Wednesday’s vigil of remembrance at Mississippi State University’s Chapel of Memories for Pittsburgh synagogue shooting victims could be described in a variety of ways.

One way is by the numbers.

Twelve white roses — one for each of the victims of Saturday’s massacre at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh along with one rose for everyone who has lost their lives in hate crimes — adorned a table in front of the chapel pulpit.

Ten speakers — including members of Hillel (the university’s Jewish Student Association), MSU President Mark Keenum, MSU Vice President for Student Affairs Regina Hyatt, MSU Student Association President Myah Emerson, Muslim Student Association adviser Rani Sullivan, Baptist pastor Bert Montgomery and Rabbi Seth Oppenheimer — addressed the audience during the 45-minute vigil.

There are 20-to-30 active members of Hillel, according to its president Tyler Daniel, and about as many people are affiliated with Temple B’Nai Israel in Columbus, the Golden Triangle’s lone temple, Oppenheimer said.

Seating capacity at the Chapel of Memories is 125.

Well before the start of the vigil, every seat was occupied and another 25 or so stood along the perimeter of the pews as students and Starkville residents, black and white, Jewish, Muslim and Christian, young and old came to pay their respects to the 11 slain in Pittsburgh and offer their support to the small local Jewish population on campus.

“Your support means more to us than words can describe,” Daniel said in opening the vigil. “Please, reach out to the Jewish community, your Jewish friends. Let them know you consider this an attack on you, too.”

Tolerance and understanding

As fellow members of Hillel described their anguish over the Pittsburgh murders and shared their own experiences with anti-Semitism, the students urged the audience to stand against hate in all its manifestations, drawing parallels between Saturday’s slaughter and hate crimes committed against other minority groups.

“Over the last several days, I have heard debates of this being a gun problem or a mental health problem,” said Joseph Metz, past-president of Hillel and a graduate student at MSU. “Those discussions are wrong. This is not a gun problem or a mental health problem, but a people problem, a hate problem.

“It’s a problem that doesn’t just occur within the Jewish community, but with all minority communities within the United States,” he added. “Our communities are viewed as lesser and un-American. It’s time to rid ourselves of these notions of hate and learn to accept one another for who we are, for what we offer and for what we stand for. It’s time to put down hate and start working toward acceptance and understanding.”

As president of the MSU Student Association, Emerson was asked early on to speak at the vigil, but she confessed upon addressing the audience she struggled with what to say.

“What word could I give you? What can I say?” Emerson asked. “I cannot find those words. I don’t have a word, but I am here. Your fellow students may not have words to say to you, either, but we are here. You are not alone. We are with you.”

Keenum urged the audience to remain unified.

“Mississippi State University is a community, a family,” he said. “We are diverse. We are inclusive. We are here for each other. We respect every single member of our family, regardless of race, ethnicity, orientation, gender identity or religious belief. Respect is a fundamental value here on this campus and is a value that gives us our structure during challenging times such as this.”

Calls for unity

Sullivan, a professor and adviser to MSU’s Muslim Student Association, made it clear the Muslim students stood with their Jewish classmates.

“They want you to know that we are so close to you in this moment that we feel no space between us,” Sullivan said. “The response to racism, to anti-Semitism, to hate in all its forms is to live your faith. It is to be more Jewish than you have been before. It is to be more Muslim than you have been before. It is to be more Christian than you have been before.

“If you practice your true faith, the sanctity of life will be preserved and your utmost goal will be the preservation of it,” she added.

Rabbi Oppenheimer closed the vigil by reciting the names of the Pittsburgh victims as the audience stood with lit candles in remembrance.

Before reading the names of the dead, Oppenheimer urged the audience not to consider the tragedy as an isolated event.

“I must have heard that this act of domestic terrorism is a canary in the coal mine five times from the talking heads on television,” Oppenheimer said. “What nonsense. There have been so many canaries that the flock is large enough to blot out the sun. Gay nightclubs are attacked. Women are beaten or killed for saying ‘no.’ Trans people are attacked and beaten. Students are shot down at schools. People are accosted for the sin of speaking Spanish. Fellow Americans are shot and killed for the crime of shopping while black. On and on and on I could go.

“We have entered an age of divisive political speech,” he continued. “We preach fear rather than hope from the podiums of power. Instead of looking to the future, like Lot’s wife we are frozen by looking back to the halcyon past that never was. All of us who still believe in love and hope and recognize the divine hand of holiness in each soul must come together to fight this hatred. As my mentor once said, the only way we can get it together is together.”

Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].

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