Zvi Hershcovich is from Canada, which means he loves hockey. He is also a Chabad rabbi, so helping Jews connect to their faith is his sacred mission. 

Helping a Jewish hockey player wrap tefillin? Life goal achieved.

Yet that wasn’t what Hershcovich expected to happen when he created the X account @JewishHockey, where he posts clips of Jewish hockey players at all levels — National Hockey League superstars, minor league up-and-comers, college athletes — scoring goals and generally looking cool on the ice, usually accompanied by a deeply Jewish caption.

“On the last night of Chanukah, Zach Hyman spins the Dreidel on a backhand and wins the chocolate coins,” one post from @JewishHockey stated on Monday, with a clip showing Edmonton Oilers left winger and Jewish day school graduate Zach Hyman scoring a goal against the Vegas Golden Knights. (The Oilers won 4-3.) 

A day earlier, @JewishHockey spotlighted a goal by Vancouver Canucks center Max Sasson against the Boston Bruins in a game Vancouver won in a shootout. “With seconds left to the period, Max Sasson shakes off his defenseman like powder sugar on a Sufganiya, and buries it like a defiled altar found by the Maccabees,” the post read. 

With 3,900 followers, the nearly two-year-old account doesn’t have a huge audience. But it does have a cult following. That’s where the story with the tefillin comes in. 

“People reach out all the time with different things, and I’ve made some connections with many hockey players,” Hershcovich told Jewish Insider in an interview on Tuesday. “Some of them have been very Chabad-centric, where I’ll connect with someone online or in person. Just last week, I helped a Jewish hockey player get a pair of tefillin.” 

After the antisemitic attack at a Hanukkah celebration in Australia earlier this month, a hockey player in British Columbia was motivated to wrap tefillin but did not know where or how to do so, so he reached out to @JewishHockey. The closest Chabad rabbi was still a significant drive away, but Hershcovich, who declined to name the athlete, made the shidduch anyway. The two men connected, and FaceTimed Hershcovich to prove it.

“Then I decided, I shot my shot. I said, ‘Hey, listen, would you be interested in wearing tefillin every day if you had your own pair?’” Hershcovich recalled. “He said sure. He gave his word. So I threw it out there on Twitter, and someone who asked to remain anonymous wrote back and said, ‘I’ll sponsor the pair.’”

The hockey account is a bright spot on X, where antisemitism and harassment have grown worse in recent years. 

“Twitter [X] has become a bit of a cesspool thanks to the propaganda of the enemies of the Jews,” Hershcovich said. “Even on posts that I post, you’ll get a lot of hate, but there definitely has been a community rising, and there’s a close knit Jewish hockey community. It’s very neat to be part of it.”

Serving as the unofficial Jewish ambassador to the world of hockey is not Hershcovich’s day job (though it did lead to some freelance work for a Jewish Hockey Hall of Fame being developed in Toronto). His career looks like many other Chabad rabbis. He spent a short stint as a Chabad emissary in Russia more than a decade ago. Now he teaches at a Chabad day school in Philadelphia, creates animated programming for religious children and works on programming for Jewish college students. 

The son of two ba’al teshuva Jews — people who were raised secular but chose in adulthood to become observant — Hershcovich, 43, first connected to hockey through his grandfather, with whom he often watched Montreal Canadiens games. 

“There was Mathieu Schneider on the Canadiens, and he was my grandfather’s pride and joy, that the Canadiens had a Jewish hockey player on the team. So that might be where it started,” Hershcovich said, referring to the hockey Hall of Famer who won a Stanley Cup in 1993. 

Basketball was Hershcovich’s main sport as a child, until he took up hockey at a Chabad camp. Later, his parents subscribed to the Jewish Press and he remembered an article about a Jewish hockey prospect. So he started keeping an eye on the hockey news for Jewish players after seeing how excited that story made his grandfather. 

“I thought I was the only weirdo doing this for many years, following specifically Jewish hockey players,” Hershcovich said. He still plays hockey every Saturday night after Shabbat, and participates in an annual Jewish hockey tournament in Pennsylvania that draws hundreds of athletes and benefits Rofeh Cholim Cancer Society, which supports cancer patients and their families. 

