Acts of kindness after the hate

The Rhode Island Jewish community is coming together as a result of what has been termed a hate crime that occurred the weekend of May 21 at Congregation Ohawe Sholam in Pawtucket.

A call has gone out for community members to attend the Friday (May 27) minyan at 6:30 p.m. to show support for the small congregation. Adam Tilove, head of school at the Jewish Community Day School of Rhode Island, is encouraging those who can to attend. “I want people at Ohawe Sholam to know they are not alone,” he said.

On Sunday, May 29, a group will gather outside the Ohawe Sholam building to work on cleaning up and beautifying the grounds. 

“The goal of Sunday is to bring together our community of all faiths, to create something beautiful out of something that was clearly an act of hatred, said Meredith Sinel, one of the organizers of the group. “We are starting at 9 a.m. Home Depot and other friends of the community are generously donating flowers, potting soil, hoses, sprinklers and other items. We want the outside of this building to reflect the love, faith, hope and connections that are made inside this building every day.”

Acts of kindness have been occurring since Rabbi Raphie Schochet discovered that the sign for the Kollel Center for Jewish Learning had been defaced. David Pliskin, president of the congregation, said he was “overwhelmed by the outpouring of support” on the part of the community.

At a May 23 news conference, the mayor of Pawtucket, Don Grebien, officially deemed the painting of a swastika on the Kollel sign outside the congregation on East Avenue a hate crime. Schochet, the leader of the Kollel, called the swastika “a symbol of bigots and bullies.” He went on to say that this type of crime, which takes place in the middle of the night when nobody is watching, is “an act of cowardice” (an opinion shared by most speakers at the news conference). He said he believes that acceptance and peace are core principles of what it means to be American and called whoever defaced the sign “completely un-American.”

Rabbi Sarah Mack, of Temple Beth-El in Providence and president of the Board of Rabbis of Greater Rhode Island, said that the incident did not just spark a coming together of Jews in the area, but also created a space for the Christian and Muslim communities to show support as well. Mack said the collective community sends a stronger message than any individual’s act of hate. In fact, Noreen Shaffi, a Muslim member of the local Sisterhood of Salaam and Shalom chapter, has already offered to pay for a new sign to stand in front of the building. The Pawtucket Public Works Department took the defaced sign away to see if it could be repaired.

Jeffrey Savit, president and CEO of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island, referred to the recent Alliance mission to Budapest and Berlin, where he had visited a concentration camp the day after Yom ha-Shoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. He said was troubled by the fact that only about a week after  returning to Rhode Island, Nazi symbolism followed him.

The Pawtucket Police Department is investigating this crime, but they had no immediate suspect. They urged anybody with information to contact the Pawtucket Police at 401-727-9100.