Members of a Jewish Temple in Manchester are among those who lost family in the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting that left 11 dead Saturday.
Temple Adath Yeshurun Rabbi Beth Davidson said shooting victim Joyce Fienberg had attended her sister-in-law's bat mitzvah at the Temple Adath two years ago.
Rabbi Davidson said she's witnessed what she sees as a decrease in tolerance in recent years.
"It's not only anti-semitic,” Rabbi Davidson said. “It's any community that you identify as a minority, I think have found themselves increasingly under attack."
The temple over the weekend decided to proceed with a previously-scheduled forum that hosted New Hampshire gubernatorial candidates.
Manchester Police are currently investigating two incidences of a spray-painted swastika in the city, one just blocks from the temple. Both acts of vandalism are likely to have taken place before news of the Pittsburgh shooting, according to what witnesses told police.
“Symbols of hate have no place in our community,” Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig said in a statement issued Monday afternoon. “Manchester is a city of compassion, a place that embraces our history and diversity.”
Rabbi Davidson said fear of the tragedy in Pittsburgh would not immobilize the community at home. “I think that's not how Americans respond, that's not how Jews respond,” Davidson said. “I think that both halves of our identity is calling us to move forward."
