Join solidarity rally

Letters

Editor: My dear fellow brothers and sisters of the Jewish community of Vancouver, I am organizing a rally in solidarity with a world Jewry that is under siege.

In Israel, Jews are attacked, wounded and killed in restaurants, on buses, while observing holidays and while celebrating bar mitzvahs. In the Diaspora, synagogues and day schools are attacked and threatened from Tunisia to France to Turkey. World leaders spew hateful venom upon our people. Even here in our own backyard we are slanderously vilified in a local paper.

I believe that we need to respond in the "street." We must air our anguish publicly both to educate the non-Jewish community, as well as to keep ourselves from becoming calloused to the pain our people are enduring. To that end, I am organizing a rally on the Fast of Esther. This day commemorates the fast taken by the Jews of Shushan as Esther prepared to approach the king and beg for our people at the risk of her life.

I invite you to join me on this day, March 4, and express our solidarity with the victims of a growing anti-Semitism. This demonstration will take place at the Vancouver Art Gallery at 4 p.m. It will include prayer, song, literature on anti-Semitism and opportunities to contribute to the rebuilding of Jewish institutions and lives. For more information or to help with this event, please feel free to contact me.

Rabbi Ross Singer
Vancouver

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