jews in the d

Pittsburgh aftermath

COURTESY TEMPLE ISRAEL

SCAN PAGE TO SEE
TEEN VIGIL VIDEO.

Teen Lilly Kollin
read a powerful
poem she wrote
titled “I was in
Synagogue.”

Temple Israel’s Teen T’fillah group opened the
teen vigil: Cantor Smolash with Maddy Iwrey,
Brooke Bell, Andrea Hochberg, Marty Podvoll,
Aran Mizrahi and Jamie Trepeck.

Standing United

Teens express anger, fear and compassion
about Tree of Life shooting.

STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

PHOTOS BY ROBIN TREPECK

W

ith raw emotion and heartfelt
singing, Jewish teens from
youth groups across Metro
Detroit gathered at Temple Israel Oct.
29 to express anger, fear, sadness and
hope in a vigil they hastily organized
for the 11 Jews murdered Oct. 27 at
Tree of Life/Ohr Simcha synagogue in
Pittsburgh.
From the bimah of the main sanctu-
ary, Jewish teens took turns expressing
their pride in being Jewish and the dire
need for change in the United States as
the election approached.
Just as they did in the days and
weeks following the Feb. 14 Parkland,
Fla., school shooting, the teens quick-
ly mobilized and approached Temple
Israel’s clergy in their desire to use
activism in response to a mass shooting.
About 900 teens and adults filled
the main sanctuary at Temple Israel in
West Bloomfield to listen to 20 speak-
ers representing Youth Federation of
Temple Israel, BBYO, USY, Bnei Akiva

32

November 8 • 2018

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and NCSY express where they were
when they learned about the shooting,
the horror they felt, how their sense of
safety feels gone, and of their determi-
nation to keep living and surviving as
American Jews and building a world
with love instead of hate.
“This whole vigil is the result of our
teens’ self-motivation, with little to no
prompting by our clergy or religious
school teachers,” said Rabbi Ariana
Gordon, director of education for
Temple’s Tyner Religious School. “News
of a shooting that took place in a syna-
gogue, in a Jewish house of worship, is
a place they are so familiar with. It truly
touched a chord.”
Upon arrival, participants were
asked to sign a large banner to be sent
to Tree of Life. When entering the
sanctuary, teens were given non-flame
candles and details about participat-
ing in a teen video project as part of
a #SquirrelHillStrong social media
campaign.

Sam Gawel

POWERFUL MESSAGES
Mac Bauer, president of Youth
Federation of Temple Israel, spoke first
in a string of speeches that tugged on
emotions and urged those eligible to vote
to get to the polls on Nov. 6.
“Stand up, speak out and take action,”
Bauer said. “We may be young, and age
is but a number. Tonight, you will hear
our voices, but in a few years, you will
see our votes. We will make change and
forge a light that will shine through [the
darkness].”
Lily Kollin, 17, who, in February,
penned her widely shared poem “I
Heard There Was Another Shooting,”
wrote a new poem, “I was in Synagogue,”
about how the peaceful feeling she felt
celebrating Shabbat in synagogue on a
rainy Saturday morning was shattered by
news of the shooting.
“This time hate won.
This time I’ll be looking over my
shoulder from now on.”
But her poem concluded on an opti-
mistic note:
“I vow never to hide (the Magen
David) I wear. I vow never to hide my
family. Let us live life in the face of death.
Let us create love. Let’s rise up and next
Shabbat, let’s go to synagogue.”
Away on a Temple Israel women’s
mission tour of Eastern Europe, Rabbis
Jen Kaluzny and Jen Lader sent a spe-
cial video message filmed on the banks
of the Danube River in Budapest. The
video played from the sanctuary’s two

jumbo screens.
Bebe Schaefer, 16, of Farmington Hills
said she felt “unsafe, angry and fright-
ened” at the news of the shooting. She
asked those in attendance how such an
attack against Jews can happen in our
modern age in 2018.
“I have said and chanted ‘Never
Again’ so many times in my life,” she
said. “When will ‘Never Again’ really be
‘Never Again’?”
USYer Sam Gawel said time stood still
on Saturday morning as he reached out
to his friends who attend the Tree of Life,
fearing that they had been murdered just
because they were praying on a Saturday
morning.
“I remained shocked and numb. I
tried not to imagine something happen-
ing at my own shul,” he said. “I am still
numb at the lives lost for no other reason
besides blind hate. We cannot allow fear
to control our lives or decide how to
practice our religion. Some things may
be different now but, we, as a people,
must not change our ways. That is what
the monster who murdered 11 Jews
would want. We must still take pride in
practicing our religion.’
BBYO member Ethan Golde quoted
from the Talmud.
“‘Kindness is the highest form of
wisdom,’” he said. “This quote teaches
us that we must practice our Judaism
every day. There is no room for hate or
pettiness or divisiveness in our Jewish
community.” ■