Minneapolis’ Jewish mayor, Jacob Frey, shared incredibly powerful words at a press conference this Wednesday, Aug. 27, in the wake of the horrific shooting at the city’s Annunciation Catholic School during a mass to mark the return to school.
The shooter took the lives of two children, ages 8 and 10, and injured 17 others, mostly children, then died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound outside of the school.
Frey, a father of two who was raised in a Reform Jewish household in Virginia, spoke of the abject horror of the event — one that takes place too often in this country, where many parents send their children to school every day, fearing the worst could happen. He also offered comfort to the families of the victims and shared a rallying cry to end the all too frequent shootings that take place across the country.
“There are no words that can capture the horror and the evil of this unspeakable act. Children are dead. There are families that have a deceased child. You cannot put into words the gravity, the tragedy or the absolute pain of this situation,” he said.
He urged everyone watching to “not think of these as just somebody else’s kids.”
“Those families are suffering immense pain right now. Think of this as if it were your own. Every one of us needs to be wrapping our arms around these families, giving them every ounce that we can muster.”
“Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now,” the democratic politician shared, echoing the line used so often by politicians after school shootings that it has become a meme.
“These kids were literally praying,” he said. “It was the first week of school. They were in a church.”
“These are kids that should be learning with their friends. They should be playing on the playground. They should be able to go to school or church in peace, without the fear or risk of violence,” he continued. “And their parents should have the same kind of assurance. These are the sort of basic assurances that every family should have every step of the day, regardless of where they are in our country.”
He asked everyone who could to be there for the families impacted.
“Stand by them. Love them. These families have forever been changed, and we’ve all been changed with them. We need to do everything possible to support them through this time,” he said, sharing that the city had set up a family resource center for them.
“We’re going to be with you every step of the way. We love you. This kind of act of evil should never happen, and it happens far too often,” he said.
“I think the impetus has to be on all of us as leaders to do a whole lot more to recognize that we’ve got more guns in this country than we have people,” he continued. “And it’s on all of us to recognize the truth and the reality that we can’t just say that this shouldn’t happen again and then allow it to happen again and again.”
The alleged shooter, Robin Westman, 23, intended to kill more people than just the two victims. “There were a lot of gunshot wounds in places that were meant to kill people,” a trauma surgeon treating the victims shared with the New York Times. The staff members around the children rushed to protect them as the shooting took place. “The way that they acted during severe threat and danger was nothing short of heroic,” Frey said.
According to the ADL, Westman also shared videos of arms that included inscriptions like “6 million wasn’t enough,” “Burn Israel,” “Israel must fall” and “Destroy HIAS,” about the Jewish organization that help refugees. The organization was also vilified by Robert Bowes, the shooter who attacked the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.
Westman was reportedly trans, but as Frey said in the press conference, “Anybody who is using this as an opportunity to villainize our trans community or any other community out there has lost their sense of common humanity. We should not be operating out of a place of hate for anyone. We should be operating from a place of our love for our kids. Kids died today — this needs to be about them.”
Frey attends a Reform synagogue in Minneapolis with his family: wife Sarah Clarke, a community organizer and lobbyist who converted to Judaism after their marriage, and his two young children. In 2020, he told JTA that “the moral imperative outlined by tikkun olam is something I believe in strongly and is foundational both to Judaism and also my philosophy in government.”
Our hearts go out to the victims of this shooting and to their families. May a day finally come when all kids can go to school safely.