In 2022, as a passion project, Hershcovich drafted a pseudo “Team Israel” for hockey — a fantasy roster of Jewish players from around the world who might join an Israeli team, inspired by the fact that 20 of the 24 players on the Israeli baseball team at the 2020 summer Olympics were American Jews. 

“I had some fun with that, and that led to more fans, more Jewish hockey fans, discovering there was a larger group. So I opened up a Twitter account and started posting highlights of Jewish hockey players, and things kind of blew up from there,” said Hershcovich. “It’s become part of my daily routine. I wake up in the morning, I just breeze through a couple of Google Alerts, and I go through elite prospects, my bookmarked players. It gives you an update over who scored and some basic statistics from the previous night. I’ll look through it. If I see some highlights, I’ll share them. This has been going on as there’s been a huge explosion in the Jewish hockey world.”

Jewish hockey fans have been delighted to see more and more Jewish players on the ice in the NHL in recent years. Hershcovich thinks a “golden age” of Jewish hockey is on the horizon. He has watched with excitement the rise of Zeev Buium, the American son of Israeli immigrants, who was the 12th overall pick in the 2024 NHL draft, now playing for the Canucks. Among younger prospects, there are even more Jewish players.

“The rise of Jewish hockey is incredible. And following along with the youth, there’s incredible talent coming to the NHL. This might be just the start of the golden age of hockey,” said Hershcovich. 

There is perhaps no better time to witness the dawn of that golden age than the holidays, when team Jewish heritage nights take place across the month of December. 

“This Chanukah, Jewish players are no longer anomalies in the NHL … they’re central to the game,” Dan Brosgol, the executive director of Temple Shir Tikva in Wayland, Mass., wrote in a blog post this month after seeing Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman at TD Garden. 

Throughout Hanukkah, hockey teams throughout the league host Jewish heritage nights to bring more Jewish fans and families to the games. These programs often feature public menorah lightings and special giveaways. @JewishHockey, of course, posts about all of them.  

The Florida Panthers had Hebrew-language jerseys. The Pittsburgh Penguins gave out special jerseys showing the team’s mascot underneath Hanukkah candles, with Stars of David scattered across the design. People who purchased a special ticket for the Philadelphia Flyers’ Jewish heritage night received a Flyers-themed menorah, complete with a puck and a hockey stick. 

“Hanukkah seems to have that Christmas feel of the snow and all that, that winter vibe, and therefore to have it with ice hockey really makes sense,” said Hershcovich. “Recently, the teams have been trying to somewhat outdo each other with different shtick.” 

One of the most creative celebrations of Jewish heritage will come in March, when the minor league Tulsa Oilers will host the team’s first ever “Jewish Heritage Game” — and the athletes will take to the ice in specially designed blue-and-white jerseys that say “Jewish Heritage Game” and feature the Oilers’ logo on top of a star of David.

“That’s something that hopefully will get imitated as well. That would bring a tremendous surge of pride,” said Hershcovich.

He’ll be tweeting about it.

The women’s basketball team at Rochelle Zell Jewish High School in Chicago was practicing earlier this month ahead of its annual Senior Night when an announcement came over the intercom, presenting a special guest. That’s where the video starts — one of those designed-to-go-viral tearjerkers showing a child reuniting with their parent who is in the military.

“He is joining us after leaving the military service in Europe,” the announcer says. Team members start to look around, smiling but confused, when they see that the door to the gym is open.  

“We are grateful for his dedication, especially his daughter Hannah,” the announcer continues. That’s when one athlete, in a long-sleeve practice jersey and a ponytail, begins to cry and run toward the door. “Thank you for your service and sacrifice, and welcome home, U.S. Army Chaplain Rabbi Aaron Melman.” Everyone cheers. Throwing her arms around her father, Hannah sobs.

