At Modesto synagogue vigil, messages of fighting evil and hate include a call to vote

“Why are we so afraid of difference when our creator is the one who created us different?”

The question was asked by Mohammad El Farra, imam of the Islamic Center of Manteca, during a vigil Sunday afternoon at Congregation Beth Shalom.

He and other faith and community leaders and residents from Modesto and beyond stood united against hate in a moving vigil that overflowed from the sanctuary of the Sherwood Avenue synagogue. The gathering sprang from the shooting Saturday at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, which killed 11 people.

The imam, among a few people who joined CBS Rabbi Shalom Bochner to speak or share readings with the crowd, said it pained him and the Muslim communities in Modesto, Manteca and elsewhere to see hate strike again.

“How is is that we are allowing a world of 7 billion people, that should be stronger because the majority definitely do not agree with these type of ways, how is it that we’re allowing the overwhelming minority of evil to speak louder than the love and the patience that we should be emulating if we do believe in our creator?” he said.

“We’re always focusing on what’s our similarities, and sometimes I think we need to focus on what our differences are and just agree that we’re different and that’s OK.”

Bochner said Saturday’s deadly attack was motivated by one of the most persistent hates the world has ever known: anti-Semitism, the believe that Jews are inferior and to blame for the world’s problems. “This is ‘othering.’ This is the danger that comes with the political and religious divisions that threatens to destroy our great nation’s social fabric.”

The rabbi told the audience the way forward, the antidote to hatred, is through teaching, understanding, having dialogues, celebrating differences and diversity rather than condemning them.

He asked those in attendance to really look around at the diversity within the synagogue Sunday. As they did, he noted that this is how “community” is supposed to work, how it must work. “This is how we do things in Modesto and how we can learn to do things across the country,” Bochner said. “To stand with each other, to learn about each other. … We don’t need to agree on religion, politics, language, food or sports to know we are one family and there is no ‘other.’”

He urged people to go beyond words and prayer and to take action. Of the members of his own congregation, Bochner asked that they be more “Jewishly engaged” by committing to regular attendance and commitment to the synagogue. He urged them to recommit to deeds of kindness, to pledge to take on additional acts of healing and love and activism in the face of the attack.

And in a call to all there, he asked citizens “to speak out against injustice and fear, and to vote.”

The Jewish community in Modesto has no reason to believe its safety is in question, Bochner told the audience. CBS will not stop being the warm, diverse and welcoming place it’s been, he said, but “we continue to be in touch with intelligence agencies” and “we will be vigilant.”

After the event, the rabbi added, “We approach our security very thoughtfully, particularly at our high holidays, when we have large numbers of people and guests here and often have hired Modesto police to have extra patrols. That’s an ongoing discussion our board will continue to have — how to be warm and welcoming and what is that balance?”

As a community, CBS from time to time has received hate mail, messages and faxes, he said, “but this is three or four incidents out of three years. When one thinks of the tens of thousands of emails and visitors, I’m not going to put too much concern into a handful of people. But I’m also aware it takes only one violent, hateful person to create destruction and death.”

Another pastor who spoke, Jeff Woods of Turlock Covenant Church, praised a group of CBS members for their work to “repair the breaches that exist in our society.” They’re reaching out across faiths and building bridges in the community. He said he spoke on behalf of many others who wanted to attend the vigil but were unable.

“We wanted you to know we heard the call and we stand with you in the breach because we are grateful for you ... and we know that love is far greater than hate will ever be.”

This story was originally published October 28, 2018 at 4:52 PM.