Buffalo Grove congregation holds prayer vigil for synagogue victims
The shooting deaths of 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh continue to send shock waves throughout Jewish communities across the country.
One of those communities is in Buffalo Grove, where Congregation Beth Am held a meditation and prayer vigil Sunday for the Tree of Life synagogue.
“It's scary to think that it could happen to any of us,” Buffalo Grove resident Jamie Gold said. “There is no difference between the people in that synagogue and the people that are sitting right here.”
Senior Rabbi Lisa Sari Bellows told the congregation that to be silent in the face of evil is not an option and proved it by sharing her thoughts and giving the gathering of 30 the opportunity to vent their grief, frustration, anger and even impulses of revenge.
Bellows reflected that it is time once again to say the words, “never again.”
She asked, “Don't you feel like we've been saying that a lot lately? ‘Never again?'” And she admitted, “It is exhausting, it is tiring to keep saying, ‘never again.'”
But she said gatherings like the one at Beth Am and another one later in Federal Plaza in Chicago “can also bring us strength and, maybe, perhaps, a bit of comfort that there are so many people also saying, ‘never again.' And there is strength in numbers.”
Bellows read the names of the victims and also led the group in singing “Oseh Shalom” (“He Who Makes Peace”).
She pointed out that Shalom literally means wholeness
“From our brokenness may the world be made whole. May the brokenness that we feel begin to heal,” she said, adding, “It is through the cracks where the light shines.”
As mourners would speak at a funeral, participants offered their voices.
Carrie Goodman, speaking through tears, expressed her despair, saying, “There are people out there who don't want us to exist. There are people who hate. And it seems like they are gaining strength.”
Richard Prass, the synagogue's education rabbi, offered a note of hope, saying that in the morning, children at the religious school recorded a video singing, “Am Yisrael Chai” (The People of Israel Live”), an expression of the solidarity of the Jewish people.
But, he pointed out, “There is some work we have to do for that peace to come about that our kids were so beautifully singing this morning.”
Buffalo Grove resident Raymond Benson called on people to vote.
“I feel saddened,” he said. “But I don't feel powerless or helpless, because next week is Election Day.”
Buffalo Grove resident Murray Sprung said incidents like the one in Pittsburgh provoke feelings of revenge and anger.
He said it made him feel like “going and getting a FOID card and legally getting a gun and carrying a gun to have available and trying to figure out a way how to go after people who are espousing hate against others.
“That's emotional. Logic tells me that's the wrong thing to do. But the fact that I'm thinking it is really frustrating.”