Melman, a Conservative rabbi who since 2021 has served as a chaplain in the Illinois Army National Guard, had just returned from a U.S. Army base in Western Poland. He submitted his request for leave back in September but didn’t tell his daughter, who was devastated most of all to learn his deployment conflicted with the pinnacle of her high school basketball career. (She was more upset that he would miss that game than her graduation.) When she hugged him, Melman took off his cap and revealed a light brown yarmulke that matched his fatigues.

“We made it happen,” Melman tells his daughter in the video, smiling. Days later, RZJHS won at Senior Night. Hannah scored four points.

For more than two decades after he graduated from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2002, Melman was a congregational rabbi in the northern suburbs of Chicago. He had thought, early in his career, about joining the military — his father served in the U.S. Army Reserves — but decided against enlisting, recognizing that serving in active duty would be challenging as he raised two young children. 

But later, when his kids were older, the itch to serve returned. Melman was commissioned as an officer in the Illinois Army National Guard, a responsibility that typically required two days of service a month and two weeks each year, until he was sent to Poland earlier this year. That assignment made him one of several Jewish chaplains serving on the front lines of Europe, providing religious support and counseling to American soldiers — most of whom are not Jewish — who are stationed in Germany, Poland and other allied nations largely as a bulwark against Russia. 

Many Jewish chaplains serve in the military only part-time. They fit the training into already-busy schedules leading congregations and providing pastoral care to people in their own communities. 

Several military rabbis told JI that they view their mission as more than counseling the soldiers in their care and helping them deal with the hardships of military service. They explained that it’s also about reminding American Jews — many of whom have parents or grandparents who fought in World War II, Korea or Vietnam — about the value of service. During World War II, the military printed pocket-sized Hebrew bibles for Jewish soldiers. Today, some Jews don’t know anyone serving in the military. 

“Most Jews in America are not connected in any way, shape or form to the United States Armed Forces. The common reaction many of us get, when we go into the armed forces here in the States is, ‘Oh, you don’t want to go into the IDF?’ or, ‘Why didn’t you go into the IDF?’ And for the record, I happen to be a very strong Zionist,” Melman told Jewish Insider in an interview last week. “One of the things for me that I’ve really grown to appreciate is trying to connect the younger generation of American Jews into joining or thinking about joining the military and how important it is.”

Rabbi Aaron Gaber spent nine months at Grafenwoehr, a major American base in Germany, starting last summer. As a member of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, his unit’s mission was to train Ukrainian soldiers, and Gaber was tasked with training Ukrainian chaplains. He took them to the Memorium Nuremberg Trials, a museum located inside the German courtroom where Nazi leaders were tried for their crimes after World War II. 

“That created a whole conversation about moral integrity and personal courage. How do you say to your commander, ‘Don’t commit atrocities’? Or how do you keep your soldiers who are angry at what’s happening and want to do things that are unethical or immoral from doing that?” Gaber told JI. “That elicited a whole conversation on a theological level about light versus darkness, good versus evil, but also then on a practical level: How do you advise your commander in a way that gives him or her the option not to do something that shouldn’t be done?”

Most of Gaber’s job, when dealing either with Ukrainian troops or American, involved assisting people who were not Jewish. 

“As a rabbi, I got to make sure every week there was a Protestant worship service happening,” said Gaber, who returned from Germany in June (and specified that he did not lead those services).

Last year, he volunteered to spend the High Holidays in Poland and Lithuania. He drove between several different bases to make sure Jewish soldiers had access to religious services, food and learning opportunities tied to the holidays. 

“I take the idea of ohr l’goyim, or bringing light to the world, I was able to bring light to the world. I was able to help Jewish soldiers celebrate their faith. If I met 10 Jewish soldiers through the entire two weeks, that was a lot. So it was individual work,” Gaber said. “In one case, I had one soldier travel, I think, three hours each way to be able to spend an hour with me. He couldn’t go by himself, so he had a noncommissioned officer, one of his squad leaders, go with him. That was the length that the military can and does go to make sure soldiers can access their faith.” 

