Tree of Life Synagogue Rabbi Jeffrey Meyers personally warned President Donald Trump against hate speech when Trump came to visit the temple where 11 people were murdered last week.
In a sermon at Pittsburgh's Congregation Beth Shalom, the faith leader told the congregation about his conversation with the president.
"I said to him, 'Mr. President, hate speech leads to hateful actions," Myers said, according to CNN. "Hate speech leads to what happened in my sanctuary, where seven of my congregants were slaughtered. I witnessed it with my eyes."
Meyers and his congregation celebrated the Shabbat alongside the parishioners of Beth Shalom, as Tree of Life is still cordoned off by police following the worst anti-Semitic attack in American history. Robert Bowers opened fire on the congregation during the Shabbat morning services on October 27, killing 11 people and wounding seven more before being taken into custody.
Immediately following the mass shooting, Trump insinuated that the congregation would have fared better had they had armed security. Given this and Trump's oftentimes divisive rhetoric, Meyers said he faced plenty of backlash for meeting with the president. However, Meyers countered that his welcoming of the president was in line with Jewish tradition.
On Friday morning, Meyers met with Rev. Eric S.C. Manning. Manning is another spiritual leader who has been forced to deal with a hateful attack on his congregation. The reverend leads Charleston's Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, where nine parishioners were killed by white supremacist Dylann Roof during a Wednesday night Bible study. Meyers said at the meeting that both shootings were an attack on American values.
“This incident, like at Emanuel, was not an attack on a particular group,” the rabbi said, according to the New York Times. “It was an attack on America because it challenges our right to assemble and worship our God in the way we want. It has continued a downward spiral of hate, one that’s prevalent in all corners of the United States.”
While no Shabbat services were held at the still-closed Tree of Life synagogue, residents of the historically Jewish neighborhood did hold an impromptu service outside the building on Friday evening. Rabbi Sam Weinberg said that the service pointed to the resiliency of the Jewish community.
"Six days after, right here the most horrible and terrible thing happened, we can still come together as a people and recover a little bit of the peace of Shabbat," he said.
