FOX POINT, Wis. — Voices bellowed throughout Congregation Shalom throughout Monday night. Songs with a haunting message to the people of Israel in Hebrew. Songs of peace, like Oseh Shalom.
Or even more chilling, Ani Od Chai.
I am still alive.
Roughly 1,000 people packed the congregation Monday night, all with connections to the horrific tragedies in Israel over the last three days.
The latest death toll has topped 1,500, including children, the elderly, and everyone in between. Many people inside Congregation Shalom have housed people of Israel during their Shin Shinim; a trip for young emissaries to come to Milwaukee for volunteer service for a year. Those families are desperate to hear that the person they welcomed into their homes is okay.
“It may not be a blood family, but it’s like another daughter,” Mark Shapiro, President and CEO of the Milwaukee JCC said. “Trying to find, where is Iftach? That’s one of the first things that happened.”
People like Shapiro with a few grim degrees of separation from these massacres.
And others, with direct connections.
“Just this morning, I got a message from my family saying my cousin’s son was killed,” Liran Gerassi said. “I was thinking about coming home to the mourning period. His mother said, don’t exaggerate. I was saying, maybe I should save the trip for another occasion which may or may not come in the near future. I don’t want to elaborate on that because you never know what could happen.”
Gerassi is facing mortality from thousands of miles away. His family moved to Milwaukee within the last two months for his wife’s job. They’ll likely stay stateside for two to three years, which is what the last two or three days have felt like for Gerassi. Glued to every new report, every social media video or recording from his people going through the bloodshed. A nightmare that is an unrelenting reality.
“The shock,” Gerassi said. “You compare it to really bad times in the Jewish history and the shock is what’s different. They just slaughtered entire families. They killed babies in their beds, in their cradles. Can you imagine?”
Gerassi has felt every emotion you could think of in the last three days. Even during the darkest of times, he’s still able to keep up with common courtesies, somehow apologizing for the shakiness of his voice after dealing with unimaginable terrors. What’s happening in Israel is hard enough for outsiders to make sense of and Gerassi is with them, figuring it out minute by minute.
“It’s very hard to digest it,” Gerassi said. “It’s very difficult to rise up from it as Israel, as Jews. But we now are fighting back.”
The overall message Monday night was one of hope and for optimism. Both of which were felt by Gerassi and his family.
“To be in a room like that, an event like that, is very helpful for me and my family to understand we’re not alone,” Gerassi said. “We’re part of a community.”
For roughly two hours, Gerassi and his family felt the arms of a community figuratively wrap around him and his extended family back in Israel. The words and singing sending a message that we all see what is happening and we’re here for you.
Which is why the last song of the evening was even more appropriate; Am Yisrael Chai.
The People of Israel Live.
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