Ohr l’goyim is a phrase that comes up often for Jewish military chaplains. For Rabbi Laurence Bazer, a retired U.S. Army colonel who is now a vice president at the JCC Association and the Jewish Welfare Board’s Jewish Chaplains Council, those words — from the Book of Isaiah — commanded him to be a light unto the nations. “And that’s not just to our own fellow Jews, but to the rest of the community,” Bazer told JI. 

A friend of his from the North Dakota National Guard once took Bazer, who served in the Massachusetts Army National Guard, to visit North Dakota’s state partner in Ghana. He sat down with a group of Ghanaian soldiers and told them to ask him anything they might want to know about Judaism. 

“Now, these are all Catholic, Protestant and Muslim chaplains from the Ghanaian army,” Bazer recalled. “I said, ‘You could ask me, like, why Jews don’t believe in the New Testament, or Jesus, whatever.’ That’s part of the role that I love doing, of being, again, ohr l’goyim, a light unto the nations, to be able to share the positive, affirming side of Judaism so that they felt enriched. It was all in true fellowship of, we’re all servants of the Divine.” 

Bazer spent his final years in the military in Washington, working full time in an active duty role at the National Guard’s headquarters. He oversaw the religious response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 racial-justice protests and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. 

“I was advising commanders up to four stars at a senior level about what’s going on religiously, which really meant the moral welfare of their troops,” said Bazer, who had served in New York during the 9/11 attacks and later led the chaplaincy response to the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013. “That emotional level affects readiness, and chaplains are the key to help that readiness.” 

In 2023, Bazer was asked to go to Europe to lead Passover services and programming for Jewish troops. He led Passover Seders in Germany and Poland, and then drove between Lithuania and Latvia, delivering matzah and visiting with Jewish soldiers. 

The Seder at Grafenwoehr took place on a large lawn on the base. After he spoke about opening the door for the prophet Elijah, a symbolic act tied to hope that the Messiah will come, a Christian chaplain on base who had attended the Seder pulled Bazer aside. He pointed to a tower that stood next to the lawn.

“He says, ‘You know, Hitler used to go up there and watch,’” Bazer said. The base — now so central to America’s operations in Europe — was once used by the Nazis. “To think that back then he used to watch the Nazis do formation, and now, in 2023 we’re holding a Passover Seder on the same base in the shadow of that tower is an incredible experience.”

The 2028 presidential race is still well over a year away from beginning in earnest. But if there’s any indication about whether Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, long considered a rising star in the Democratic Party, is seriously considering running, it’s that the moderate swing-state governor recently sat down for interviews for two major magazine features — in The Atlantic and The New Yorker — both published in the last week. 

Shapiro faced questions about his ambitions, his successes and failures and his take on the increasingly divisive and vitriolic nature of American politics. The two interviews also offer a fresh look at how Shapiro, one of the most prominent Jewish politicians in America, thinks about and practices Judaism from his perch in Harrisburg. 

When he ran for governor in 2022, his first major campaign ad featured footage of him and his family observing Shabbat. He told The Atlantic’s Tim Alberta that Friday night dinners are “still a sacrosanct moment for our family.” But he also shared that he and his family have lately attended synagogue services “far less than at any other point in our lives.”

Shapiro regularly invokes religion in public addresses, choosing to speak about “my faith” rather than more specifically referring to his Jewish faith. 

“I feel more connected to my faith today than at any other time in my life. Truly. And I probably pray more now than at any other time in my life. But my connection to an institution of prayer, or a sort of formal structure of that prayer, has dramatically decreased,” Shapiro shared. “The sort of ritualistic practices became less of a focus of the way we practice our faith — with the exception, of course, of Friday nights.” 

In conversation with The New Yorker’s Benjamin Wallace-Wells, Shapiro opened up about the arson attack on the governor’s residence in April, hours after his family had concluded their Passover Seder. At the October sentencing hearing for the assailant, Shapiro said for the first time that he may have been targeted, in part, for his Jewish faith. 

“The prosecutor felt it was important to introduce into evidence the bomber’s claims that he did that because of ‘what I did to the Palestinians,’ so clearly there was some motivation because of my faith,” Shapiro told The New Yorker, which reported that the dining room — now restored after being severely burned — features a small display of charred cups and dishes from the Seder, to remember that frightening evening. 

