Together to pray & heal
Pittsburgh rabbis honored in B’klyn
A group of Pittsburgh rabbis received an emotional welcome at an annual gathering of Jewish leaders in Brooklyn on Sunday, about a week after an anti-Semitic attack on a Steel City synagogue left 11 dead.
The roughly 20 Pittsburgh spiritual guides were among more than 5,600 rabbis and community leaders representing 100 countries and all 50 states packed into Chabad headquarters on Eastern Parkway.
“The outpouring of love from the Pittsburgh community at large and people reaching out from all over the world — [including] e-mail from Israel — are one thing, but to be standing here with all these people [and receive] an actual hug? It felt a lot deeper,” said Pittsburgh Rabbi Yisroel Altein. “It’s been an emotional week.”
Altein, 41, was at Sunday’s event representing the Chabad chapter in Squirrel Hill, the tranquil neighborhood shattered when an assault-rifle-toting gunman shot up its Tree of Life synagogue during Shabbat services Oct. 27.
Since then, the Pittsburgh rabbis said, they’ve received a flood of support from near and far.
“The tears really start to come when you get these strangers calling and asking to help,” Altein said.
He said his group had planned to arrive at the Brooklyn gathering earlier in the week but had to delay their departure to tend to their shaken congregations in the wake of the slaughter.
“There was no way we could leave after the horrific attack,” he said.
When the Pittsburgh contingent finally did arrive Sunday morning, they were quickly made to feel at home as they took their places among the sea of beards and traditional, black Hasidic garb for an annual group photo.
They were invited to lead the massive assemblage, first with a prayer from Psalm 20 and then the singing of Ani Ma’amin, a Hebrew song affirming the Jewish belief in the coming of the Messiah.
Altein described the song as looking to a time “when the world would be filled with a goodness, kindness, selfless love.”
He said he and his fellow Pittsburgh rabbis got a taste of the song’s meaning as they stood with the praying, singing throng after what’s believed to be the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in US history.
“To be here with everyone singing and praying, it was important,” Altein said. “Just the thousands of voices together, it lifted us to a positive place . . . It was very cathartic, very helpful to move into a positive place.”
Altein said he hopes to bring that positivity back to his community in Squirrel Hill, at a time when they need it more than ever.
“It lifts me, and it helps me bring that feeling back to my community, which is looking to be uplifted,” he said.