First Shabbat after the Pittsburgh attack, "We are here to be Jewish together"

"We spent the week crying and burying the dead," said the rabbi.

"Communities around the world are gathering in their sanctuaries," she said, "to turn them back into sanctuaries.

"The pain does not diminish hope."

Rector Jolly spoke about Richard Godfried, one of the people killed in the Pittsburgh attack, who was a friend's uncle. Mr. Godfried, she pointed out, was married to a Roman Catholic woman and both served in the unit of the needy faithful in their separate congregations. At the end of the service, the Christian clergy and Jewish clergy sitting on the benches joined the rabbi at the bimah, or scene. They wrapped their arms and sang one last song in Hebrew. – Sarah Maslin Nir

"We have all been hurt deeply"

Nearly 2500 km west of Pittsburgh, in a synagogue in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, Rabbi Ed Feinstein opened the Sabbath services with a simple statement of the 11 lives killed last week: "I 'knew none. But I know each and every one of them. "

The heads nodded in the crowded benches of Valley Beth Shalom, a thriving synagogue that is one of the largest in the conservative movement of Judaism. The men and women who were killed in Pittsburgh are familiar with each synagogue. It is the faithful who come early, cut the bagels for the social hour that follows, greet the faithful and distribute the prayer books at the door of the sanctuary.

Friday's service, said Rabbi Feinstein, was a "sitting shiva", the period of mourning observed by Jews for close relatives and friends. "We have to sit shiva because we have all been deeply hurt this week," he told the congregation.

He had spent last week receiving e-mails and phone calls from clergy of many faiths, offering comfort and support – which gave him hope. But he also advised parents who wanted to know how to talk to their kids about what happened in Pittsburgh. He said that he quickly realized that what they really wanted was a help to deal with the tragedy.

On Friday, in the car on the way to the temple, Jamie Weissman decided to tackle the issue with his 6 year old son. She told him that "a sick man in the head" had shot Jews "away from here", so it was important to go to the temple and be with them. 39, other Jews. "Because if we do not stay together, we risk going out," she told him, knowing that he was learning more about endangered species and knew the meaning of that term. .