Almost as soon as she heard the news about a deadly shooting at a Sikh temple near Milwaukee, Elana Kahn-Oren’s phone started ringing.
As director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, Kahn-Oren fielded call after call from concerned area Jews asking what they could do to help.
“We have to make sure to be respectful of the Sikh community and to make sure that we find appropriate avenues to express that support,” Kahn-Oren told JTA.
A day after the shooting on Sunday, Aug. 5, the federation was offering counseling services, had opened a mailbox to receive donations for assisting with the financial needs of the victims and their families, and was talking with the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee to figure out a way to bring religious leaders together for an interfaith prayer service.
“Coming together after events like these reaffirms the values of the community,” Kahn-Oren said. "This goes against our moral fiber.”
The assailant killed six people, including the president of the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, in Oak Creek, before being shot dead by police. On Monday, police identified the shooter as Wade M. Page, a U.S. Army veteran active in the U.S. white supremacist subculture.
In an email later in the day on Aug. 6, Kahn-Oren wrote, “Sikh leaders have expressed gratitude for our offers of emergency assistance (counseling) but feel that their needs are being met.”
In an email on Aug. 10, the JCRC called community attention to further events and activities, including:
• How community synagogues during the Shabbat of Aug. 10-11 "are including moments of silence, saying Kaddish for the victims, and finding other ways to stand in solidarity with the Sikh community."
• That a Milwaukee community event, titled "A Time for Reflection, A Time for Action," would take place Sunday, Aug. 12, 3:30 p.m., at Pere Marquette Park. Rabbi Steve Adams of Congregation Emanu-El of Waukesha spoke as representative of the Jewish community; and the JCRC is a co-sponsor of the event.
• A Victim Memorial Fund exists, and people desiring to contribute can visit the website Sikhhelp.org or contribute to the fund directly, c/o Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, 7512 S. Howell Ave., Oak Creek, WI, 53154.
Statements issued
The Milwaukee JCRC issued a statement on Aug. 5 that was quoted in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Aug. 6. “The Milwaukee Jewish community stands in solidarity with Sikh community and we offer assistance to the community, especially to the families of the victims. While we don’t know many details at this point, this may well be an intentional attack on the Sikhs which would make the massacre even more heinous. Our society is based on freedoms of religion and due process of law. We hope that law enforcement will find and hold accountable all parties involved in this senseless and shocking tragedy.”
Rabbi Jacob Herber of Congregation Beth Israel said the Milwaukee synagogue’s weekday minyan would be holding a moment of silence to commemorate and express solidarity with the victims, just as the minyan does when Jews are attacked around the world.
“Unfortunately, because we have experienced through much of our history bigotry, hatred and anti-Semitism, this event is very acute for us in its pain,” Herber said. “That’s why I think we feel not only the obligation but the real personal, profound emotion of wanting to reach out to the Sikh community.”
Linda Holifield, executive director of Congregation Shalom in Milwaukee, said the shooter’s targeting of a place of worship was particularly upsetting.
“When one place of worship is targeted, it suggests then that any place of worship could be a target,” she said.
Tom Heinen, executive director of the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee, said the tragedy has really hit home because of the tight-knit nature of the community in Milwaukee.
“Milwaukee is in many respects a large village where many people of many faiths are interconnected personally, professionally and socially,” he said. “At a time like this, we need to come together as a community to reassert our common values and to comfort those who have suffered grievous losses.”
National Jewish organizations also released statements about the event, several of which the JCRC received.
Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly, the international umbrella organization for Conservative rabbis, released a statement on Aug. 6, stating:
“The Rabbinical Assembly expresses its horror, sadness and outrage in solidarity with the Sikh community of greater Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and around the world… Our tradition teaches that all human beings are created in the image of God and contain within them a spark of the divine. We must all grow to recognize the part of the divine in every human being and work together to end senseless hatred in our world.”
Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, stated:
“Our thoughts are with the families of those whose lives were taken and those who were injured. America is the most religiously diverse nation in the history of humankind and hate crimes targeted at religious, racial or ethnic groups tear at the fabric of our nation. Such assaults are more than mere acts of violence. They are nothing less than attacks on those values that are the pillars of our republic and the guarantors of our freedom. They are a betrayal of the promise of America.”
Jerry Silverman, president and CEO of The Jewish Federations of North America, said: “At this time of national reflection, we must ensure that people of all faiths are safe in their places of worship.”
In addition, The Forward in an article published on its website on Aug. 6 listed other organizations that issued statements, including the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and Rabbis for Human Rights.
Leon Cohen of the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle contributed to this report.
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