Stronger Than Hate

In the wake of the horrific, antisemitic attack at the Tree of Life synagogue this weekend, our team at Denny Civic Solutions stands with the Jewish community in Pittsburgh and around the world. We feel that there is no better time to remember the words of pastor Martin Niemöller, written in response to the rise of Nazism in Germany, as they appear at the Holocaust Memorial in Boston:

“They came first for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up.”

We must all speak up in the face of hate. And in the words of our dear friend Joni Schwager of the Staunton Farm Foundation, a member of the Tree of Life congregation herself, the way we speak up is clear: “What do we do going forward? We vote.”