OU’s Rabbi Weinreb to Reflect on Newtown Shootings, 12/25 at Great Neck Synagogue

21 Dec 2012

OU’S RABBI WEINREB TO KEYNOTE GREAT NECK SYNAGOGUE COMMUNAL EVENING OF REFLECTION IN WAKE OF NEWTOWN, CT SHOOTINGS, DECEMBER 25

Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, Orthodox Union Executive Vice President, Emeritus will deliver the keynote address, “Answering Unanswerable Questions, Replacing Despair With Hope,” on Tuesday, December 25 at the Great Neck Synagogue during an evening of reflection in the wake of the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. The communal event will begin at 8:00 p.m. and will focus on formulating an authentic Jewish response to an unspeakable national tragedy.

Rabbi Dale Polakoff serves as Senior Rabbi of Great Neck Synagogue. The OU member congregation is located at 26 Old Mill Road.

The evening will also feature David Pollock, Associate Executive Director of the JCRC of New York, who will discuss “Preventing The Next Tragedy: What We Must Demand of Our Communities and Ourselves.”

According to Rabbi Weinreb, “I will speak from a psycho-spiritual and Jewish perspective on how to respond to the immediate event, what to say to children, how to respond in the longer range, how to place the event in the broader context of personal suffering, contemporary American society, and Jewish history. I will stress the heroism of the teachers, and mention issues of mental illness.”

Rabbi Avraham Bronstein, Program Director of Great Neck Synagogue, stated, “As we try to come to grips with what happened last week, Rabbi Weinreb’s words as a respected leader of the American Jewish community, and in particular with a background in psychology, will be important both in helping us grasp what happened there, and in guiding us in our reactions moving forward.”

For further information, contact Rabbi Bronstein at {encode=”mailto:abronstein@gns.org” title=”abronstein@gns.org”} or call 516.487.6100.

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