But Shapiro’s subsequent comments backed away from personally tagging an antisemitic motive on the perpetrator: “I think it is dangerous for you or anyone else to think about those who perpetrate these violent attacks as linear thinkers, meaning that they have a left-wing ideology or a right-wing ideology, or that they have a firm set of beliefs the way you might or I might. These are clearly irrational thinkers.”

Shapiro talked to The New Yorker about rising antisemitism in the U.S., and said that he disagreed with President Donald Trump’s handling of antisemitism. Trump “is using Jews as his excuse for trying to take over universities and restrict their funding,” Shapiro said. But he does not deny that Jewish students were targeted, sometimes violently, on American campuses after the Oct. 7 attacks. “These are crimes,” Shapiro said. “And to me, that’s where a line was crossed.” He flexed his gubernatorial power to pressure the University of Pennsylvania — albeit indirectly — to crack down on antisemitism. 

Ultimately, as Shapiro continues in a political career that has so far only taken him higher, often with great momentum, he will face a question beyond just who is the best candidate in 2028: Can a Jewish person get elected president in the U.S.? The Atlantic asked Shapiro directly.

“There aren’t a whole lot of folks who pray like me,” Shapiro acknowledged. But, he added, “I have found that by living openly and proudly with my faith that it’s brought me closer to the people of Pennsylvania. And I think the people of Pennsylvania are pretty indicative of where large swaths of the American people are.”

A group of more than 30 House Democrats wrote to leaders at the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday criticizing their management of the 2025 Nonprofit Security Grant Program, saying that a lack of information provided by DHS is severely hampering applications to and implementation of the critical program.

The lawmakers criticized DHS and the Federal Emergency Management Agency for publishing the application for the grants months behind schedule, and, they allege, failing to provide “basic information necessary to move the application process forward and to fruition,” including specific timelines for the grants and applications, which the Democrats said still have not been provided.

“States have repeatedly asked FEMA for this information, and they have received no response,” the lawmakers continued. “This has also created a chilling effect on faith-based and nonprofit organizations that are hesitant to participate in an opaque application process.”

The lawmakers stated that the delays in allocating 2025 funding are concerning given the ongoing spate of attacks on religious institutions across the country, including a Catholic church in Minneapolis, a Latter-day Saints church in Michigan and the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington.

They also said that FEMA has failed to engage in educational and outreach programs to prospective applicants about the grants and the application process — programs that are required under law.

“Because of FEMA’s delays and lack of coordination and communication with States, many States have already opened and closed the application period for nonprofit organizations, meaning that any outreach from FEMA at this point would be too late,” the letter continues. “Other States have not opened the application process and have not communicated with faith-based and nonprofit stakeholders, leaving the process and the potential applicants in limbo.”

The Democrats criticized DHS for ignoring bipartisan requests from Congress to share the names of organizations awarded NSGP funding under a supplemental funding round earlier this year, which had been standard procedure in the past.

They also said DHS has added burdensome new requirements on state administrators for nonprofits that are seeking reimbursements for security costs from grants that have already been provided, slowing down reimbursements, increasing administrative costs and discouraging further applications.

The letter also raises concerns about language included in some NSGP materials suggesting that the grants could be conditioned on compliance with immigration enforcement efforts and alleges that DHS may be attempting to ban Muslim organizations from receiving security funding. The administration has already pulled funding from some Muslim groups with alleged ties to terrorism.

“FEMA must take immediate steps to get the FY 2025 NSGP back on track so that FY 2026 can proceed without the present delays, inconsistencies and uncertainties, and lack of uniformity and predictability that have previously been the hallmarks and guardrails for a program serving several thousand faith-based and nonprofit applicants each grant cycle,” the letter concludes.

The lawmakers urged DHS and FEMA to take immediate action to rectify the series of concerns they outlined and move the 2025 grant process ahead quickly. 

