Students, faculty and administrators gathered outside of Francis Olympic Stadium to show support for the victims of Saturday’s shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Wednesday, Oct. 31.

The Interfaith Campus Ministries Association, Hillel, Chabad and the Center for Diversity and Inclusion hosted the event. Representatives from all four groups, in addition to Chancellor Mark Wrighton, called for productive dialogue and communication at the ceremony.

Grace Bruton | Student Life

Reverend Beth Scriven, junior Zach Moskow, Rabbi Jordan Gerson, Chancellor Mark Wrighton, Rabbi Hershey Novack and Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Dean of the Center for Diversity and Inclusion Emelyn dela Pena plant a tree to commemorate the lives lost at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. The tree-planting ceremony was a part of an event held by the Interfaith Campus Ministries Association, Hillel, Chabad and the CDI.

After the speeches, members of the Washington University community planted a heritage oak sapling to symbolically begin the community’s healing process after the attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, the murder of an African-American man and woman in Louisville, Ky. and the 14 mail bombs sent to various political figures.

Junior Zach Moskow, whose relatives are among the victims of Saturday’s shooting, helped plant the tree alongside campus leaders. Attendees also had the opportunity to sign red planters, which will be placed in various locations around campus.

Religious groups on campus hope that the tree planting ceremony can serve as a symbolic line in the sand for bigotry and intolerance both in the world and on campus.

“I think this past week felt like a particular tipping point to a lot of people, that the Tree of Life shooting was a particularly egregious example of the anti-Semitism that we have seen on the rise in the last couple of years, such as continued shootings based on race, and other forms of hatred,” Reverend Beth Scriven, chair of the Interfaith Campus Ministry Association, said. “So it felt to the folks in student affairs like a moment to do something, to not wait any longer. And certainly, the interfaith community was glad to be a part of that.”

As a result of this ceremony, Rabbi Hershey Novack, senior campus rabbi at Chabad, hopes that students and faculty will internalize the values of communication and togetherness in order to build community and prevent future incidents.

“The healing process starts with our words and then our actions,” Novack said. “Then that manifests in the way that we feel about people around us, the things that we say, and the things that we do.”

Campus religious groups are also promoting the concept of “radical love” as a way for the community to heal.

“[Radical love] is a love that goes beyond the love that is expected,” Scriven said. “We are expected to love the people we like. We are not expected necessarily to actively love the people that we don’t know, or maybe the people we don’t even like. And I think radical love asks us to do just that, to be about actual concrete practical forms of love for everyone.”

Christian groups on campus also sought to support the Jewish community in this time of crisis.

“I hope that students take away that we are for our Jewish brothers and sisters and friends, and we stand in solidarity with them, that hate like this will not be tolerated,” Campus Minister Cole Lescher said. “And so the hope for students is that this can be a safe place for them.”

These sentiments are largely echoed among the student body.

“When there is great evil like we saw in Pittsburgh, it is very important to come together and I think there is great healing in community. It is important for us to stand up and say that something is wrong,” graduate student Charis Horn said.

Turnout to the ceremony was higher than expected, and campus leaders are optimistic that the Washington University community can rebuild and grow.

“The University deserves credit for being able to pull together this many people in almost no time,” Novack said. “It is a testament to the student body. It is the beginning of a busy academic season, and it is a positive symbol that this many people were able to break away from their day-to-day and be able to participate.”

Lescher hopes that the planting of the sapling will symbolically unite the community against intolerance and anti-Semitism.

“It is horrible that this is what brought us together, but I’m glad that we are together,” Lescher said.