We are Jews committed to liberation for all people. We are heartbroken and outraged by shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue. Our hearts are with the Jewish communities of Pittsburgh and the many communities facing the terror and loss caused by horrendous acts of violence driven by bigotry and hate. To the people who lost loved ones at the Tree of Life synagogue, we send our deep sorrow and grief.  To those who were injured or traumatized, we send you our comfort and strength.
 
As we mourn this horrendous act of violence against Jewish communities, we know that this is not an isolated attack and our response cannot be isolated either. The attack on the Pittsburgh synagogue is part of the growing threats and acts of murderous violence based on white supremacy, xenophobia, Islamophobia, anti-Jewish hatred, misogyny, homophobia and transphobia. Just days ago, two Black victims were killed by a white man in a supermarket in Louisville after he was refused entry into a Black church.

Trump callously suggested that had the synagogue had armed security, things may have turned out differently. To that we say that we believe safety of Jewish people is inseparable from all those targeted by bigotry. The same police that terrorize and kill Black and Brown people daily while allowing white supremacists to voice and act on the same racism and prejudice cannot be part of stopping it. Instead, we seek the safety of a world in which human dignity, emancipation and life are valued above all else.

With fascism on the rise across the world, we must make the connections between these horrific acts of violence, the ideologies of hatred they stem from, and the States that collude and enact them. In India, Israel, the United States, Brazil, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Canada and more than a dozen European countries, authoritarian, Far Right governments and white supremacist and fascist movements have taken or continue to control state power, are fighting for it and are gaining steam. Economic, political and climate refugees, indigenous, third world and Black, queer and transgender people and people with disabilities, women and workers are being persecuted, detained, deported, and killed. This includes the people of Palestine, particularly those living in Gaza, of whom over 200 have been killed and thousands more injured since March 2018 during weekly mass demonstrations for their right to return to their villages of origin since being displaced in 1948.
 
As Jews who have been organizing against white supremacy and the rising fascist movements that have been encouraged and emboldened by the Trumps of the world here and internationally, we know that antisemitism is inextricably linked -- presently and historically -- to other forms of white supremacy and racism. We cannot find safety or liberation in isolation or behind armed borders and doors. We are strengthened by yesterday’s and today’s struggles for justice across the United States and the globe. We stand on the history of Jewish participation in our own and collective struggles against persecution and for liberation and with all those who are defending themselves daily against bigotry and hate and building communities and movements grounded in love and justice.

Isaac Lev Szmonko, Catalyst Project
Sara Kershnar, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Sophia Simon-Ortiz, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Lee Gargagliano, Catalyst Project
Ellen Brotsky, Jewish Voice for Peace, Bay Area
Kate Raphael, Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism
Susan Greene, Art Forces
Jules Retzlaff, Jews Against Zionism, SF State University
Kenny B, Jews Against Zionism, SF State University
Brooke Lober, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Eleanor Levine, CodePink Women for Peace
Eli Isaacs
Jason Wallach, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Bay Area
Jay Tzvia Helfand, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Alexi Shalom, Within Our Lifetime - United For Palestine
Liz Jackson, Attorney, Palestine Legal
Rachel Lederman, Attorney, National Lawyers Guild-SF
Debra Taube, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Bay Area and SURJ Marin
Yahya Josh Cadji, Arab Jewish organizer with Arab Resource and Organizing Center
Judith Mirkinson, National Lawyers Guild-SF
Richard Terry Koch, Attorney, National Lawyers Guild-SF
Ali Lazarus, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Bay Area
Perry Bellow-Handelman
Paul Kivel, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Bay Area
Jeff Conant, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Bay Area
Noam Perry
Rae Messer, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Bay Area
Diana Block, California Coalition for Women Prisoners
Lee Worden, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Karen Jo Koonan, National Lawyers Guild-SF
Cindy B Shamban, Jewish Voice for Peace, Bay Area
Adrienne Skye Roberts, California Coalition for Women Prisoners
Signe Porteshawver, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Bay Area
Marge Sussman, Jewish Voice for Peace, Bay Area
Debra Murov, National Lawyers Guild-SF
Eve Hershcopf, Jewish Voice for Peace, Bay Area
Alex Safron, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Zia Grossman-Vendrillo, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Bay Area
Kasey Brenner, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Bay Area
Nadia Mershani, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Deni Asnis, Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism
Adam Horowitz, Mondoweiss
Evelyn Kotick, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Phil Weintraub, Jewish Voice for Peace, Bay Area
Anna Baltzer, US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
Lisa Jervis, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Bay Area
Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, Shomeret Shalom Global Congregation, JVP Rabbinic Council
David m Spero, Jewish Voice for Peace, Bay Area
Ysh Schwartz, Jewish Voice for Peace, Bay Area
Lynn Levey, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Bay Area
Karen Platt, Jewish Voice for Peace, Bay Area
Marcia Greene, Jewish Voice for Peace, Bay Area
Eleanor J Gottesman, Jewish Voice for Peace, Bay Area
Marianne Hirsch
Phylece, Jewish Voice for Peace, Bay Area
Clyde Leland, Jewish Voice for Peace, Bay Area
Mark Pickus, Jewish Voice for Peace, Bay Area
Carol Sanders, Jewish Voice for Peace, Bay Area
Saul Kanowitz, ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and Racism)
Kesa Kivel, Road to Racial Justice
Sydney Levy
Robert Roth, Haiti Action Committee
Margot Goldstein, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Rita Karuna Cahn, Kehilla Synagogue and Jewish Voice for Peace, Bay Area
Jo Hoffman, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Bay Area
Jaklyn F Brookman, Jewish Voice for Peace, Bay Area
Susan Shawl, Jewish Voice for Peace, Bay Area
Sallie Shawl, Jewish Voice for Peace, Tacoma
Lewis Williams
Steven Nagourney
Sarah Carlson, Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL)
Ned L Rosch, Network Against Racism & Islamophobia
Stephanie Roth
Frank and Frances Rodriguez
Eric A Romann
Tony Romano, Right to the City
Jaron Browne, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance
Eliana Rubin
Kinneret Alexander
Beverly Shalom, Jewish Voice for Peace, Bay Area
David Comedi, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Oro Canetti Carson
Dr. Alice Rothchild, Jewish Voice for Peace, Seattle
Alice Beauchamp, JAO Jews Against the Occupation
Sue Goldstein, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Ludwig Watzal
Naomi Binder, Women In Solidarity With Palestine
Audrey Bomse, National Lawyers Guild
Jenny Heinz
Elizabeth Block, Independent Jewish Voices
Robert Cohen, Jews for Justice for Palestinians
Abraham Weizfeld PhD, JPLO (Jewish People's Liberation Organisation)
Anne Craig, Jewish Voice for Peace, Asheville, NC
Hilton Obenzinger
Abram Blau
Amelia French
Alex Verman, Independent Jewish Voices
Andy Ratto
Sophie Edelhart, Barnard/Columbia, Jewish Voice for Peace, Workmen's Circle
Simon Caplan, Independent Human Rights Activist
Karin Ashley, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Bay Area
Karen Shain
Frank Duhl
Nancy Bissell
Jody Sokolower, Palestine Action Network, Bay Area
Emma Ashley-Roth
Alice Diane Kisch
Rica Bird, Jewish Voice for Labour
Chris Hanssmann
Amy Alpert
Lynne Eisenberg
Susan B. Jones
Ellen Shatter
Jean Rabovsky, Jewish Voice for Peace Bay Area
Michelle Berkon
Ron Witton
Haskell Musry, Jews Against the Occupation