WASHINGTON — There’s an unlikely sight outside a busy D.C. synagogue during the Jewish high holidays: A hill scattered with 200 colorful T-shirts bearing the names of gun violence victims.
“You’re struck immediately by this field of T-shirts on a T-frame, up the hill of the synagogue’s property,” said Senior Rabbi Jonathan Roos, clergy at Temple Sinai in Northwest. “It has kind of a graveyard and cemetery feel to it.”
Passing “The Greater Washington Memorial to the Lost” along Military Road, drivers slow down, their eyes drawn to yellow white and blue T-shirts outside.
“Each T-shirt has on it the name of someone from the DMV area who was killed in an act of gun violence and the date,” Roos said.
When synagogue members hatched the idea of hosting the temporary memorial during the high holy days, Roos said he jumped at the opportunity to increase its visibility.
“It really provides a very specific reminder of a terrible issue that’s facing our community and that fits within that larger call for justice that we celebrate and hold up at this time of year,” Roos said.
The memorial will be taken down on Oct. 16.
