Poway Chabad rabbi to address UN General Assembly

Rabbi who survived synagogue shooting to speak at U.N. during special session on anti-Semitism.

By World Israel News Staff

Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, survivor of the Chabad of Poway synagogue shooting, will deliver a speech at the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday.

The Israel Mission to the United Nations invited the rabbi to speak at the session which will address rising anti-Semitism. The special session is partly thanks to the efforts of Israel Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon, who has been leading a push for months to convene the General Assembly for a discussion on combating rising anti-Semitism, including through the use of social media.

Rabbi Goldstein said in a statement concerning his upcoming address, “The most powerful way to overcome the darkness of hate, bigotry, and anti-Semitism is by proactively generating an even greater light through acts of goodness and kindness and by educating our youth about the dignity of life and our common obligation to be agents of light.”

Less than a week after the shooting in which the rabbi lost an index finger, he spoke on the White House Lawn with the president in attendance. He called for reintroducing a moment of silence in all public schools “so that children from early childhood on can recognize that there is more good to the world, that they are valuable, there is accountability and every human being is created in God’s image.”

The Poway synagogue shooting took place on April 27. Three people were injured, including the rabbi, and one woman killed. Sixty-year-old Lori Gilbert-Kaye was mortally wounded while trying to shield the rabbi from the gunman, witnesses said.

The shooter, 19-year-old John T. Earnest, who had written a hate-filled manifesto, gave himself up to police shortly after trying to escape when his gun jammed. He has been charged with one count of murder and three counts of attempted murder.