The past 24 hours have been particularly painful as we all learned of the death of Eyal Yirach, Gilad Shaar and Naftali Frenkel, may their memories be a blessing. It is hard to watch all the news, social media and television coverage of this tragic event. I know that many people's first response is: How do we respond? What can we do? First I have two wonderful websites for teachers, parents and others coping with this situation:
From the Icenter and from the Jewish Education Center of Cleveland. Both of these sites talk about a Jewish response and how to talk to children. The JECC site also has Jewish texts to refer to and the ICenter site encourages us to discuss values as we talk with our students.
I think the most natural Jewish response is to pray. In this vein 13 Congregations on the North Shore are coming together Wednesday July 2nd at 7:00 pm at Lakeside Congregation to pray. It is unusual to have that many congregations pray together in the middle of the summer, Reform and Conservative shuls. It is very comforting and I hope that many people will join us and feel the comfort all around. I know that I am looking forward to praying with friends, colleagues, and congregants. Please remember that Ravinia traffic may be heavy tomorrow so please leave enough time to get to Lakeside by 7:00pm.
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