Statement on the attack on Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh

The Pennsylvania Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival is in solidarity with our Jewish family today and every day. In particular today we mourn the lives of the 11 people who were lost at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. We pray that their families may find peace and solace.

This is the latest attack in the name of white supremacist Christian nationalism. This distorted moral narrative targets and blames poor and marginalized people, disorganizes the working class and emboldens reactionary forces.

This dehumanizing narrative creates false enemies and a distorted vision for our country. This ideology of hate was once again weaponized today against our Jewish family, continuing a long history of ruling class scapegoating of Jewish people. We must deeply understand and learn from this living history to see anti-Semitism as another blight against the working class.

We will not let the conditions that led to this senseless violence go unchallenged. As the Pennsylvania Poor People’s Campaign we will counter reactionary violence with unified and principled nonviolent action, across all lines of division. We will shift the distorted moral narrative by shining a light on the powers and structures that are the source of our pain. In rural communities, small towns, suburbs, and cities around our state, we are uniting together against the violence of systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, environmental devastation, and the distorted moral narrative that seeks to divide the majority for the sake of profit for a few.

May the 11 souls that were lost today rest in power in the expectation of the justice that we will forge together.

For as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”

Olam hesed y’baneh: we will build the world with love.