Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on November 19, 2014

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- Books, filled with prayers for peace, splattered with blood. Sacred vestments shredded by bullets and knives. Lifeless bodies in the sanctuary.

The rabbis had gathered to ask God to bestow blessings upon their troubled land. Their prayers were interrupted by two men wielding butcher knives and a gun.

An Israeli police officer and four rabbis were killed, including an American whose family is considered "rabbinic royalty."

Combined with the site of the slaughter -- a synagogue in West Jerusalem -- the targeting of rabbis struck at the soul of Jews around the world, several Jewish leaders said Tuesday.

"This is an attack on all of us," said Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, who leads Ohev Sholom Synagogue in Washington. "Any terrorist attack is a horror. But to attack people while they are engaged in prayer, are talking to God, is a new low."

In fact, both sides in the seemingly endless fight between Israelis and Palestinians have attacked people at prayer.

In 1994, a Jewish extremist murdered 29 Palestinians worshiping in Hebron. In 2002, Palestinian extremists attacked a Passover Seder in Natanya, killing 30.

Like those assaults, Tuesday's murders threaten to ignite another inferno of unholy violence.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack, but Hamas and other Palestinians praised the terrorists, identified by police as two cousins from East Jerusalem.

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Synagogue 'attack on all of us'

Category: Synagogue
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