Four months after visiting Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., where nine people were shot and killed during Bible study on June 17, Rabbis Meir and Tara Feldman opened the doors to Temple Beth-El of Great Neck for the family of Myra Thompson, one of the congregants killed during the shooting.
Temple Beth-El congregants were joined by members of the community and elected officials in welcoming Thompson’s family at services held last Friday evening and Saturday morning that combined the temple’s regular services with aspects of Emanuel AME’s prayers and gospel singing.
“I think that what happened on this weekend, I hope, is the beginning of something that brings people of different faiths together,” Meir said. “So often, religion is looked at as the cause for hatred and anger and pain. What these dear friends in Charleston teach is religion can be and should be the source of healing for people. That inspires me as a religious person.”
Thompson’s family, her eight sisters and two of her brother-in-laws, made the trip to New York last Friday afternoon before the service.
“This is truly a beautiful experience,” one of Thompson’s sisters said. “The warmth and the reception that we’ve received since coming here can’t be met.”
The shooting of the nine worshippers, including Rev. Clementa Pickney, a prominent state senator, during Bible study in the 199-year old church, which has played an important role in the Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter movements, garnered widespread national attention. President Barack Obama would later deliver the eulogy at Pinckney’s funeral
Attention grew when words of forgiveness were spoken by family members of the slain congregants to suspect Dylan Roof, a 19-year-old who had been photographed wearing symbols sometimes worn by white supremacists, such as the flag of apartheid-era South Africa and a Confederate flag. The photograph of Roof with the Confederate flag touched off a national debate about the presence of the Confederate flag in public places.
The South Carolina state Legislature at the urging of Gov. Nikki Haley and other South Carolina officials later voted to remove a Confederate flag that hung on the grounds on the State Capitol.
The Feldmans said they went down to Charleston July 1, before returning the next day, to help the families of the nine congregants grieve.
“Our primary goal and intention was to do what Jews do; when someone suffers a loss we go and visit the family and sit and listen to stories of their loved ones,” Meir said.
The Feldmans were invited to join the community for the 6 p.m. Wednesday evening Bible study, the same class at which the shooting occurred only two weeks prior.
While at the Bible study, the Feldmans said, they met many family members of the nine slain church members, including some of Thompson’s sisters.
The Feldmans said they remained in contact with Blondelle Gadsden, one of Thompson’s eldest sisters, who told them in early October she hoped to bring her sisters to Great Neck.
The Friday night service was attended by just under 500 people, Meir said, including both members and non-members of Temple Beth-El, as well as clergymen from various churches, synagogues, and places of worship across Long Island and New York City.
While Temple Beth-El has had many other interfaith services, Meir said, this service with Thompson’s family was the most significant.
“We have done so many interfaith services, which are often moving and special, but none of them come to close to the significance of this experience,” he said.
Meir said hearing Thompson’s family express forgiveness for Roof was influential.
“The members of the family from Charleston spoke on a number of occasions and talked about how their faith in God called them and required them to forgive this boy Dylann Roof,” he said. “It was really amazing and such a powerful experience.”
Several elected officials attended the interfaith service including Nassau County Legislators Kevan Abrahams (D-Hempstead), Siela Bynoe (D-Westbury), and Ellen Birnbaum (D-Great Neck), North Hempstead Town Council members Anna Kaplan (D-Great Neck) and Lee Seeman (D-Great Neck), Village of Saddle Rock Mayor Dan Levy, Board of Regents member Roger Tilles, Great Neck Public School Superintendent Teresa Prendergast, and Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County Chairman Steve Markowitz.
“The service at Temple Beth-El was one of the most inspiring demonstrations of interfaith respect and love that I have ever witnessed,” Birnbaum said. “The message of forgiveness that we heard from the family of a victim of the shootings will have a major impact on our entire community.”
Temple Beth-El, Tara said, has a Torah study every Saturday — similar to the Bible study that takes place every Wednesday at the Emanuel AME.
“It felt very much like it could have been us,” Tara said. “We make those sacred texts relevant in our lives, to make ourselves better too, and even though some of the texts may be different and our metaphors for God are a little different, in that way we felt a bond with them.”
