I started my day by checking my email to see if any classes had been cancelled. I froze, reading the subject line titled, “Four Killed in Terror Attack at Jerusalem Synagogue” from Arutz Sheva News. I never was so grateful to be in a Jewish environment as when this tragedy struck and I awoke to that awful email.
Before I had the opportunity to study in Israel for a year, this headline may have shaken my morning, but likely would have been forgotten soon after. Now, having been to Har Nof many times, the news was more personal and continues to fill my thoughts weeks after the attack.
I have spent Shabbos with families who live on Agassi Street; teachers from my semi-nary live but a few hundred yards from the shul where the murders took place. Images of Rav Rubin’s Shul filled my head as I stumbled to class. The elevators were quieter. People were more hesitant to ask “How’s your day going?” because everyone knew how my day was going: awful, just like theirs. I walked to my classes numbly trying to concentrate but failing miserably.
As the week went on, I felt the shock of the events ease into a dull ache. Talking with a friend over dinner a week later, I began to realize how grateful I was to have been in Stern when the news broke. To be surrounded by women who recognized the depths of this tragedy and who, like me, were finding it difficult to continue with their day normally as the murdered men were laid to rest in Israel. As I remember how incredibly difficult that Tuesday was, I also remember feeling incredibly comforted to be with a student body that was grieving along with me. My professors were empathetic and understanding. They acknowledged how difficult the day was for everybody. They were also incredibly accommodating; one teacher even gave the day off to allow those who were interested to participate in a protest to do so, and to allow the class to have a quiet afternoon to process this shocking travesty.
The support of both the students and faculty at Stern College helped me cope with both that incredibly difficult first day and the subsequent ones. I could not be more grateful and proud to be in a Jewish institution like Stern College during difficult times like these.