Amid the din of Thursday morning traffic along Park Heights Avenue — including several “menorah mobiles” speeding off to celebrations for the second-to-last day of Chanukah — Rabbi Andrew Busch stood on Baltimore Hebrew Congregation’s front lawn and held up a large, black trash bag.
Inside were remnants of a pair of outdoor signs vandalized and destroyed on BHC’s campus Sunday night, Dec. 10. The signs proclaimed the synagogue’s solidarity with Israel and advocacy for bringing home the remaining Israeli hostages abducted by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7 attack. (Baltimore County Police have not yet issued any leads in the vandalism case.)
Speaking today, Dec. 14, to an assemblage of more than 100 community leaders and members at a sign replacement ceremony, Rabbi Busch invoked the memory of BHC’s founders who started the congregation in 1830 as a refuge for Jews who wanted to practice their faith and express their concerns in an open environment.
“We know what it means to be remnants,” he said. “We know what it means to be silenced. We are akin to these banners here to not have a voice, to not be able to organize and live as remnants. But we focus on Israel and the hostages and the hopes and struggles of the Israeli people. We understand the importance of Israel, a land our founders in 1830 could only dream of. …
“We at Baltimore Hebrew Congregation and the entire Jewish community will continue to express our concerns for our family and friends in Israel.”
Among those in attendance were Beth El’s Rabbi Steven Schwartz and Cantor Thom King, Rabbi Dr. Rachel Sabath Beit-Halchaimi of Har Sinai-Oheb Shalom Congregation, Rabbi Daniel Cotzin Burg of Beth Am Synagogue, and Rabbi Gustav Buchdahl, the Emanuel Emeritus Rabbi at BHC.
Also in attendance were Sen. Shelly L. Hettleman (D-11th), Baltimore County Councilman Izzy Patoka (D-2nd), Baltimore County Delegates Jon S. Cardin (D-11B) and Dana M. Stein (D-11B), Baltimore Jewish Council Executive Director Howard Libit, Baltimore City Delegates Dalya Attar (D-41st) and Samuel I. “Sandy” Rosenberg (D-41st) and Rebecca Marks, liaison for the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhoods, representing Mayor Brandon M. Scott.
Standing next to Baltimore City Councilman Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer (D-5th), who was wearing a “Free Our Hostages” sweatshirt, Patoka sounded a defiant tone in his remarks, saying antisemitism should not be accepted on the local level or at elite college campuses.
“It’s contemptible what’s in that bag,” he said, alluding to the vandalized and shredded signs. “You can destroy our signs but you cannot destroy our community or faith or beliefs. Stay out of our shuls. Hate has no place here.”
That theme was echoed by BHC’s Rabbi Elissa Sachs-Kohen. “We are so grateful for all of you here today,” she said. “And we stand with the people of Israel in their pain and in their trauma, and demand a return of our hostages. We pray for a peace that is strong and abundant.”
The 20-minute program concluded with the revealing of BHC’s new pro-Israel lawn signs, led by congregational president Gary Aiken, as well as the singing of “Am Yisrael Chai” and “Hatikvah,” Israel’s national anthem.
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