150 Join for Chabad Sponsored Event Against Hate in Pittsburgh

by CrownHeights.info

Over 150 students, faculty, and community members joined together at Carnegie Mellon University to speak against antisemitism on campus and around the world with a “Stronger than Hate” Rally.

“We are gathered here together at a time of great pain for our people,” Rabbi Shlomo Silverman, Shliach at Chabad of Carnegie Mellon University said as he addressed the crowd. “It’s a time of distress but not a time of despair. The Jews in Israel and the Jews in the Diaspora are one strong nation together.”

Rabbi Silverman, standing outside Warner Hall at CMU, noted the dramatic rise in hate speech and violent attacks against Jews throughout the world, yet stressed that we too can do our part to make things better.

“The Jews in Israel are waging the physical battle against our enemies, and being so far away we could feel that there is not much we can do from here” he said. “But we can help, and our actions here are just as important.”

Stressing the importance of doing Mitzvos, Rabbi Silverman said that “During the many wars that Israel needed to fight, the Rebbe told the Jewish people that our positive actions, our Mitzvah of giving charity, saying psalms, and other prayers, lighting Shabbat candles, laying Tefillin, being kind to one another, and many more, we can have a physical effect on the safety of our brothers and sisters in Israel and around the world.”

Yet with the fear and intimidation growing on campus, Rabbi Silverman delivered strong words of Chizuk to the assembled crowd. “Fear paralyzes us” he said, “We are here as a light for the nations.

The “Stronger than Hate” rally came to fruition after a startling act of vandalism rocked the Squirrel Hill Jewish community.

According to the New York Post, the hateful vandal struck about 3:50am last Friday and repeatedly hammered a window where a sign supporting Israel hung. Unable to shatter the glass, the vandal, a woman, left but returned a few minutes later and continued to strike it before grabbing the sign and then smashing the windows of a company truck.

When police arrived, the unidentified woman had already left.

The business is owned by Michael “Shlomo” Jacobs, a Chabad Chosid and resident of the Squirrel Hill neighborhood.