There will be lots of reports on the white supremacist who murdered and attempted to murder even more people this weekend.
Let’s not give him the publicity he wants. We know what we need to know about him. His heart was filled with self-righteous hate that came from the belief that brown and black people are taking over America and that Jews are helping them do it.
He wants to kill every non-white person in America or at least scare us all enough to leave. And I get his strategy — in many ways it is a terrifying time to be Jewish.
But it also is a time to feel defiant. We refuse to give up feeling at home in this country. We refuse to feel shame for who we are. We refuse to hide. It is our Jewish law of helping the stranger and the less fortunate that is the source of so much of this hatred towards us. And we remain proud of that law and humbled by our opportunities to be of help to the refugee, the immigrant, and the less fortunate. He hates us for the very best of us. So we will not hide.
Lori Gilbert-Kaye didn’t hide. When her rabbi was being attacked she put herself in between him and the attacker.
She attended services Saturday to say a Kaddish prayer for her mother, who died in November
According to those who knew her, she was a philanthropist and a kind soul.
She died as she lived: doing for others.
Gilbert-Kaye, 60, of San Diego, is survived by her husband and 22-year-old daughter.
Let her name be the one we speak of. Let her story be the one we tell.
Let her memory be a blessing.