The letter was led by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, and co-signed by Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), Lou Correa (D-CA), Shri Thanedar (D-MI), Seth Magaziner (D-RI), Dan Goldman (D-NY), Delia Ramirez (D-IL), Tim Kennedy (D-NY), LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), Julie Johson (D-TX), Nellie Pou (D-NJ), Troy Carter (D-LA), Al Green (D-TX), James Walkinshaw (D-VA), Bobby Scott (D-VA), Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Ed Case (D-HI), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Yvette Clarke (D-NY), Andre Carson (D-IN), Dina Titus (D-NV), Tom Suozzi (D-NY), Lizzie Fletcher (D-TX), Sylvia Garcia (D-TX), Shontel Brown (D-OH), Gabe Amo (D-RI), Greg Landsman (D-OH), Jennifer McClellan (D-VA), Laura Friedman (D-CA) and Dave Min (D-CA), and Dels. Pablo Hernandez (D-PR) and Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC).

“It is absolutely unacceptable that the Trump administration is dragging its feet on the awarding of these vital security grants,” Pou said in a separate statement. “As domestic extremism and terrorist threats to synagogues and other religious and community centers explode, Congress appropriated these grant funds to help support readiness. Americans have an unshakeable right to worship in peace and security. Congress deserves answers and our nation deserves action from this administration.”

Rabbi Moshe Hauer, the executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, died suddenly on Monday evening after suffering a heart attack, his organization said. He was 60.

Jewish communal leaders remembered Hauer as a friend, a bridge-builder, a faithful and committed leader and a source of wise counsel.

Hauer had served in his role at the OU since May 2020, acting as the organization’s professional and rabbinic leader and primary spokesperson, as well as helping to lead the organization’s outreach to U.S. administration officials and lawmakers.

“Rabbi Hauer was a true talmid chacham, a master teacher and communicator, the voice of Torah to the Orthodox community and the voice of Orthodoxy to the world. He personified what it means to be a Torah Jew and took nothing more seriously than his role of sharing the joy of Jewish life with our community and beyond,” OU President Mitchel Aeder and Chief Operating Officer Rabbi Josh Joseph said in a joint statement.

“Rabbi Hauer’s leadership was marked by unwavering dedication, deep compassion, and a vision rooted in faith in Hashem, integrity, and love for Klal Yisrael,” Aeder and Joseph continued. “Whether through his inspiring words, thoughtful counsel, powerful advocacy, or quiet acts of kindness, Rabbi Hauer uplifted those around him and made an impact on every person he encountered.”

Prior to his role at the OU, Hauer served for more than 26 years as the lead rabbi at Bnai Jacob Shaarei Zion Congregation in Baltimore.

William Daroff, the CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told Jewish Insider he was “shattered by the sudden passing of my dear friend and partner, Rabbi Moshe Hauer.”

“We just spoke this past Friday and texted on Monday, when he was overflowing with joy at the miracle of the hostages’ freedom and the unmistakable hand of Hashem in it. Rabbi Hauer was a trusted advisor, cherished colleague, and wise counselor to me, a bridge-builder whose faith, humility, and moral clarity inspired all who knew him. His loss leaves a deep void for all who loved and learned from him,” Daroff continued.

“He was a wise and thoughtful leader for so many dimensions of the OU’s activities — That included his partnership with me in advocacy,” Nathan Diament, the OU’s executive director of public policy, told JI. “Rabbi Hauer deeply believed in the imperative for the Orthodox community to be fully and proactively engaged with the world at large — not isolated from it. And for us to work to better society by advancing Torah values. In fact, the last time I was with him in person was just a couple of weeks ago — we met with senators and senior White House officials to discuss key issues and values.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog mourned Hauer as “a true leader and teacher in the Jewish world,” in a post on X.

“Each and every conversation I was privileged to have with him was so very meangiful [sic] and showed his warmth and kindness, and his unwavering love for Torah, Israel, Zionism, and the Jewish people,” Herzog wrote.

