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Thousands packed into Temple Emanuel in Denver for a vigil Sunday night that was attended by a who’s who of politicians and faith leaders

“A basic trust in Amer­ica has been vio­lated”: Den­ver turns out in force to share in the pain of Pitts­burgh and the Jew­ish community

Den­ver came out in force Sun­day night, join­ing cities across the nation in shar­ing in the pain and sad­ness of Pittsburgh’s Jew­ish com­mu­nity. Thou­sands of peo­ple packed into Tem­ple Emanuel for a tear­ful, unit­ing vigil.

“This is not OK,” Gov. John Hick­en­looper pro­claimed to a standing-room-only crowd that over­flowed into rooms beyond the Den­ver Jew­ish congregation’s mas­sive sanctuary.

Scott Levin, the regional chief of the Anti-Defamation League, said the attack Sat­ur­day at the Jew­ish tem­ple in Pittsburgh’s Squir­rel Hill neigh­bor­hood answered unequiv­o­cally the ques­tion: “Is anti-Semitism still a thing?”

“Yes,” he said, “anti-Semitism still exists.”

For Col­orado, a state that’s expe­ri­enced more than its share of mass vio­lence, the evening vigil seemed to lean on the shared trauma of the metro Den­ver area and now Pitts­burgh. The sea of mourn­ers at Tem­ple Emanuel was quick to give stand­ing ova­tions as speaker after speaker talked of a show of force to bat­tle grow­ing instances of hate in the state and beyond.

Rabbi Joe Black, of Tem­ple Emmanuel, esti­mated on Mon­day that between 3,500 and 4,000 attended Sun­day evening’s remembrance.

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