We were all assaulted last week. For the first time many Jews felt the visceral experience of being the hunted.

The murderer who killed 3 innocent souls at the Jewish Community Campus and Village Shalom had his shotgun aimed at you and me in his mind, and we know that very clearly now. Deadly anti-Semitism is no longer a theory. For many, particularly those who were at the Campus or nearby, but really all of us, it broke through our psychological defense, and theory became emotional reality. It’s difficult to be so hated that someone wants you dead.

It’s easy to claim that the murderer was a madman.  By some definition I suppose he is. But he was not insane. He lived among us, a 3-hour drive away, and everyone tolerated his anti-Semitic anti-minority hatred because nothing legally could be done about his venom. Until last week, it appears he never hurt anyone. Now 3 innocent and kind people are dead because nothing can be done about blatant hatred until a corpse lies on the ground.

Everything in our being strives not to be that corpse. For the first time many in our community feel themselves in the gun sights of a murderer, and the reality is unnerving.

But consider: so has it always been, just ask a Holocaust survivor. We are given an opportunity to deal with the real world. There are those who hate us despite all that Jews contribute to civilization. So then, how do we cope?

Let us not bottle up our fears.  Be aware of those around you, family members or other loved ones, particularly those who were near the line of fire, who have perhaps even dissociated this experience, put it in a bubble separate from themselves and are not willing to deal with it.  Encourage them to talk until they have worked through the trauma.  Validate their feelings by listening and affirming how their emotions. Check in to hear and see how they are progressing. Please do not deny or contradict their feelings, or belittle their fear. It’s very real to many among us. Some people may want a couple of conversations with a psychologist to get past their trauma.  But what about the rest of us?

We live in dangerous world. Most of Johnson County culture has been cultivated to make it seem that the world is not dangerous at all. We avoid infirmity and those who are ill. Some live in gated communities. We drive large cars to protect our bodies, our families and often our egos from harm. All of this seems to keep the jungle at bay, until the unthinkable happens.  So now what?  Now that we see the brutal reality of the jungle where animals are prey, how do we cope?

First, let us admit that we are frightened, and that we do need to take reasonable measures to protect ourselves.  But let us not react as our nation did after 9/11 by exaggerating the threat.

Next, let us keep an eye out for one another in this jungle called life.  So many around us have their lives threatened daily, and you don’t have to motor across State Line to see it. So many suffer life-threatening illnesses and need the help of friends and community to support them in their hour of need. I just met with a man who is all alone and suffering terribly. It was driving him out of his mind until he had a caring person to share his thoughts and fears. Let us watch out for one another, and reach out to help with a kind thought, a listening ear, transportation to a doctor, watching after children, buying groceries for a neighbor, mowing a yard.  So much can be done to show support and make a threatened life easier to bear.

Finally, let us remember that none will escape this world without trials. Let us thank God for our lives, the lives of those we love, and a community that supports us. Rather than searching for where our enemies may be hiding, let us reach out to the friends who are newly awakened to the threat to all of our lives, and together build a new community with a new heart. This will not be organized by clergy, or church and synagogue boards. It can only be brought to fruition by good people who realize now, together, today, that only we and our neighbors united in commitment, those with whom we share our lives daily, can tame this jungle we call home. Bullets flew and found targets, humans died without distinction of race, religion, color, sexuality, age or national origin.  The murderer had targets in mind. He did not succeed in his goal because human beings are all the same in the final analysis.  Maybe we can finally learn this from these deaths. As Benjamin Franklin first wrote, “If we don’t all hang together, we shall all hang separately.” The best solution to violence is for all of us to accept that “there but for the grace of God go I,” and to accept responsibility for the welfare of our neighbors. That means watching out for their children, taking care of them in illness, and caring about their welfare. We will live together as a community, or perish together as fools: class war, racial tensions, right against left and vice versa, religion against religion, whatever division we choose to distinguish ourselves from our neighbors.  The choice is ours. Once the bullets fly, we are all endangered. But a community of creatures in God’s image cannot be destroyed by terror.  Let us live together like aspen trees live in groves: individual trees standing strong, but all connected together at the root. As goes one, so go we all.