Despite ideological and theological differences, Hauer maintained friendships and partnerships with Jewish leaders across the ideological spectrum and rejected claims that progressive and liberal Jews were “self-hating,” telling eJewishPhilanthropy last year that he “bristle[s] and object[s]” to the canard.

Sheila Katz, the CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women, said in a Facebook post, “Some leaders shape institutions. Others shape hearts. Rabbi Moshe Hauer did both.”

“After October 7, we found ourselves advocating side by side at the Department of Education and Department of Justice, in Congress, in the White House, and in the Knesset, determined to show what Jewish unity could look like,” Katz said. “It wasn’t unity for its own sake, but unity in service of the Jewish people, to advocate together for Jewish women, for the Orthodox community, and for all of us. Him, an Orthodox male rabbi. Me, a Reform Jewish progressive woman. Together, we were an unlikely duo that came together to advocate against antisemitism, to promote safety in Israel, and for the return of the hostages.”

“I’m grateful he lived to see all the living hostages come home. But I’m heartbroken that we won’t get to be with him for all that’s next, for the rebuilding, the hope, and the unity he modeled so powerfully,” Katz continued. “All we can do is continue to build a better world with love, and with Jewish life and wisdom, to honor the memory of our dear friend, Rabbi Hauer.”

Hauer was ordained at Ner Israel in Maryland and received a graduate degree from Johns Hopkins University. 

According to the OU, during his time at Bnai Jacob Shaarei Zion he “was active in local communal leadership in many areas, with an emphasis on education, children-at-risk, and social service organizations serving the Jewish community… led a leadership training program for rabbis and communal leaders, and was a founding editor of the online journal Klal Perspectives.”

eJewishPhilanthropy‘s Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report.

Hours after the man accused of an arson attack on the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion in April pled guilty to the attempted murder of Gov. Josh Shapiro, the governor appeared to publicly acknowledge for the first time that the attacker targeted him for his faith.

Cody Balmer was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison for the attack, which took place hours after Shapiro and his family hosted a Passover Seder at the governor’s residence in Harrisburg. Balmer said after his arrest that he was motivated by the war in Gaza, and that he wanted Shapiro to know that Balmer “will not take part in his plans for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people.” Shapiro has avoided calling the attack a hate crime. 

In a CNN interview on Tuesday, Shapiro was asked by anchor Jake Tapper if he believed he was “targeted just because you’re Jewish.”

“​​Look, obviously, as governor of Pennsylvania I don’t have foreign policy in my job description. But clearly, the district attorney thought that this was a material fact,” Shapiro said. “Clearly this was a motivating factor.” 

Balmer did not face hate crime charges in the case. 

“Whatever is motivating this political violence in this country, it needs to stop. Whether it’s targeting me because of my faith, whether it’s targeting someone else because of their ideology, it is not OK,” Shapiro told Tapper. “I think we need all leaders to speak and act with moral clarity, to call it out, to condemn it, and to try and take down the temperature so we don’t end up in situations like this where public officials are targeted because of their faith or their feelings or their ideology.”

A new video released by prosecutors this week shows Balmer walking through the governor’s residence and attempting to kick down doors to the area where Shapiro and his family slept. He is seen throwing Molotov cocktails into a room filled with round tables where the seder had taken place hours before.

Congregants of a Hindu temple on Long Island that was vandalized last year and worshippers of a Methodist Church in Oklahoma City, who last year put on a musical production of “Fiddler on the Roof” to learn about Jewish culture, may not appear to have much in common. 

But this Sunday, both houses of worship — together with an expected crowd of nearly 1 million congregants around the country — will join forces for the inaugural “Stand Up Sunday,” a show of force in the fight against antisemitism and all faith-based violence. 

As part of the effort, spearheaded by Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism and the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, founded by Rabbi Arthur Schneier, organizers said each congregation “will dedicate their services to raising awareness about the sharp increase of antisemitism and all forms of hate against religious communities in the United States by standing together on September 7.” 

FCAS’ Blue Square pins will be distributed to attendees “as a visible display of solidarity across faiths,” the group said. Congregational leaders will deliver remarks on antisemitism and faith-based hate in their sermons and houses of worship will place signs and posters throughout their buildings. 

