In an outpouring of emotion and support, Jews and non-Jews gathered Thursday in the wake of a terrorist attack a world away that reverberated in communities everywhere.
In a hastily called event entitled “Long Beach Stands with Israel,” people crowded into the Alpert Jewish Community Center on the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Jewish Long Beach Campus as interfaith community leaders searched for meaning and found widespread support.
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In fact, the event’s start was delayed as workers scrambled to run cables and monitors to accommodate participants in overflow rooms and even the lobby. Participants, according to the program, came from Long Beach and the surrounding communities of Los Alamitos, Rossmoor, Seal Beach, and other communities.
“We stand together to mourn the largest tragedy to the Jewish people since the holocaust,” said Deborah Goldfarb, CEO, of Jewish Long Beach and the Alpert Jewish Center said to open the event.
In addition to Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson, State Sen. Lena Gonzalez, Assembly Member Josh Lowenthal, and other officials, the unprecedented gathering also included leaders of other churches and interfaith groups joining the Jewish community for an evening of reflection.
“I am not welcoming you to the event as there is nothing welcome about this event,” said the Jewish Long Beach Board President Richard Marcus. “I am welcoming you to the community to share together, to heal together,” he said.
Marcus said every Jew he knows considers the attack that occurred a world away to be “personal.”
“It is personal because of our connections in Israel,” said Marcus. “It is also personal to us because we have family and friends that have been impacted,” he continued.
“We know people who have died, we know people who have been kidnapped, we know people whose homes have been destroyed, our family members have been called up to serve, and many others whose lives have been turned upside down,” said Marcus.
Rabbi Nancy Myers of Westminster said while there is a season set for everything, she prayed that Hamas would never be able to threaten Israel again.
“Intellectually, I know that many wars and battles have flooded the earth of the old city and throughout Israel, over the millennia, but this is more personal because you and I are living through it,” she told the assembly.
“And,” she said, “we are grieving together. A season is set for everything, a time for every experience under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time for war and a time for peace.”
“And so here we are during this time of war, of pain and suffering. And I hope and pray that Israel will end this war quickly, and that our captives are safely returned and that Hamas will never threaten our people, our Israel again,” said Myers.
Rabbi Len Muroff, from Temple Beth Ohr in Los Angeles, said “today, I am filled with many different emotions. Like all of you, my heart is broken.”
“It’s rare when a rabbi says he has no words. I want to say that the phrase, ‘to have no words’ is something that my friend Colin Campbell has taught me that is a phrase that is not helpful to say. To him, when you say the phrase, ‘there are no words,’ it makes him feel and think that you should not share his feelings.
“I think we should be open, and sensitive, and kind, and patient,” said Murdoff, “and understand that everyone is broken and unsure of what comes next.”
“When we were young, we thought that the trajectory of history would be in an upward direction. It is so clear that this is really not the case,” said Murdoff.
“But it is also clear that, to all of us who have lived a little, that we should have never expected that it will always be going up. “In the coming days, months, and years, the bereft should understand they are not alone. Not today and not tomorrow, for this journey of grief will be long,” the L.A.-based Rabbi said.
Rabbi Schmuel Marcus, of Los Alamitos, who prayed for the soldiers, said in essence, Jews everywhere should unite to spiritually go into battle with the Israel Defense League.
“We have the soldiers that are being deployed, right now, to the front lines, and then, the fourth soldier, I call it the civilian soldier, that’s you and me,” said Marcus. “In California, Long Beach, Rossmoor or wherever we are. We are also involved,” he said.
“How are we involved,” he asked?
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“Because the Jewish Army, the IDF, is different from any other Army. Like King David said, every nation has horses and chariots, but in the Jewish Army, we have the name of God…we have this spiritual, invisible power that goes with every soldier,” said Marcus.
He said according to the Torah (a compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible), when soldiers set up camps, they are instructed to be as clean and honorable as synagogues. Really, why,” he asked rhetorically. “Because God goes with every soldier to battle. We don’t go alone; we go with God.”
“That’s why whenever there is a crisis, we gather. We gather together to give each other comfort,” the Rossmoor-based Rabbi said, but even more, it’s truly about Jewish unity. “Jewish unity is happening right here, in this room, and it is so powerful. It’s like a powerful light, like the antidote to war itself,” he said.
Marcus chanted in Hebrew first, a Jewish chant, that he later repeated in English. “I take it upon myself to love every Jew,” said Marcus. Whenever there is a crisis, this, he said, is chanted by Jews.
