FEBRUARY 23 • 2023 | 19
become accustomed to hearing about
crime and even gun-related crime in and
around town. But this time, with the non-
stop sirens and helicopters flying overhead,
something felt very scary and different.
“I spent the night barricaded in my bed-
room with seven freshman girls who were
there for the program,
” Wolfe recalled. “We
spent the time texting friends and family,
listening to the police scanner app and then
we tried to figure out what was accurate
information and what were rumors on
social media.
”
Wolfe said some of her sorority sisters
drove home at 2 a.m. after the lockdown
was over, and others living out of state
arranged flights home. By Wednesday,
every sorority sister had left for home.
Her mother, Sarah Wolfe of West
Bloomfield, was attending a Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit
Women’s Philanthropy fundraiser at
Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield
when she received a text alert on her phone
from MSU police.
“It’s sad to say that I get so many MSU
police alerts about crime that it no longer
phases me, but then I got another text from
my husband warning me that the situation
at MSU was very serious,
” Wolfe said.
Once confirming that her daughter was
OK and staying put at her sorority house,
she said she was glued to the news late
into the evening, switching back and forth
between national and local coverage until it
was confirmed that the gunman had taken
his own life.
“It has been a very emotional few days,
”
said Wolfe a few days after the shooting,
relieved to have her daughter safe at home
for the remainder of the week. “I don’t
know how we come back from this. It is
such a large campus. There is no way they
can secure every door of every building.
Ultimately, there is too much easy access to
guns in this country.
”
For those who could not make it home,
Rebecca Bahar-Cook of East Lansing
offered her home and hospitality to any
student who just needed a home atmo-
sphere and to take a break from being on
campus. On the night of Feb. 13, Bahar-
Cook, who does not have college-aged
children, said she received panicked text
messages from a friend in New Jersey who
has a 19-year-old daughter who is an MSU
student. It was at that point that she posted
on social media that any out-of-state stu-
dent looking to get away from campus was
welcome to stay in her home to get a break.
“Though no one took me up on my
offer, I wanted to let kids know that there
was a place they could go and stay that did
not feel like a crime scene,
” she said.
MSU CHABAD HOUSE
GOES INTO ACTION
Speaking to the JN on Tuesday having
been up the entire previous night, Rabbi
Bentzion Shemtov of MSU Chabad said he
was teaching a class at the Chabad House
on 115 Albert St., just a few blocks from
the Student Union, when the shooting
started.
He and his wife, Simi, spent the evening
responding to the needs of Jewish students
and the wider community. This included
visiting and praying with Alpha Epsilon Pi
fraternity brothers at 1:30 a.m.,
offering his spiritual chap-
laincy support to police and
answering nonstop calls and
texts from concerned students,
families and alumni asking
how they can help. He received
reinforcement help from
Rabbi Yisrael Pinson of ChabaD of Greater
Downtown Detroit who arrived on campus
late Monday evening.
Shemtov also spent time near the E.W
.
Sparrow Hospital offering
help, prayers and spiritual
guidance to anyone who
needed it that night, includ-
ing police officers, family
members of the wounded,
and even a student studying
abroad from China, who was
in anguish as his friend, also
a Chinese student, was one of
the hospitalized wounded victims.
“Here was this 19-year-old kid so far
away from home who was serving as the
bridge between his wounded friend and his
family in China,
” Shemtov said. “I cannot
imagine what they were going through.
Nothing prepares you for this. MSU
Chabad will continue to offer help and sup-
port to anyone who is suffering. “
On her drive home from East Lansing,
Rabbi Blair Nosanwisch, who serves as
director of pastoral care at
Adat Shalom Synagogue in
Farmington Hills, said she
was incredibly impressed with
the outpouring of support
she saw taking place at MSU
Hillel for the entire Spartan
community.
“Hillel was so warm and
welcoming to anyone who did not want to
be alone that day,
” reflected Nosanwisch. “I
did insert myself into a few conversations,
but most of all I got the impression that the
students there felt safe knowing there were
many of us there who were available to
offer support. A lot of what we were doing
was just physically being there to say to
the students, ‘You are not alone.’”
Rabbi
Bentzion
Shemtov
Rabbi
Yisrael
Pinson
Rabbi Blair
Nosanwisch