Asian American Jewish group plans Wednesday event responding to mass shootings in California
A collective of Asian American Jews that started on Lunar New Year two years ago is planning an online event on Wednesday in response to the back-to-back mass shootings in California that killed 11 people in Monterey Park and seven more in Half Moon Bay.
A post on the Facebook page of the Lunar Collective noted that the murders at a ballroom in the largely Asian American community of Monterey Park happened the same night as the LA chapter of the group’s own lunar new year gathering, which was originally planned to be in Monterey Park. “So this hits close to home for those of us in LA,” the post said.
“We are deeply saddened and angered by yet another act of senseless gun violence that has resulted in the loss of sacred human life,” it continued. “The concept of B’tzelem Elohim, that we are created in the image of the divine, is core to Judaism. Any destruction to human life is a desecration of holiness.”
Gen Slosberg, a co-founder of the Lunar Collective, pointed out that the 2021 killings of six Asian women and two others at three spas in Atlanta had come only a month after the group’s creation. “Last time, the shooting was on the heels of the celebration,” she wrote in a Facebook post. “This time they were the exact same date.”
Rabbi Mira Rivera will lead the Wednesday event, which starts at 5:30 p.m. PT/8:30 p.m. ET. Registration is required.
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