“That is a mantra for world peace because there are forces of disunity within your own home. Sometimes, if your neighbor puts his trash right in front of where your car goes…you have disunity in your life, and when you bring peace to that, it has a ripple effect and it could affect what is going on in the world,” he suggested.
“So we are not bystanders to what’s happening now,” he said. In that way, Marcus said unity in the Jewish community can help the soldiers on the front line in Israel.
Other rabbis urged action as well.
“We cannot leave this room the way we entered this room,” said Rabbi Abba Perelmuter of Shul by the Shore.
“This is a seminal moment in Jewish history,” he said sharply.
“This was not an individual attack, not a small little terrorist attack. This was a war against the Jewish people,” said Perelmuter. “It happened in southern Israel, but this is a global war against us.”
“We as a nation need to do what we need to do to fight back,” he said clearly, and I don’t mean militarily. “Our relationship with Judaism is a religion of gratitude,” the rabbi said in thanking everyone who made the overflow vigil happen so quickly.
“I think it is so important that we get together, every one of us in this room, multiple congregations, different walks of life. Every single one of us makes a difference.”
“When we walk out of here, everyone needs to do their part. We as Jews know that we’re going to bond together and we’re a family. And for those of you who are not the Jewish faith and have stood with us, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart,” said Perelmuter.
I’m a Holocaust survivor’s kid. I lived my entire life, healing, listening, and studying about the Holocaust. And I feel this is what it feels like,” the Rabbi said.
“I haven’t emerged from my shock,” said Rabbi Yitzchak Newman, of Jewish Long Beach.
“We are people who live in a civilized society,” he said, “yet many of them lack the decency to utterly, and unconditionally condemn this barbarism and even in many cases, they are defending that action,” he said sadly.
“This happened hundreds of years ago, thousands of years ago, but you didn’t actually see it in front of your eyes,” Newman said. “How can that happen today? The graphic pictures that are coming out from the barbarism and yet, in a civilized country…I’m shocked,” he said.
“The pain and suffering inflicted upon my brothers and sisters are beyond words,” he said, “We stand in solidarity with the hundreds of families that have lost loved ones, the thousands who are wounded and entire communities now living in fear,” said Newman.
“Sharing moments such as this, even as our minds may have different understandings, each and every one of us walking a different path about what it means to be Jewish,” said Rabbi Scott Fox of Temple Israel.
“These are words that come to us from hundreds of years ago, and strange enough, they are written in a language that the people of that time could not speak,” he said. The prayer, El Maleh Rachamim (God full of compassion), is a Jewish prayer for the departed.
He said the prayer was written knowing that “these words would be said by families who had different paths coming together because of a terrible and tragic loss,” said Fox.
Chaya Leah Sufrin, a renowned educator and co-host of the “Ask a Jew” podcast, tearfully rallied for a more engaged Jewish community.
“I was just there in June with our students,” she said, “twenty Jewish and non-Jewish students.” With her voice quivering, she said they had visited one of the towns near Gaza where one of the massacres occurred.
“The Jewish people are one family. When one hurts, we all hurt,” said Sufrin.
“I have been so, so angry and so scared, and so sad all at once,” she said, “but I’ve also been extremely empty to actually do something, and you think, if I can’t be in Israel, what can I do?”
“We all need each other,” she said, “and there’s plenty to do here by increasing our Jewish involvement, helping people discover their Jewish identity, educating our young Jews,” she said.
“We have our work cut out for us here in Long Beach,” said Sufrin.
“We are one people, one family. All of us can do more and we have a roadmap for doing more,” she said.” “We’ve followed that roadmap for 3,500 years and it’s called the ‘Torah,’” said Sufrin. “We have to strengthen our Jewish community. We must strengthen our Jewishness.”
“A more engaged Jewish community here helps Israel,” said Sufrin, “and it helps us be united as a family. Our mothers and sisters in Israel want and need a strong Jewish community in America,” Sufrin said.
“We are not destroyers, we are builders. We are uplifters and builders of peace,” Rabbi Perelmuter reminded the group. “We want peace. The people of Israel crave and pray every day to bring peace upon us,” he said.
“So please, be ambassadors of light and ambassadors of peace,” he pleaded with his Jewish brethren.
“Let us all become a little better.”
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated since the print edition to eliminate the casualty numbers since they are rapid changes make it difficult to be accurate.