Last Saturday, as usual on a Sabbath morning, I attended my local synagogue in north-west London. Less expected was that London Mayor Sadiq Khan also visited a synagogue. This was part of the “Show Up For Shabbat” international initiative to display solidarity in the wake of the attack in Pittsburgh the previous week. On 27 October, at the Tree of Life synagogue, 11 Jews were shot and killed and six injured attending a Sabbath morning service.
At the service I went to, there was the joyous occasion of a bar mitzvah, punctuated by the rabbi saying a special prayer for the victims of Pittsburgh. There have been too many of these sombre prayers in recent years. Jews have been attacked and murdered in Paris, Toulouse, Brussels and Copenhagen.