On Jan. 1, a service in solidarity with Israel was held at the Elmora Avenue Synagogue, led by, from left, Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Schwartz, Rabbi Avrohom Herman, and Rabbi Mordechai Kanelsky.
Photo by Harris Saltzburg
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January 8, 2009
On Jan. 1, while others were welcoming in 2009 or recovering from New Year’s Eve celebrations, about 200 congregants from area synagogues came together at an Elizabeth shul to express their solidarity and pray for Israel.
As the airwaves filled with reports of the conflict with Hamas in Gaza, concerned community members gathered to appeal to a higher authority. They came to worship together “to demonstrate the depth of their concern for the safety and well-being of everyone in Israel, especially of the soldiers who are in harm’s way,” said Rabbi Avrohom Herman of the Elmora Avenue Synagogue, who helped organize the event. “Our thoughts and prayers are with them.”
“Our best weapon is prayer to God,” said Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Schwartz of Congregation Adath Israel in Elizabeth, who spearheaded planning for the service. “First and foremost, it is best for us to unite together in prayer.”
In discussions the afternoon before, he and other rabbis affiliated with the Elizabeth-based Jewish Educational Center decided to combine services at their respective shuls at the largest, the Elmora Synagogue, sandwiching a special recitation between afternoon and evening prayers.
Word went out by e-mail and automatic phone chain to Schwartz’s congregants, those of the other JEC shuls, and to Bris Avrohom in Hillside. The JEC’s leader, Rabbi Elazar Teitz, was in Israel, but he sent “very vocal support,” Schwartz said.
The message to the congregants was that while “God always hears our prayers, He is more attentive when we are in need,” Schwartz said.
Ideally, he would like to see the community come together this way in good times, he said, when there is no special need, but he was very gratified by the New Year’s Day response, especially given the short notice. “It was a very moving experience.”
Rabbi Avrohom Herman of the Elmora Synagogue, who helped organize the event, said the rabbis hesitated at first; hoping for a truce, they wanted to wait to see how events would unfold. When it was clear that the fighting would continue, they went into action. “We would have liked to reach out to the broader community, but at that late stage we had no way to reach them,” Herman said.
He also was struck by the turnout. “The outpouring of support from the community was wonderful,” he said.
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