EAST GREENWICH – In a calendar rarity, Holy Week and Passover, two of the most sacred occasions in Christianity and Judaism respectively, are overlapping once again in 2026, after having taken place concurrently last year. This year’s Passover began on the Wednesday of Holy Week, providing a wonderful symbolism of the enduring bond between Christians and Jews around the globe.
Last month in East Greenwich, shortly before the start of this year’s Holy Week observations, the two faiths aligned once more in an altogether different way and for an entirely different reason. In mid-March, Hanaford Elementary School, Cole Middle School, and East Greenwich High School were found to have been defaced by anti-Semitic graffiti.
Troublingly, these recent incidents in East Greenwich do not exist in a vacuum here in Rhode Island. According to Dr. Thomas Kenworthy, the superintendent of East Greenwich Public Schools, similar hateful language of a racist nature was found at the town’s Eldredge Elementary School weeks earlier. And this, just six months removed from accusations of anti-Semitic bullying of a Jewish teammate by certain members of the Smithfield High School football team.
“This really hit home for me,” explains Rabbi Jeffrey Goldwasser of Temple Sinai in Cranston, “because these are the same three schools that my two kids went to in East Greenwich. So, I can’t help but think about the experience of parents of Jewish kids who are in those schools right now, what that must be like, sending your kid to school every day with the thought that, I’m not completely sure that my kid is going to be safe.”
Since his arrival in Rhode Island in 2014, after serving in Massachusetts and Florida previously, Rabbi Goldwasser has developed a solid reputation for leading interfaith dialogue. In addition to his ongoing work at Temple Sinai, he has led joint courses at Holy Apostles Catholic Church in Cranston, where he helped deepen the relationship between Jews and Christians by exploring sacred texts that are shared by both faiths.
In response to the anti-Semitic graffiti in East Greenwich, Goldwasser first penned an open letter to members of that community, then asked seven other fellow Jewish and Christian faith leaders in town to co-sign the document. All agreed, including Father Bernard A. Healey, pastor of Our Lady of Mercy Church, despite never having met Rabbi Goldwasser in person. The pair, however, have communicated in the past over the phone and via email, particularly in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 attacks in Israel by the terrorist group Hamas. At that time, Father Healey reached out to assure the Jewish community of his prayers and support for its schoolchildren here in Rhode Island.
After co-signing Rabbi Goldwasser’s open letter last month, Father Healey went a step further, adding his own thoughts in his column for Our Lady of Mercy’s weekly bulletin. “I asked all my parishioners to pray for our Jewish brothers,” he reveals during a recent phone conversation, “especially this Holy Week, as we walk with the Lord to Calvary and to Easter, and to remember that he, too, was a Jew.
“It’s an awful scourge, anti-Semitism, and it seems to be a little more prevalent these days. As Catholics and Christians, we have to speak out and reject it, reject all kinds of hatred and racism and anti-Semitism. Catholic Church teaching is very crystal clear on the brotherhood of the Jews and the Christians, that Jewish hatred and anti-Semitic prejudice is sinfulness and runs contrary to the very spirit of Christianity.”
While East Greenwich police continue to investigate the crimes, and school officials have since removed the offensive language and symbols, the stain of hatred has yet to be expunged from the hearts of those responsible. Goldwasser therefore calls for more to be done in terms of education, outreach, and – perhaps most importantly, he emphasizes – empathy, especially to those who may harbor ill will toward him and his fellow Jews.
“The most likely person to have committed the crimes is a juvenile,” the rabbi reasons. “So, we don’t want to humiliate them publicly. We don’t want to lay all the anger and upset feelings that we have on a child, because a child is a child. Instead, we want this to be an appropriate learning opportunity, certainly for the child or children who did this, for the entire school system, and for the whole East Greenwich community. And maybe beyond, so that people really understand that this kind of language, this kind of expression, is simply unacceptable.
“Our first obligation is not to lash out in anger or seek vengeance, but to provide guidance, because that’s what we do for children – give them guidance on how to live their lives. Even though that guidance might not necessarily be fun or easy.”
One could be forgiven for assuming that the rabbi’s faith has been shaken by the apparent surge in anti-Semitism worldwide. But while he admits to feeling fearful at times, he insists he has been taking it in stride, strengthened by the support he receives from friends like Father Healey and others.
“[Anti-Semitism] is sometimes a challenge to our ability to live our lives peacefully, but it’s not a challenge to our faith. I got a message a couple of days ago from a Unitarian minister friend, asking what she can do to help support the Jewish community right now. I wrote back, ‘Honestly, just sending me this message is an excellent thing to do, just to let your Jewish friends and neighbors know that you see them and recognize their pain and fear at a time of rising levels of hatred.”
Rabbi Goldwasser adds he’s been buoyed by the proactive response of East Greenwich school administrators, who’ve promised to follow through with substantive plans for educational programming in conjunction with the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island and the Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center in Providence. In the meantime, Father Healey recommends that everyone schedule a trip to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., based on his visit there years ago.
A simpler step that Catholics and others can take to combat anti-Semitism also comes from Father Healey’s personal experience. In the wake of October 7, then-Bishop of Providence Richard Henning asked priests and staff throughout the Diocese to hang a Star of David somewhere visible as a sign of solidarity.
“I thought it was a great idea,” Father Healey says. “There’s now one on my office window, and another at Our Lady of Mercy School. On the threshold of Holy Week and the Passover holiday, we have to take up the call to love and reject hatred. Holy Week gives us a chance to reflect, perhaps on our own faith and what it teaches us about hatred and sin and anti-Semitism and racism. We’ve got to remain vigilant in the face of any kind of religious intolerance.”
