Interfaith Vigil Planned For Glencoe After Synagogue Shooting

GLENCOE, IL — An interfaith vigil in remembrance of the victims of Saturday's mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh is planned for Thursday evening in Glencoe. The event is being hosted by congregation Am Shalom in conjunction with the village.

The gathering is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. at the Am Shalom flagpole at the corner of Lincoln and Vernon avenues. The service will move inside in case of bad weather and is expected to last about a half hour.

Scheduled speakers include Village President Larry Levin and pastors from St. Paul AME, St. Elizabeth's Church and Am Shalom Rabbi Steven Lowenstein. Representatives of other houses of worship may also speak.

Lowenstein said it was important for all faith traditions to come together to work together, pray together and reflect on how to bring peace and healing into the world. He recalled the community came together after congregants at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church were murdered by a 21-year-old white supremacist because of their race.

"We have to support each other as a community as often as we can," said Lowenstein, who lived in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood, the site of the murder of 11 congregants during services Saturday.

"My parents were married in that sanctuary," Lowenstein told Patch. "I know it very, very well. I know the uniqueness of that community. It's always been a part of me." He had it has always had a history of diverse communities living close together in harmony, remembering the apartment building where he lived from age 5 to 9.

"In the late 1960s we had a neighbor who was African-American, we had a gay couple who lived in one of the apartments, and everyone was always together and everyone always got along," he said. "And we didn't think anything of it. It was never a question."

Lowenstein said several other congregants among the 11,000 families at Am Shalom also had connections to Squirrel Hill and the Pittsburgh Jewish community. The Glencoe vigil follows remembrances earlier this week in Evanston, Skokie, Northbrook and other North Shore communities.

More: Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting: A Mass Murder In My Neighborhood

A 46-year-old man from a Pittsburgh suburb with a history of anti-Semitic internet posts was indicted on 44 counts by a federal grand jury Wednesday, as funerals continue through Friday for the 11 Tree of Life congregants he is accused of fatally shooting.

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