Hello friends,

I had a long conversation this evening with my Jewish friends from Squirrel Hill (where I lived), Pittsburgh who I mentioned in my sermon on Sunday. They knew victims and attended some of the funerals today and are hanging in there. They are part of the Tree of Life Synagogue community. Joel was bar mitzvahed there, his wife Rise and their daughter Laura (now 30 who I’ve known since she was three months old) learned Hebrew at Tree of Life. Joel's parents were members of Tree of Life before they moved. My other good Pittsburgh friend, John works in a place where one of the developmentally disabled victims did maintenance work. Rise and Joel knew this man and attended his and his brother’s funeral today.

Please continue to keep all our Jewish friends in this country and throughout the world in your prayers for their safety and for peace of heart and mind.

Anti-Semitic attacks were up in this country 57% in 2017. This is no coincidence. Here are two good articles that make connections.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/29/opinion/pittsburgh-squirrel-hill.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/29/us/anti-semitism-attacks.html

Truth and love must prevail over lies and hate, Vaclav Havel,