Rabbi Levi Gurkov, co-director of the Chabad of Oceanside, one of the organizations that hosted the event, said it was a “phenomenal showing of the community, of all different denominations, coming together.”

For Rabbi Joseph Eisenbach, leader of Chabad Lubavitch of Northwest Connecticut, there are no answers that can ease the pain of such a loss. His solution: “Celebrate the light.”

“Whenever there is an imbalance in our lives, people always seek direction,” said Rabbi Greisman. “Often times, the best direction is going back to our ancient sources.”

Jewish students in Berlin on Wednesday marked the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass,” when Nazis terrorized Jews throughout Germany and Austria.

Grodnitzky had intended to spend the week at the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries in Rockland County, N.Y. His plans changed after the shooting.
“We actually have a lot of people from Squirrel Hill that come regularly to our programs,” Grodnitzky said. “We knew we had to go into full gear and do something special to bring the community together.”

“It was a nightmare of a week,” said Pittsburgh Rabbi Moishe Mayar-Vogel. “We had our last funeral Friday afternoon. It was our oldest individuals and we have one still in the hospital. It was parents burying kids. It was not fun.”

The unity that has been shown among Jews of all practices in the wake of the Oct. 27 synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh should prevail all of the time, a visiting British rabbi said Tuesday.

It takes more than killers to rattle Chabad. In the aftermath, a young couple, Rabbi Yisroel and Chaya Kozlovsky, almost immediately went out to Mumbai as emissaries of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

During the conference, Rabbi Yisroel Rosenfeld, executive director of Chabad of Greater Pittsburgh, led a study of Mishnah in memory of those murdered in Pittsburgh.

It was an overcast Oct. 31, but the handwritten messages such as, “You are so loved and you have every right to joy and peace and prayer” and, “I’m sorry some people can’t accept we see the world differently. Deepest thoughts,” stood bright against the black poster board. They spoke of love, shared condolences, and talked of spreading light to a dark situation.

Personally, my thoughts traveled back to my community in Boynton Beach. Sunday morning after the rampage, my community had planned a surprise 50th birthday gift for me. They invited 50, non-regular attendees, to join the 8 a.m. prayer service. Chabad “regulars” with tefillin and tallis in hand helped get them “suited up” before I arrived.

The conference, which ended Sunday with a gala banquet attended by 5,600, is the movements’s 35th and was held just days after the shooting attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue that left 11 worshippers dead. The conference also marked the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attack in Mumbai, India, which killed emissaries Rabbi Gavriel and Rivky Holtzberg and four others at the Chabad center in Mumbai.