From dancing to death: 'I wish I didn't have a bat mitzvah and Dan was alive' | The Times of Israel
The following is a quote from a Times of Israel newspaper article regarding the fatal shooting outside a synagogue in Copenhagen, Denmark, this past weekend.
First they attacked cartoonists and those critical of Islam, then they sought out Jewish targets to attack. Similar to last month's three days of violence in and around Paris but thankfully -- wrong word for this sentence, but I honestly don't believe there is a right word -- only two families mourn their loved ones in Denmark, instead of seventeen families in France.
Will humanity ever learn that hatred is not the answer, that killing others is not the answer, that terror is not the answer? I once naively and honestly believed that we had learnt, that we did know, that we had seen enough death, terror, hatred and destruction.
The mother of the girl who celebrated her bat mitzvah at a Copenhagen synagogue when a gunman opened fire outside, killing one Jewish security guard, recalled the attack with horror and grief on Monday, and expressed sorrow at the death of the beloved community member, Dan Uzan.
“Only an hour beforehand I went out to bring [Uzan] cakes and sandwiches,” Mita Ben-Tov told Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth. “All of the sudden the celebration looks vain, [my daughter] Hannah told me ‘Mom, I wish I had not had a bat mitzvah and that Dan would have stayed alive.'”
Ben-Tov said guests and children were forced to hide in a basement for two hours following the shooting.
“We were dancing and singing, and suddenly the second guard entered and told us to turn the music down,” she said. “We were not aware that there was gunfire outside.”Source: 'I wish I didn't have a bat mitzvah and Dan was alive' | The Times of Israel
First they attacked cartoonists and those critical of Islam, then they sought out Jewish targets to attack. Similar to last month's three days of violence in and around Paris but thankfully -- wrong word for this sentence, but I honestly don't believe there is a right word -- only two families mourn their loved ones in Denmark, instead of seventeen families in France.
Will humanity ever learn that hatred is not the answer, that killing others is not the answer, that terror is not the answer? I once naively and honestly believed that we had learnt, that we did know, that we had seen enough death, terror, hatred and destruction.
"It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart."
~ Anne FrankThe world today scares me, yet I am a part of it. Europe today scares me, yet I stay here and hope for the best. Writing this scares me, yet I can't stay quiet. Human beings are capable of compassion and love and so much goodness and kindness yet despite that, it seems we continue on a path of war and destruction. Will it ever end? Will we ever understand? Will we ever learn?
"In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again."
~ Anne Frank
