USC's Vigil for Victims of Terror Attack

By Nili Sheidman

That thursday was like any other day that i was so busy running around campus, going from class to class that it was't until 5 that evening that I even had the chance to answer my cell phone.

However when I did, I heard the last thing I would have expected to hear. Something that I had forgotten was just a normal part of the Israeli routine; that in Jerusalem at the "Merkaz Harav Yeshiva", 8 teenage students were murdered in cold blood while ironically engaging in the most harmless and innocent of acts, studying the torah.

Their death was all the more symbolic, for they perished doing what they loved most, and this begs the question when will the Jews be free to simply live, in peace, in the land that is there birthright?

At first I couldn't feel the impact of the tragedy, but later that night when I went to the vigil held at Chabad, where I heard my rabbi's and my fellow peer's powerful words that the event had truly sunken in. I was so touched by the mere fact that within a moments notice dozens of students put they're midterms, and personal lives on hold, (for it is known that Thursday nights are truly valued on campus) to come pay respect, show support, mourn, and pray for the victims, and the victim's families of this great and loss.

The unity and solidarity exhibited that night by the Jewish students, along with Rabbi Dov's wise words showed me the beauty and importance of community. It is because the global Jewish community is so strong and so cohesive, that we find the courage to live on and take action, rather than be paralyzed by our grief.

"We celebrate life. We celebrate the lives of the children who were lost. We grieve for them, and yet we celebrate. Hazorim b’dimah .. we sow in tears and reap in joy. We celebrate with tears, and cry with the joy that we will find meaning. We will make the lives of those students meaningful. We will continue to tap in to the very faith, the very celebration, the very joy that the enemy attempts to extinguish. And we will show that it cannot be extinguished. Because it is eternal and infinite." (Rabbi Dov Wagner, head of Chabad at USC)

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