the way forward from our grief over Pittsburgh is to continue, energetically, in this shared work. The way forward is: let us all be but kind to one another, down every one of our streets.
There will be a service of solidarity with Pittsburgh at the Synagogue, on John Street, this Friday, starting at 6.30 pm. All are warmly welcome, to come and share with us their good faith in working past disasters to a better, a kinder, world for all of us.*
*The vigil at the synagogue on Friday night is at capacity. If you would like to attend a vigil, the synagogue encourages you to attend the event tonight (Nov. 1) in Memorial Park downtown.
Roger Nash is Greater Sudbury's first poet laureate, a Laurentian University philosophy professor emeritus and a member of the Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue in Greater Sudbury.
