I first learned about the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting hours after it happened, when I walked to my own synagogue’s Shabbat services near Seattle. Like other Sabbath observers, I was isolated from the news until I saw a good Christian friend who had showed up at our place of worship, standing vigilantly at the back of the sanctuary.

As it turned out, our friend Charlie—a marine officer, an NRA gun instructor and internationally renowned opera singer—heard the news and immediately took it upon himself to come to our synagogue to protect his friends.

His decision, like the other expressions of support for the Jewish community from good people across the country, reminds us how blessed we are as Americans.