Invitation to Cover: OU Memorial Assembly for the Victims of the Mercaz HaRav Massacre, March 12

12 Mar 2008

Invitation to Cover: ORTHODOX UNION MEMORIAL ASSEMBLY FOR THE VICTIMS OF THE MERCAZ HARAV MASSACRE: MOURNING THE DEAD AND SEARCHING FOR HOPE

Last week, a Palestinian gunman entered one of Jerusalem’s most renowned yeshivas, Mercaz HaRav, and mercilessly shot to death eight students, all but one a teenager, who were engaged in the study of Torah. This heinous crime has stunned the Jewish community worldwide.

As the victims’ families complete the seven days of mourning known as shiva, the Orthodox Union will present a special Memorial Assembly and Service for the victims of the massacre, to be held Wednesday, March 12 at 8:00 p.m. at the Young Israel of Flatbush synagogue, 1012 Avenue I, Brooklyn.

The program will be led by three esteemed rabbis: Rabbi Kenneth Auman, spiritual leader of the host synagogue, and former President of the Rabbinical Council of America; Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, Executive Vice President (that is, the chief professional officer) of the Orthodox Union, the umbrella group of hundreds of Orthodox synagogues across North America; and Rabbi Dovid Goldwasser, the spiritual leader of Brooklyn’s Khal Bais Yitzchok synagogue and a world-renowned Torah personality, lecturer, author, radio commentator and rabbinic advisor.

Besides words of sorrow and comfort from the three rabbis, there will be a recitation of Psalms and the chanting of the Kel Malei Rachamim elegy by world renowned Cantor Joseph Malovany.

As Rabbi Weinreb wrote following the tragedy, “The shootings occurred in a place of Torah study, a “Makom (place of) Torah,” the innermost sanctum of Judaism. Besides all else, this was a sacrilege; a profanation of the highest and most central of Jewish values, the study of God’s word.”

Yet with all the sorrow, is it possible to find hope? Rabbi Weinreb and his colleagues will discuss what the Jewish community must do, as Rabbi Weinreb puts it, so that “the pain can be assuaged and our spirits redeemed.”

Coverage Is Invited.
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To cover, contact Stephen Steiner, OU Director of Public Relations, as steiners@ou.org, 212-613-8318, or 646-321-6134. Electronic equipment will be welcome in the synagogue.