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J une 12, 2016, is a day that will go down in history. It is a date that will be etched in our collective memories in the same ways that Dec. 7, 1941, Nov. 22, 1963, and Sept. 11, 2001, have all been burned into our collective core. I know there are many more dates that could easily be added to this list but these are the first that come to mind. Terror has once again come to our shores and once again vic- timized innocent people simply enjoying their lives. Terror has broken the peaceful summer night in Orlando in a way that we could never imagine. One man with a broken soul … One man with a broken ideology … One man with hate and not love … One man murdered 49 people and injured 53 others. What was the reason for this act of ter- ror? Homosexuality? America? No, nei- ther is the reason that this happened. An extremist form of Islam is the culprit. A broken viewpoint of the world that cannot grasp pluralism and multiple viewpoints is what brought this about. We live in scary times and we live in a time period that has produced technology that has the ability to do great good and great harm all at once. The internet that is sending email to all of you and that each of us uses every day to connect and to be informed is the same internet that hate groups and terrorists use to spew their ugli- ness and to terrorize our world. Creations that people purchase for the purpose of self-defense can be used to mur- der and maim other people at an alarm- ing rate with more precision and greater damage each day. What are people of faith and of conscience to do? How do we navigate these troubling waters and these difficult times? I would be lying if I told you that I have the answers. I would be lying if I told you I know what to do right now to make all of this go away and make us all safer. The reality is that all of us would be lying as nobody has the power to make this all go away. What we are left with is the need to pick up the pieces and put our world back together. We will do so without 49 souls that could've been the key to world peace. We will do so without 49 people who will never return home to their families and to their friends. We will do so with hearts that are broken and courage that is some- what missing right now. Terrorists thrive on hatred and on fear. They are scared of a world that is not their ideal world and so they force the world to live with fear as well. Terrorists hate all that we stand for because their ideas are com- pletely incompatible with American values and Jewish values as well. Terrorists cannot win because the stakes are great, and we have to fight back to show the world that love and optimism and plu- ralism and values win every time. We have to fight back and resist the temptation to allow terror to alter who we are and allow ourselves to become victims of the terror that they promulgate. This heinous crime took place on an ordinary Saturday night for the non-Jewish world. But for us, it happened on Shavuot. During Shavuot, we celebrate the giving of the Torah to the world by God. The Torah is a document of love and of hope. The Torah is a document of forward thinking and of enlightenment. The Torah begins with the core value of all of humankind being made with equal inherent value as we are all made in God's image. That means that all of us have the same common Divine spirit in us and thus the same value. It goes onto the very question of what our responsibilities are to all people through the story of Cain and Abel and Cain's ques- tion of "Am I my brother's keeper?" The response from God is not silence … It is the Torah. It is in Leviticus 19:18: " You shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord." It is in the Talmud, and it is in our way of seeing the world. Our document of love that we celebrated is not the only way of seeing the world. Other ways might differ and other interpretations of them may be the antitheses of our document of love. But that does not change our core mission and our core value system. Forty-nine people are no longer with their family and friends. That is beyond a tragedy … it is desecration of God's name and all that we hold to be of value. Forty-nine people were targeted not because of who they were but because of whom they loved. That is a moral outrage and something we must come together to combat. Forty-nine people are gone because of a warped and demented viewpoint of the world. That is something we need to fight against. May their memories be a blessing. May the ways that they lived their lives inspire us to live ours a whole lot better. May their memories call out to us to exam- ine our world and work every day to repair it. May their memories forever push us to see the other not as foreign but as our family and as sacred creatures who deserve all that we deserve as well. May they rest in peace and may their families be comforted by their memories. * Rabbi Josh Hearshen, rabbi of Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Tampa, sent this letter to the members of his congregation. He graduated from Berkley High School and Michigan State University before attending the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles. viewpoints » S e n d l e t t e r s t o : l e t t e r s @ t h e j e w i s h n e w s . c o m 8 June 30 • 2016 Rabbi Josh Hearshen commentary No Easy Answers On Terrorism Merger Of Synagogues Marked 18 Years Later A glorious remembrance occurred at Adat Shalom Synagogue on Friday, June 10, when members of the Adat Shalom/Beth Achim family celebrated the 18th year of the merger. We repeated "Let's do something good for the Jewish people." Those initial words from our first meeting guided us into an incredibly successful union. We did not negotiate. We did not need to. We planned the creation of a new fam- ily doing what we felt was God's work — doing something good for the Jewish people. Those of us partaking in this memo- rable event 18 years ago had a supporting cast of many that lent immeasurable help to its success. We never thought we would fail, and we did not get deterred because we were doing something good for the Jewish people — and we did. Neal Zalenko, Bloomfield Hills Ed Kohl, West Bloomfield Merger Team members Clinton Needs To Step Up For Israel Two recent news stories really drive home a point. In one, the Congressional Black Caucus expressed opposition to Bernie Sanders' demand to abolish super-delegates and open up Democratic primary voting to non-Democrats. The other article points to several anti- Israel members on the Democratic Party platform committee. Note that the Black Caucus is unafraid to challenge Bernie Sanders' attempt to remake the Democratic primary system. They are a powerful voice protecting the interests of their constituents. But where is our Jewish Caucus? Note also that the Democratic platform committee has been stacked with Israel's enemies, and the Republicans are already using it to drive Jewish voters away from Hillary Clinton. If there is a fight over Israel at the Democratic Convention, and if Jewish vot- ers smell any weakening in Mrs. Clinton's support for Israel, this strategy might well work. Even worse, such a public fight car- ries the potential to undermine support of Israel by other Americans. Mrs. Clinton needs to repudiate the idea of a convention fight over Israel, and to forcefully restate her support for Israel, and she needs to do it now, and frequently, if she wants to keep Jewish voters in her camp. Who among us has the ability to convince her of this? Where is our Jewish Caucus? Robert Tell Farmington Hills CLARIFICATION • The picture in "Project Pinstripe" (June 23, page 24) was taken by photographer Michael S. Doré. Letters to the Editor: We prefer letters that relate to articles in the Jewish News. We reserve the right to edit or reject letters. Brevity is encouraged. Letters published will include the name and city of residence of the writer. Letters submitted must contain the name, address, title of the writer (if applicable) and a daytime phone number. We prefer emailed letters. Please email to letters@thejewishnews.com. (Letters sent by U.S. Postal Service must be hand-signed and mailed to the Jewish News, 29200 Northwestern Hwy., Suite 110, Southfield, MI 48034.) letters FOURTH OF JULY It's tzvay hunderd fertzig,* ich glayb nisht,** oy my! It's America's geburstog,*** it's the Fourth of July. So gay un ess**** di chazerhay***** And then, my friend, look to the sky. Just gay un zhay frailakh,****** and do not be shy. * tzvay hunderd fertzig — two hun dred forty ** ich glayb nisht — I don't believe *** geburstog — birthday **** gay un ess — go and eat ***** di chazerhay — junk food. ****** gay un zhay frailakh — go and be happy. — Rachel Kapen Yiddish Limerick continued from page 5