(JTA) — For Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, the attack in Monsey had an eerie feeling.
“For me it was an ‘oh no, not again’ sort of moment,” he told CNN’s John Berman on Monday morning.
Myers was at the pulpit of the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in October 2018 when a gunman opened fire inside, killing 11 worshippers.
On Saturday night in Monsey, an intruder injured five people with a machete at a Hanukkah party held at the home of a rabbi.
“It made me sort of wonder, I don’t recall them selling licenses to have open hunting season on Jews, but it sure can make Jews feel that way,” Myers said. He also said we “cannot allow terror to win.”
The rabbi said he cannot point to one “root cause” for the rise in hate and anti-Semitism, but singled out hate speech spewed by unnamed elected leaders and on social media as contributing to “this illness.”
“It sure makes you pause and wonder what’s going on in our society that people feel they have a god-given right to attack any human being for whatever reason they choose to,” he said.
In a statement released Sunday on behalf of Tree of Life, Myers wrote, “We call upon all good people to work together to remove this evil from existence. We must eliminate H* (which stands for hate speech) in its simplest form by getting to know our neighbors and fellow human beings.”
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