The solidarity project comes less than two weeks after a mass shooting at the Annunciation Catholic Church and School in Minneapolis, in which two students were killed and 21 others injured. Since 2021, the number of religious-based hate crimes has doubled, according to the FBI. The FBI’s 2024 crime statistics show a record number of hate crimes against Jews in particular, accounting for nearly 70% of all religious-based hate crimes.

Bawa Jain, an Indian advocate for interfaith dialogue, told Jewish Insider that the participation of 11 Hindu temples around the country was a “no-brainer.” 

“People [aren’t aware] that Hindu temples are also vandalized. The media doesn’t cover it to the extent that other acts of violence are covered,” said Jain, secretary-general for the World Council of Religious Leaders and the founder and president of the Centre for Responsible Leadership. 

As Hindu temples across the U.S. have seen a surge of vandal attacks over the past year, Jain said that “the Hindu and Jewish communities share a similar past. We are constantly targeted. Any crime against one of us is a crime against all of us,” adding that in his 35 years as a religious leader, he has “never seen a time where Hindu communities were targeted in such a way. We must stand together.”

“One of the things I hope comes out of this is that people realize other communities are being targeted too, even if you don’t hear about it,” said Jain. “When I was approached to get the Hindu community behind this, it was a no-brainer. [Sunday’s] program will focus on incidents of hate, supporting each other and how we must educate our communities. Our hope is that through this first launch, next year more than 120 temples across the country will participate in Stand Up Sunday.”  

Participants in the day-long event include the Churches of the Catholic Archdiocese of New York, New Jersey and the Diocese of Brooklyn, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, Armenian Diocese of America, National Council of Churches of Christ, and numerous Christian, African Methodist Episcopal, Episcopal, Presbyterian Churches as well as the Akshardham BAPS Swaminarayan Hindu Temple USA. Synagogues are not taking part. 

For Pastor Bob Long, head of St. Luke’s Methodist Church in Oklahoma City, speaking out against antisemitism goes back to the immediate aftermath of the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, where 11 congregants were shot dead during Shabbat morning services.   

Following a visit to the synagogue with other pastors, Long reflected that he “became aware of a Catholic church in the area that put up a sign that said ‘Love your neighbor, no exception.’”

“That became a theme for us in 2020 and 2021 when we gave away thousands of shirts” with the phrase, he told JI. 

Last year, the church dedicated its annual “St. Luke’s on Broadway” musical production to learning about Jewish heritage by putting on “Fiddler on the Roof.” St. Luke’s also hosted a pilot version of Stand Up Sunday last year. 

“Every Sunday, we have banners at our welcome center that say ‘St. Luke’s stands up to Jewish hate’ and ‘St. Luke stands up to all hate.’ For us, this is something we keep in the forefront all year long,” Long said. 

But he called this Sunday “a special lift” for learning about hate and antisemitism in particular. 

“We will be talking about [antisemitism] in our worship service,” said Long. “The sermon will be dealing with how we chose to participate and reminding people of what happened at Tree of Life but also what happens all across the country [today] and around the world. We will have multiple banners all around the church about standing up to Jewish hate.” 

“Stand Up Sunday is about raising awareness, inspiring action and standing together against hate,” Robert Kraft, founder of the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, said in a statement. “By uniting behind the Blue Square, faith leaders are sending a powerful message, that antisemitism and all forms of hate have no place in our communities. At a time when division and intolerance threaten to pull us apart, this initiative shows what is possible when we unite across backgrounds and beliefs, and that our shared values are greater than what divides us.”

“Sept. 7 is the moment for us to stand shoulder to shoulder as people of faith to say enough is enough. We are all God’s Children and together we can silence the voices of hate and the perpetrators of violence,” Karen Dresbach, executive vice president of Appeal of Conscience Foundation, said in a statement. “In this concerning time of rising antisemitism and faith-based hate, ‘Stand Up Sunday’ underscores our core mission to ‘Respect the Other,’ a call that is more urgent than ever.”