Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection #208 (5/23/2026): MOSQUE ATTACK
This Rabbinical Reflection first aired May 23, 2026 on the Dave’s Gone By video podcast.
Rabbi Sol’s Rabbinical Reflections air on the long-running Dave’s Gone By program (davesgoneby.com) and are also archived on the Rebbe’s blog, Shalomdammit.com.
Rabbi Sol is also the creator of the stage shows, “Shalom Dammit! An Evening with Rabbi Sol Solomon” and “Hate Speech…With Love: Another Evening with Rabbi Sol Solomon.”
© 2026 TotalTheater Productions. All Rights Reserved.
TRANSCRIPT:
Shalom, Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon, with a Rabbinical Reflection for late May 2026.
So often in these mini-sermons, I am mourning and expressing rage at attacks on Israel, synagogues, and the Jewish community. It came as almost a shock this week when a mosque, the Islamic Center of San Diego, became the target of terror. Three innocent people, including a security guard, were murdered by a couple of teenagers, whose stockpile of weapons included 30 guns and a crossbow. This is a horrible story, yet another in a long line of gun-crazy crazies ruining life for the rest of us. Condolences to the survivors of the dead, and compassion for the Moslem community enduring an unquestionable hate crime.
However, that said, there’s also room for gratitude. (And yes, here comes the politically incorrect part). As Jews, we should be grateful that the shooters were named Clark and Vazquez, and not Cohen and Vogel. All we needed now was another excuse for the watermelon crowd to bash us.
Speaking of the Intifada, I hate to say it (actually, I don’t hate to say it; I’m just gonna say it), but this is the Muslims getting a taste of their own medicine. For 78 years, Jews have lived with both the threat, and the realization, of terror violence. Year after year of bombings, blastings, stabbings, hijackings, four all-out wars, and then the atrocities of October 7th, 2023. Jews are forever the targets of blind hatred and slaughter – all too often at the hands of Arabs.
I am not saying, “Aha! This time we get one back!” That is reductive and ugly, even for me. Then I’d be like the Luigiites. They celebrate a psycho because the healthcare guy he shot was responsible for much more suffering and death than Luigi’s single killing. Still, two wrongs don’t…dot dot dot.
But perhaps this awful tragedy at the San Diego mosque will be a reminder that no matter how you despise someone else, terrorism is the wrong response. For example, just because it feels right to assassinate the guy who replaced supermarket cashiers with automated kiosks doesn’t mean it is right. Maybe.
And let’s not forget, those teenage losers in California didn’t just hate Muslims. These white supremacists abhorred schvartes, faigeles, women – because they couldn’t get laid – Republicans and Democrats. Oh, and they wrote a manifesto blaming Jews for everything. Well, isn’t that a kumbaya moment? Muslims, white supremacists, leftist progressives, and writers for the New York Times all standing together against the Hebrews. Hey, free country. Loathe us all you want. But if you go the next step, once in a great while, it’ll be your brains on the sidewalk. You have been warned.
This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches, in Great Neck, New York.
Happy shavuis.
(c) 2026 TotalTheater. All rights reserved.
