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Josh Shapiro decried violence aimed at silencing political speech, citing the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk as well as the arson attack on the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion just hours after he led his family in the Passover Seder.

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The Pennsylvania governor and his family were forced to evacuate the executive residence after it was firebombed in April just hours after their first-night Seder.

“I’m here today to tell you that I will not be deterred in my work on behalf of the good people of Pennsylvania, and I, sure as heck, will not be silenced,” he said in remarks at the annual Eradicate Hate Global Summit in Pittsburgh on Tuesday morning.

Shapiro said the attack left “emotional scars.” He recalled that in its wake, a volunteer fire department chaplain handed him the handwritten Priestly Blessing —  the same prayer he traditionally recites to his children before they go to sleep each night. “I wept when I read that prayer that he wrote,” Shapiro said.

No one was injured, but the blaze caused extensive damage. Police charged the suspect, Cody Balmer, with attempted murder, aggravated arson, terrorism, and other offenses. Investigators said Balmer told a 911 operator that he was sending a message to Shapiro that he would not “take part in his plans for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people.” He later admitted to “harboring hatred” toward Shapiro and said that he wanted to beat him with a sledgehammer.

Kirk’s killing is the latest in a wave of hate-fueled violence in recent years, including in Pennsylvania. Last year, President Donald Trump faced an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Butler County. And in 2018, Robert Bowers, a white supremacist, killed 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Eradicate Hate was formed following that attack, the deadliest act of antisemitism in the nation’s history.

Shapiro, who proudly embraces his Jewish faith, was sworn in on a Bible that was rescued from the synagogue attack.

He recalled mourning with Pittsburgh’s Jewish community immediately after the attack, when he was the state’s attorney-general.

“A cross-section of the entire community was here. Grieving together. Finding strength in one another,” Shapiro said. “It was the people here on these streets in Pittsburgh who proclaimed that night we are stronger than hate.”

Organizers of the summit said they traditionally don’t invite politicians to speak. They made an exception for Shapiro because of his own experience with violence.

“Political violence doesn’t only affect those who are directly targeted or their loved ones. It affects all of us,” Shapiro said. “It tears at the fabric of American society and the fundamental principles that this nation was founded upon, a nation where civil disagreement should be welcome.”

Shapiro called on all political leaders to be “clear and unequivocal” in calling out all forms of political violence. “Unfortunately, some from the dark corners of the Internet all the way to the Oval Office want to cherry-pick which instances of political violence they want to condemn,” he said.

Trump, on Wednesday evening, blamed Kirk’s death on violence incited by what he called years of Nazi name-calling directed at conservative voices, and said he would use his office to come after those he blamed for the rhetoric.

In his 3-minute address from the Oval Office, Trump listed a litany of recent attacks on the right, but did not list any attacks on the left, although a gunman assassinated a Democrat, the former speaker of the Minnesota House, and her husband as recently as June. He also did not mention other recent high-profile attacks on Jews, including the one on Shapiro; the killing of a young couple outside the Capital Jewish Museum; and the firebombing in Boulder of people marching for the hostages in Gaza.

Shapiro said violence should not be used as a pretext to shut down political speech, alluding to threats by Trump and one of his top deputies, Stephen Miller, to go after nonprofits they claim without evidence spurred Kirk’s killing.

“Censorship – using the long arm of government to silence people, businesses, and nonprofits and restrict their right to free speech – will not solve this problem,” Shapiro said

Blaming only one side for the violence has its own perils, Shapiro warned. “There are some who will hear that selective condemnation and take it as a permission slip to commit more violence, so long as it suits their narrative or only targets the other side,” he said.

This story was originally published on the Forward.