THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 9, 1996 TAG: 9603090447
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ESTHER DISKIN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
As Jews gathered for Sabbath at synagogues across South Hampton Roads on Friday and today, they dedicated their traditional worship to a unified expression of solidarity with the people of Israel.
The special services, organized by the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, came on a day when the Israeli government intensified its crackdown on the terrorist organization Hamas, which has killed at least 59 victims in four suicide bombings since Feb. 25. On Friday, the Israeli army blew up the house of a suicide bomber.
For Jews in Hampton Roads, the services were a time set aside to mourn the violence and consider ways to reach out to the victims. Each congregation was planning its own unique approach, but interviews with rabbis across the area echoed a common theme: The nations of the world have a role to play in forging peace in the Middle East.
``The peace process is on a global scale,'' said Rabbi Lawrence A. Forman, at Ohef Sholom Temple in Norfolk. ``We must do something about global terrorism and the nation-states that sponsor it. That is where the real hang-up to the peace process is.''
At Temple Sinai in Portsmouth, Madeline Bohan read a letter from her pen-pal in Israel, written on Feb. 25 - shortly after a bombing on a Jerusalem bus killed 25 people.
``Feb. 25 is a black, tragic day here in Israel,'' wrote Bertha Laster, a former Richmond resident who relocated to Jerusalem many years ago.
``How much do we give to have peace in this tiny land, not as large as my home state of Virginia? So much blood has covered this soil,'' she wrote. ``How do we deal with such people? How do we make peace and live together as real human beings? We ask these questions. Can some good come from this evil?''
Bohan - who started corresponding with Laster after reading one of her poems, but has never met her - said she was humbled that Laster reached out to her at a time of crisis. Bohan promptly wrote back.
``I told her that I felt we couldn't give up,'' she said. ``We had to have hope and believe in the possibility. We are too close to peace.'' Bohan wrapped up her garden's first daffodil, which she considers ``the flower of hope,'' and sent it along with the letter.
Brad Hoffman, rabbi at the Commodore Uriah P. Levy Chapel at the Norfolk Naval Station, used to ride the No. 18 bus line when he was a rabbinical student in Jerusalem in the mid-1980s. In recent weeks, that bus line has twice been the target of Hamas attacks.
Hoffman said that many in his congregation mourn that violence and feel that Israel should not be left to do the hard work of fighting terrorism alone. However, he said, they also have some worries that they might be deployed to the region if things keeping escalating. While that isn't likely, he noted, ``it creates a quandary'' for them.
Several congregations focused on the need to ignore lines of nationality, religion and culture in a single-minded effort to make peace.
Rabbi Arthur Ruberg, at Congregation Beth El in Norfolk, said his congregation was planning to sing an Israeli song based on rabbinical saying which translates, ``All of the world is a narrow bridge. The essence of life is not to fear.''
Rabbi Israel Zoberman, at Congregation Beth Chaverim in Virginia Beach, said he had already planned to honor the Church of the Ascension, a Catholic church where his Jewish congregation had held services until it could complete a new synagogue. Zoberman said he would use the occasion to talk about the interfaith ties necessary to create peace.
``There is a way to build bridges of shalom in this world to overcome the tragedy we have experienced in the Mideast,'' he said. ``We can erect a community that reflects the best of all of us.'' MEMO: The United Jewish Federation of Tidewater is accepting donations which
will be used to assist the families of the bombing victims in Israel.
Donations may be made to Israel Victims Relief Fund. Mailing address:
United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, 7300 Newport Avenue, Norfolk
23505. For information: 489-8040.
ILLUSTRATION: RICHARD L. DUNSTON
The Virginian-Pilot
Madeline Bohan at Temple Sinai in Portsmouth lit candles and read a
letter from her pen-pal in Israel. ``How much do we give to have
peace in this tiny land, not as large as my home state of
Virginia?'' read the letter from Bohan's pen-pal, Bertha Laster, a
former Richmond resident.
by CNB