How the Hewlett-East Rockaway Jewish Centre is supporting Israel and each other

Hewlett-East Rockaway Jewish Centre congregants affixed a small adhesive-attached facsimile of the Israeli flag to blouses, shirts or jackets as they gathered for Shabbos services on Oct. 13, with the Jewish state firmly in their hearts. 

The Conservative synagogue has its families donating at least $18 — with many members giving much more — for a fundraising campaign. The number 18 is chai in Hebrew, meaning life. All the proceeds will be given to the Jewish National Fund, a 122-year-old philanthropic organization that supports a broad spectrum of projects in Israel.

“This way we show our support to Israel and to each other,” Stephen Moelis, the temple’s president said before the service. “This is meaningful and not a donation that is faceless of names and faceless of voices.”

As much as the Shabbos is meant to give solace to the congregants, many of whom have family and friends in Israel, the usual service was interspersed with thoughts of what has unfolded in the Middle East. The death and destruction that has occurred and the death and destruction that is yet to come.

“So the community is looking to this for togetherness, as they are disoriented as we all are,” Rabbi Michel Schlesinger said before the service. “We understood from our congregation that they needed this place to pray together, to sing together, to bring their families to feel safe, to cry together.”

While the sanctuary was adorned in the usual sights and sounds of Shabbos, there was an increased sense of melancholy in the voices as worshippers recited prayers or sang songs.

During the service, Schlesinger noted that the Hamas attack on Israel “interrupted our ritual, our lives.”

“I asked them to be in touch with their families as frequently as possible, and I help them in assuring them that this is a place which they can come anytime and share their complex emotions with people that are here, not to judge them, but to embrace them,” he said, in how he is administering what Schlesinger called “pastoral care.”  

There was a collective kiddish for the victims of Hamas, and though there was a veil of sadness draped over the service, Schlesinger broke through with humor. When announcing that along with the bar mitzvah of Wesley Brines there would be a baby naming the next day, he asked the congregation if they wanted to know the baby’s name. When the congregants said yes, he said, “come tomorrow and you will know,” laughter rippled through the sanctuary.

Brines, an eighth-grader at Woodmere Middle School, was bar mitzvahed on Oct. 14. In the Jewish religion, it is when a boy can take on the religious responsibilities of a man.

“I can do whatever I want and no one can stop me,” Brines said after the Friday Shabbos service. “To buy a house and live a normal life,” he added, noting the hatred pointed at the Jewish people.

Brines’ father Ron connected his son’s bar mitzvah with his Wesley’s great-grandfather Sol Brines coming to the United States from the Bessarabia region in Eastern Europe. Sol passed through Ellis Island.

“As he always told us, people around the world don’t like us and they aren’t rooting for us, so it’s so important for (Wesley) to make his bar mitzvah, to keep tradition alive,” Ron said. “He’s the last boy in the family with the name Brines.”  

The Shabbos service concluded with the singing of “Hatikvah,” the Israeli national anthem and hugs.