Yesterday, on the last day of the sacred Holiday of Passover, our Jewish family endured another tragedy.
A gunman attacked a synagogue in San Diego, killing a congregant and wounding several others. This comes six months to the day after an assailant murdered 11 individuals at the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh.
Like those victims, the congregants of the Chabad of Poway Synagogue were targeted because of their Jewish faith and heritage. They were attacked because they were Jews.
Passover is a time when we offer gratitude with the word, dayenu, it would have been enough. But today we must use that word to mean something different.
To all the hatred that manifests in our world, and to the terror and violence we have endured as a people, we say dayenu. Enough.
We mourn for Lori Kaye, who was killed yesterday, and we hold all the victims and their families in our hearts. We offer our deepest gratitude to the police and first responders who risked their lives. We thank all those who have supported the Jewish people during our times of pain, and yet we say dayenu.
Together, we bear witness to crimes against religious life throughout the world, against Muslims in New Zealand, Christians in Sri Lanka and many others elsewhere. We stand shoulder to shoulder with our local communities of faith, united in our commitment to fight intolerance and hatred, and we say dayenu.
We remain ever ready to protect our own community, grateful that our exceptional Security Team works closely with local law enforcement and community leaders to ensure that we are safe. We vow to remain vigilant, and we say dayenu.
We look forward to a day when our children and families can live and worship in peace. And we say, with strength and resolve in our hearts, dayenu.
Enough.