“As horrible as the events in Pittsburgh are, I’m afraid to say it could be the beginning,” said Hier.
Anti-Semitism is on the rise in America according to research by the Anti-Defamation League. A study released a day before the Pittsburgh shooting found that anti-Semitic propaganda and online intimidation have increased in the run-up to the 2018 U.S. midterm elections.
“The internet is absolutely being used as a vehicle for spreading hate,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell. “In the case of the individual in Pittsburgh, we saw after the fact that the individual had an online presence and was espousing hate.”
McDonnell, who was invited to speak at the event, emphasized the shared responsibility of all people in preventing these sorts of incidents from occurring in the future.
It was a sentiment echoed by Mahomad Akbar Kahn, founder of American-Muslim Strategies, and co-founder of the USC Muslim Student Union. During the memorial service, Kahn gave an Islamic prayer chant for the victims of Pittsburgh.
“We’re all to blame,” said Kahn in an interview after the service. “People assume that since I’m a Muslim I may not like Jews, and that’s a problem.”
“People on both sides of the aisle are using rhetoric that they shouldn’t be using,” said Kahn. “It just takes one imbalanced person to pick up a gun and go kill people at a house of worship.”
The Simon Wiesenthal Center recently completed a study on anti-Semitism in the U.S. The study, set to be released on Oct. 31, suggests that the country may be at a perilous tipping point.
“The plurality of those polled believe that the United States is heading to a civil war,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper. “Our social and political discourse is increasingly fractured… if we continue along this course, we’re flirting with serious damage to our democracy.”