\n<\/p>\n
At Temple Micah in Washington, the synagogue\u2019s incoming president was preparing on Saturday to fulfill his duty to inform the congregation about routine business when he paused and took a breath, seeming to take in the gravity of the moment. Then he spoke.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are just announcements, and I\u2019m getting emotional,\u201d Brent Goldfarb said, before composing himself.<\/p>\n
For many American Jews who attended service on this day, there were too many emotions to process. Horror and grief, fury and defiance. Fear for loved ones, for innocent lives caught in the middle, for the future. And the sheer weight of it all seemed overwhelming.<\/p>\n
So being together, no matter their individual beliefs, brought a measure of solace.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I needed to do was get out of my house and be with my community,\u201d said <\/strong>Isabel Hochman, 23, who attended the Saturday morning Sabbath service at Congregation Rodeph Sholom in Manhattan.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I\u2019ve seen is Jews all over the world coming together. Our community is fractured, but we all came together this past week,\u201d Ms. Hochman said. \u201cI am saying that as someone who does not have family or friends who are Palestinian. I know their community is suffering as well.\u201d<\/p>\n As Israeli leaders spent Saturday preparing for an invasion of Gaza, Jews at many U.S. synagogues grappled with the scale of overall devastation so far.<\/p>\n At Congregation Rodeph Shalom, a Reform synagogue in Philadelphia, Rabbi Eli Freedman led a Sabbath Torah study. He discussed the story of Cain and Abel and what it meant to be your \u201cbrother\u2019s keeper\u201d at a time when innocent lives \u2014 both Israeli and Palestinian \u2014 were being lost by the thousands.<\/p>\n \u201cOne hundred percent, Israel has a right to defend itself,\u201d he said. He then added, \u201cwe have a responsibility to the innocent people of Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n Ruth Smith, who attended that Torah study, urged for a peaceful solution. \u201cHow many people can we kill in order to feel safe?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n A week into the war, the grief is only increasing, Rabbi Sam Levine of East Midwood Jewish Center wrote in prepared remarks that were read to congregants of the Conservative synagogue in Brooklyn. But he cautioned against succumbing to a \u201cthirst for revenge\u201d against Hamas.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the instinct that has to be quashed. Otherwise, how are we any different from them?\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n Some leaders said that the very presence of the congregants on Saturday was a statement in itself. At Temple Micah in Washington, Rabbi Healy Shir Slakman said the meaning of Jewish identity is to show up when you are afraid, and perhaps especially when you are afraid. \u201cCommunity is resistance,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n In Los Angeles, Rabbi Nicole Guzik told the congregation at her Conservative synagogue, Sinai Temple, that by gathering, they were demonstrating that the community\u2019s spirit would not be broken and were showing others in mourning that they were not alone.<\/p>\n \u201cI have heard your cries and anger and confusion and heartbreak,\u201d the rabbi said. \u201cAnd instead of staying hidden under the covers, you\u2019ve showed up.\u201d<\/p>\n But overall, one sentiment shared by many was simply a weariness with their complex and often incongruous mix of feelings.<\/p>\n For Aliza Avital, 72, thinking about everything is too much. Her longtime friend, Vivian Silver, is a 74-year-old peace activist member of Kibbutz Be\u2019eri, and she is believed to have been taken hostage<\/a> by Hamas militants. The two were among the founding members of another kibbutz in Israel in the 1970s, said Ms. Avital, a member of the East Midwood Jewish Center.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s so many emotions \u2014 it\u2019s shock, it\u2019s anger. It\u2019s a nightmare,\u201d she said. \u201cI keep saying that word over and over. It\u2019s just a nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n Peter Rabinowitz, 63, said that being surrounded by his community at Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York helped soothe the pain and offered healing.<\/p>\n \u201cI can breathe. I can cry. I can wonder. I can try to reconcile everything that is going on,\u201d he said after the service. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to be there for one another.\u201d<\/p>\n Joel Wolfram in Philadelphia and Eliza Fawcett in New York contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n