Thousands of Jews, others pack pews for Solidarity Shabbat

JANE KAUFMAN | STAFF REPORTER jkaufman@cjn.org | @jkaufmancjn

As part of a sweeping gesture of support across the world, Jews gathered with people of many faiths to pack synagogues and temples in Northeast Ohio for Shabbat services on Nov. 2 and Nov. 3.

On Oct. 27, a gunman armed with an assault rifle walked into Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh and gunned down 11 people attending Shabbat services and injured six others, including four police officers responding to the scene.

The names of the victims – Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal, David

Rosenthal, Bernice Simon, Sylvan Simon, Daniel Stein, Melvin Wax and Irving Younger – were listed and/or read at many of the services.

At B’nai Jeshurun Congregation, a Conservative synagogue in Pepper Pike, which planned an interfaith vigil as part of its Shabbat morning service Nov. 3, 900 people attended, including clergy and community representing a wide swath of faiths and cultures: Baptists, Muslims, Sikhs, Hispanics, Chinese, Catholics, among others.

“Our hearts are darkened by these terrible acts of hate,” B’nai Jeshurun Senior Rabbi Stephen Weiss told those