Hope you are enjoying the beautiful summer. I am now back following a five-week sabbatical. Thank you to everyone for the opportunity and space to spend quality time with my family. As my family knows all too well, I also love being back at work.

 

Three quick things I learned on my sabbatical:

 

1. I was way better than I thought at taking time off.

 

2. Traveling as a family for three weeks has its challenges between moving hotels every few nights, deciding as a family where to eat in strange places, and how to balance being on vacation with seeing all the sites you want to see.

 

3. As much as I love being with my family, I did a lousy job just doing things for myself. But I was grateful for the experience.

 

 

“Take a deep breath.”

 

Those were the words posted on social media from the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh following the reading of the verdict in the Tree of Life synagogue shooting. A jury has given the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter, Robert Bowers, a death sentence, handing down the maximum punishment for the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history. The sentence marks an end to Bowers’ months-long trial. He was convicted in June of murdering 11 Jews during Shabbat prayers on October 27, 2018.

 

The jury unanimously agreed that Bowers’ expressions of “hatred and contempt toward members of the Jewish faith and his animus toward members of the Jewish faith played a role in the killings of the victims,” US Judge Robert Colville read aloud from the list of factors that the prosecution argued merited the death penalty.

 

As reported in the JTA, “The overriding feeling in this city now that the gunman convicted of murdering 11 Jews here in 2018 has been sentenced to death is gratitude.

 

Not for the penalty itself, which was the preference of some but not all of the victims’ families and which some local Jews openly opposed, and not even for the end of a trial whose long delay protracted communal trauma.

 

Instead, the gratitude is for people — those who made the trial happen, those who supported the victims’ family members as they sat through weeks of painful testimony, and those who kept the singular Jewish community thriving even when so much had been lost.”

 

Sadly, nothing can ease the pain of the families and the Pittsburgh community’s great loss.

 

You can read here reactions from American Jewish groups on the verdict.

 

On Monday, police in Memphis shot Joel Bowman after he attempted to attack the Margolin Hebrew Academy Feinstone Yeshiva of the South, an Orthodox Jewish day school. He fired shots outside the school but failed to gain entry and left the scene. Fortunately, the security and safety protocols at the school saved lives. Bowman is Jewish and was a former student at the school.

 

Bowman was reportedly receiving psychiatric care and had published a number of erratic social media posts in the lead-up to Monday’s incident. The incident came two decades after a similar event in 2003, in which Bowman’s father, Dr. Anthony Bowman, was shot and killed by police after his wife called to report her husband’s behavior, saying he was “acting erratically and appeared to be emotionally distraught.” The younger Bowman was present when his father was killed, and some said he had struggled with having been a witness to his father’s death.

 

The incident is the latest example of why the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland and the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation, along with many other local Jewish community organizations, and Secure Community Network (SCN), partner to fund and support our security operations, including our local security director, Jessica Anderson.

 

Michael Masters, CEO of the Secure Community Network (SCN), stated “We will not choose the time and place of the next incident, but we can choose our preparation and have strong response protocols in place. The events in Memphis are a clear indicator of why this is important and how it can save lives. The coordinated response from the institution, community, and law enforcement was neither an accident nor luck: it is a validation of the coordinated model Jewish Federations and SCN have been implementing - from information sharing to training - and the outstanding leaders and partners who execute it.”

 

Remember, if you see something, say something. Our online security reporting form is completely anonymous. The information you provide will be submitted to our Director of Community Security, Jessica Anderson, and SCN.

 

On this topic, I am pleased to report that 13 Jewish organizations throughout Oregon (in Portland, Ashland, Bend, Eugene, and Salem) will receive a combined $1.7 million in security grants from the Department of Homeland Security’s Non-Profit Security Grant Program. With the lobbying efforts of the Jewish Federation and support from Jessica Anderson and SCN, we doubled the number of organizations that received funding and doubled the dollars. This will only help bolster our security measures.

 

Two quick announcements:

 

I want to welcome Laura Jeser as the Jewish Federation’s new Associate Campaign and Engagement Director. She will focus on our annual campaign, young adult and young family engagement, and work with the Solomon’s Legacy Society (for lawyers). We are delighted she has joined our professional team.

 

For the past decade, the Jewish Federation has sponsored a team in the Hood to Coast race, Team L’Chaim. Every team needs volunteers to assist at various points along the course and at various times. We are looking for volunteers for the following:

 

• HTC Start (help with merchandise) on Friday, August 25 from 4:45 a.m. – 8:30 a.m.
• Exchange 18 on Friday, August 25 from 1:45 p.m. – 6:15 p.m.
• Exchange 24 on Friday, August 25 from 5:15 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

 

If available, please click here.

 

Shabbat shalom.