Last night I drafted my Shabbat message and this morning I decided I couldn’t send it.  When I woke up this morning to the horrible news from New Zealand with 49 people slaughtered for just practicing their religion, I knew it couldn’t be business as usual. Federation is opening a mailbox to collect donations to support the New Zealand Muslim community. We are preparing a letter of condolence to their leadership offering any support or advice that could be helpful. We have communicated with our own Jewish community about continuing to follow our security protocols. 

In light of what happened here in October, this attack has an even more pronounced impact on me, and I’m sure most of you. Many of our siddurim (prayerbooks) contain the following in the prayer for peace: “May we see the day when war and bloodshed cease, When a great peace will embrace the whole world.”  That day cannot come soon enough.

Shabbat Shalom. 

P.S.  I call your attention to a piece penned by Rabbi Jeffrey Myers in today’s ejewishphilanthropy about the holiday of Purim happening Wednesday night and Thursday :  https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/should-we-celebrate-purim/.