Rabbi Michael Sommer's congregation has been 'in a state of shock' ever since seven people were killed in a mass shooting during a July Fourth parade in Highland Park, Illinois.
Michla Tzipporah Schanowitz, who runs the Central Avenue Synagogue with her husband Rabbi Yosef Schanowitz, described dealing with the events of July 4 as "kind of overload, trying to process the sorrow and the pain of what happened, and the shock. But also at the same time, knowing that we can do so much to bring so much light and goodness into the world."leaders in the community scrambled to provide support to their congregants and to the broader community.
"I just poked my head into the door and just being introduced as I'm clergy and I just want to wish you all the best; our prayers are with you and God give you strength and bless you, and went on to the next room unless somebody needed to talk," he added. "But in most cases, they were all traumatized, and there wasn't a lot of back and forth discussion."
"We're supposed to celebrate Shabbat with with song and joy, and it was very subdued. And I added some outside readings to express our pain… and God's presence in our lives to help us on this journey of healing and through our grief," Sommer said.
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