Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on November 19, 2014

Har Nof, Jerusalem Dov Sorotzkin was awakened Tuesday by gunfire between Palestinian assailants and Israeli police at his synagogue.

On Wednesday, he and his wife returned to their place of worship to celebrate their newborn sons brit mila, or circumcision.

He describes the ceremony as a symbol of the willingness to give oneself to God just as the four rabbis were doing when they were killed Tuesday morning here in Har Nof, an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of West Jerusalem.

We decided to do it today to show were not running away, says Mr. Sorotzkin, posing for happy photos with his wife and son, with bullet holes and policemen in the background. We give ourselves to God.

Indeed, the attack the deadliest in months of Israeli-Palestinian violence in the contested holy city has inspired not calls for revenge but a deep self-examination among ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) members of this community that see such tragedies as a sign from God. The imperative response for these devout Jews, as described to the Monitor, is to improve themselves and grow stronger in their faith something, they say, the Jewish people have been doing for thousands of years.

In honor of that, Sorotzkin named his son Eliyahu Meir after his great-grandfather Rabbi Eliyahu Meir Bloch, who fled Lithuania after his yeshiva was destroyed in the Holocaust and rebuilt a new yeshiva center in Cleveland, Ohio.

The Jewish people have suffered persecution throughout the ages, but they just draw strength from that, says Yosef Sorotzkin, Dovs father. This whole thing of rebirth is a constant in the Jewish history. Its in our belief, culture, religion, that we push forward.

Indeed, the study hall that saw such ugly scenes the day before was buzzing Wednesday, with men of all ages poring over rabbinic teachings in the Talmud and other religious works, some serious others engaged in lively debate, and some even smiling.

The attack by two Palestinian cousins from East Jerusalem armed with handguns, knives, and axes, in which an Israeli policeman and the attackers were also killed, follows a wave of violence touched off this summer with the kidnap and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank. The murder of a Palestinian teenager in revenge heightened tensions in Jerusalem and launched the city into the worst period of violence in nearly a decade.

Despite the increasing tempo of attacks over the past few weeks, the brutal attack on men at morning prayer was particularly shocking, with many saying the images of blood-stained prayer shawls evoked memories of the Holocaust or pogroms in Europe.

The rest is here:

Jerusalem synagogue attack: Day later, site is symbol of faith, determination (+video)

Category: Talmud
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