“In this moment of mourning and pain, we express our total solidarity with the relatives of the victims and with the Jewish community of the city [of Pittsburgh] and the United States of America,” the community said.
For the Jewish community in Lisbon, “it is unacceptable” that in the 21st century we continue to see “demonstrations of racial hatred, xenophobia, intolerance and anti-Semitism that jeopardises basic freedom and civilisation itself.”
For this reason, the community called on the “Portuguese authorities and all good people” to unite “with the Jewish communities and organisations around the world in their repudiation and in the fight against anti-Semitism.”
They also said that, in this context, they asked Portugal to accept the European Parliament’s recommendation for “formal adoption” of the definition of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance on anti-Semitism as “particularly relevant.”
The authorities said eleven people died and six were injured, including four policemen, in the shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh.
Police have identified the shooter as Robert Bowers, saying that the detained suspect was not known to the authorities.