As War Rages in Gaza
CHICAGO JEWISH COMMUNITY TARGETED WITH HATE RESPONDS WITH SOLIDARITY
Three Pronged Initiative Launched: Letters and Packages to be delivered to Soldiers & Citizens in Israel; Acts of Goodness to be performed locally
Chicago (01/12/09) The serenity of the Jewish Sabbath was shattered early Saturday morning in Chicago, when three synagogues and a Jewish school were the targets of vicious hate crimes. Vandals broke windows and spray painted hate filled graffiti on the Lubavitch Mesivta of Chicago, Cong. Anshe Motele, Young Israel of West Rogers, and the Lincolnwood Jewish Congregation.
According to Rabbi Moshe Perlstein, dean of the Lubavitch Mesivta, a Jewish boys’ high school, video security cameras captured the men damaging the school at around 4:40 a.m. “The footage shows one man spray-painting the side of the building with the words “Death to Israel”, while the other ran around to the front and threw rocks at the front door, breaking a glass window”, he said. The video has been turned over to police.
The Chicago Jewish community responded on Sunday with a solidarity rally in Lincolnwood where Rabbis, political leaders, and Chicago Police Department officials addressed the hundreds gathered.
Rabbi Daniel Moscowitz, regional director of Lubavitch Chabad of Illinois, has underscored the connection of these hate crimes to the present war in Gaza and the ongoing conflict in the Mideast. “Living in freedom in the United States, we are sheltered from the daily bombardments that are brethren in Israel have been subjected to from Gaza.” “These local acts of cowardice, remind us again that we are one people and that we must act on behalf on the people of Israel and the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)”.
Lubavitch Chabad of Illinois, the regional office of the thirty one Lubavitch Chabad centers and schools in Illinois, has launched a three pronged solidarity initiative. By logging on to www.ChabadIllinois.com one can a) write a letter that will be hand delivered to an IDF soldier, or an Israeli living in an area where rockets are falling; b) sponsor an emergency care package to be delivered to an IDF soldier, an affected Israeli family, or a child in a bomb shelter; and/or c) pledge to do a Mitzvah – a good deed – that will help to make this world a better place.