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Americans Of All Faiths Plan To Attend Shabbat Services In Solidarity With Jews

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Americans of all faiths plan to attend Shabbat services tonight and tomorrow morning at synagogues around the country. Jewish organizations are spearheading #ShowUpForShabbat. It's a display of solidarity after the deadly attack on the Pittsburgh synagogue last Saturday.

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Rabbis are preparing for larger-than-usual crowds, including Rabbi Susan Talve of Central Reform Synagogue (ph) in St. Louis, Mo.

SUSAN TALVE: Even through the trauma and the tears there has not been a day when the outpouring of support has not been overwhelming. And so all of those people said they want to stand with us in solidarity. People of color, the LGBTQ community, especially immigrants and refugees, who are feeling so vulnerable right now, the Muslim community - they've all said they're going to show up with us because they don't want us to be afraid. People have told us that they are coming to stand with us and to pray with us and to remember with us.

TRACI BLACKMON: This evening, I'm going to Central Reform Congregation for Shabbat.

SHAPIRO: That's Reverend Traci Blackmon of Christ the King United Church of Christ in Florissant, Mo. She says in 2014, Central Reform congregants showed up at her church after the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson.

BLACKMON: An assault on any house of worship I believe is an assault on all of us. And throughout this week, I have been thinking deeply about what it means to be a rabbi in this moment. I think about that as the leader of my own congregation. And we're going tonight. I'm going, and members of my congregation are going as well to be in the worship space within our Jewish kindred, to say that they are not alone, that we stand with them and that we will not collectively tolerate this kind of hatred in our midst.

CHANG: By the way, since the Pittsburgh shooting, at least two synagogues have been sprayed with anti-Semitic graffiti, one on its walls inside.

(SOUNDBITE OF AGNES OBEL SONG, "CITIZEN OF GLASS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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