Eleven Jewish stars, with the names of the victims of the horrific mass shooting last Shabbat, stand on the lawn outside the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. 

In our tradition, the number 11 is said to represent the 11 stars in Joseph’s dream. It also recalls the cold-blooded murder of 11 Jewish athletes at the 1972 Olympics.

If only Saturday’s attack was just an unspeakably bad dream. But it really did happen here, in the United States of America. The attack, allegedly carried out by an avowed anti-Semite named Robert Bowers, shattered what is supposed to be a day of rest for Jews worldwide. The synagogue is located in the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh, long a seemingly secure Jewish enclave very much like our Delmar Loop in University City.

How could this happen? Trying to make sense of such an unspeakable crime can be an exercise in futility because the wanton actions of a madman bent on inflicting terror are simply beyond the pale of understanding. But recognizing the conditions that contribute to such horrific events may help make the next tragedy less likely.

• Anti-Semitism does exist in our nation and around the globe. The Anti-Defamation League says that Saturday’s attack was the worst targeted killing of Jews in U.S. history. The suspect in the case, who had been unknown to local police and with only a single traffic citation on his record, had a large social media footprint filled with hateful and bloodcurdling threats against Jews. He also was critical of President Donald Trump, in contrast to the suspect in the mailing of pipe bombs to prominent Democrats and other liberal critics of the president. There is no one-size-fits-all definition of those capable of committing such heinous crimes.

• The suspect proudly displayed the three Glock handguns and his AR-15 assault rifle on his website. There is absolutely no reason for a private citizen to possess an assault rifle that is designed for combat. How many more deaths – how many more Sandy Hooks, Parklands or Pittsburghs – will it take before reasonable regulations of firearms are enacted? 

• Peggy Noonan, in a column in last weekend’s Wall Street Journal, urged politicians in both parties to “clean up their own side of the street” to “defuse America’s explosive politics.”  

No official in the United States is in a better position to elevate the tone of public debate than the president. Yet in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, he callously blamed the victims, wrongly trying to score points in the gun debate by stating that if the synagogue had had armed guards, there would have been fewer deaths or injuries.  And in his rallies, Trump has repeatedly inflamed his followers with unrelenting attacks on media as “the enemy of the people” and even applauded a congressman for having “body slammed” a reporter. 

Trump has called for dialing back the intensity of political debate; now, he must follow his own advice and be consistent about it. After the Pittsburgh killings, he rightly and vigorously condemned anti-Semitism. But on Monday morning, he was back tweeting about fake news and the enemies in the media.

The rabbi at the Pittsburgh synagogue, to his credit, struck a conciliatory tone and said he would welcome Trump if the president visited Pittsburgh and its Jewish community. Another group, known as Bend the Arc, took a more oppositional stance and said Trump is not welcome there until he denounces white nationalism and stops targeting minorities.

About 1,500 St. Louisans turned out Sunday for a vigil in response to the horrific events in Pittsburgh. The powerful program was organized with compassion by the Jewish Federation of St. Louis, the Jewish Community Center and the Jewish Community Relations Council, with the cooperation of the St. Louis Rabbinical Association, the St. Louis Rabbinical Council and the Interfaith Partnership. It  included remarks of solidarity from the three major streams of Judaism and from Muslims and Christians and the community at large.

That feeling of solidarity must continue. Jews in St. Louis, like those in Pittsburgh and the world over, need to come together, to mourn the loss of life, to pray for the recovery of the wounded and to work to prove, in the words of Federation president and CEO Andrew Rehfeld, that “this is not us. This will not stand.”

Jews have bounced back again and again, from persecution by ancient Rome and Egypt through the pogroms and the Holocaust. Each time we have come back stronger. Our Bible states, “And none shall make them afraid.” The events of recent  days do make us afraid.  But just as in the past, we must do our best to keep calm and carry on, confident that righteousness will win in the end.