Jewish groups react to the shooting in Buffalo

At about 2:30 pm on Saturday, 18-year-old Payton Gendron of Conklin, NY (near Binghamton), arrived at the parking lot of Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo. Wearing a tactical helmet, body armor and a body camera through which he livestreamed his actions, he shot four people in the parking lot before entering the store, where he continued shooting at customers and employees. He was engaged by the store’s security guard, a retired Buffalo Police officer, but the guard’s shots were ineffective against Gendron’s body armor, and he was shot and killed.

Upon exiting the store, Gendron was confronted by Buffalo Police and surrendered.

Jewish organizations, all too familiar with white supremacist attacks in recent years, quickly expressed outrage at the shooting and sent condolences to the victims.

No Jewish people were victims of Saturday’s shooting. But Gendron’s rambling 180-page manifesto — posted online before the shooting and since removed —not only explained that he chose the site of the shooting because of the high percentage of black people living in that area, but he also espoused the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory.

The theory, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, argues that Jews are responsible for the immigration of non-white people into American society with the goal of eventually replacing the white race.

The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) tweeted it was horrified at the news of the shooting, as well as the existence of the racist and anti-Semitic manifesto, much of which was plagiarized from a similar manifesto written by the terrorist who shot and killed 50 parishioners in 2019 at the mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand.

ADL CEO and national director Jonathan Greenblatt said that Gendron was inspired by the same hateful, anti-Semitic ideology that inspired the shooters who attacked Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Synagogue; Chabad of Poway, Calif.; a Walmart in El Paso, Texas; and the 2015 shooting at a black church in Charleston, SC. He emphasized the ADL’s solidarity with the African-American community, as 11 out of the 13 victims of the shooting are black.

“This was yet another predictable attack by an avowed white supremacist who imbibed hateful conspiracy theories online and then turned to violent action, this time targeting mostly black victims. We cannot remain complacent in the face of this continuing and serious national security threat,” Greenblatt said.

“This shooting is a deadly reminder of the dangers of white supremacy, and the need to call out these hateful views at every opportunity.”

Empathy also came from across the spectrum of Jewish observance, including the Modern Orthodox and haredi communities.

“This tragic incident is but the latest in a series of violent crimes fueled by a toxic combination of racist hatred and online media platforms,” said the Orthodox Union.

“We renew our call upon leaders of government and the corporate sector to take real and meaningful actions to rein in the river of hate that flows through the online landscape. Congress should pass the bipartisan Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act (H.R. 350), and leaders of online corporations must implement policies that thwart the spread of violence-motivating actions.”

“We join in sincere prayer for peace and goodwill to dominate our culture,” it continued. “With unity and the purposeful action of people of goodwill, we can hope to be able to deter and prevent the next hate crime from occurring.”

“The shooter, a self-proclaimed white supremacist and anti-Semite, killed 10 and injured three more — almost all of whom were black — in a deadly massacre,” said Agudath Israel of America. “In a 180-page hate-filled racist and anti-Semitic manifesto, the shooter labeled his forthcoming attack as ‘terrorism.’ We agree, and we call upon the full force of the judicial system to punish the shooter to the extent the law allows. We stand in solidarity with the black community which suffered the deeply painful blow of yesterday’s shooting. In our grief for their loss, we must all renew our efforts to combat racism and hate.”

Even the largely insular Satmar Chassidic sect posted a tweet on the shooting:

“The Satmar community expresses its grief after the horrific Buffalo massacre shooting in Buffalo, our condolences to the victims’ families and our prayers for those injured. We stand in solidarity with the black community. We must all renew our efforts to combat racism and hate.”

The Jewish Community Relations Council of the Buffalo Jewish Federation issued a statement assuring that “Buffalo’s Jewish community stands shoulder-to-shoulder linking arms with Buffalo’s black community as they deal with the aftermath of this weekend’s horrific shooting that took the lives of 10 people and injured three others at the Tops Market on Jefferson Avenue. The Talmud tells us that: ‘Whoever destroys a soul; it is considered as if they destroyed an entire world’ (Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5).”

It continued, noting that “the Jewish community knows well the manifestation of white nationalism, and collectively, we are devastated that our friends and neighbors are experiencing this firsthand yet again. Our hearts and prayers extend to the families and friends of the deceased and to the larger community that mourns with them. May their memories always be for a blessing.”