Birmingham, England – Esther Cohen, co-director of Chabad on Campus West Midlands in Birmingham, England, first heard about last Friday’s brutal terror attack against five family members in Itamar, Israel, by email. Sent by another Chabad-Lubavitch emissary to a list-serve used by other campus Chabad Houses, the message touched a nerve.
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The friend “was feeling very upset about what happened in Israel,” says Cohen, who has served the Jewish community in Birmingham with her husband, Rabbi Fishel Cohen, for 26 years.
“My heart is aching too, and no, there are no words,” Cohen wrote back.
What she knew was that after the slaughter of Rabbi Udi and Ruth Fogel, and three of their children, Yoav, 11, Elad, 4, and Hadas, 3 months old, people around the world needed to unite in an effort to bring light to the world. It would be as much for the merit of those who passed away, as it would be a way to encourage the three children left behind: Tamar, 12, Ro’i, 8, and Shai, 2.
Several hours later, Cohen informed her friend that she had “started the ball rolling” with a Facebook event encouraging Jewish women everywhere to light Sabbath candles this Friday night, March 18. By Thursday afternoon, more than 20,000 people had signed on.
“A Jewish response to tragedy is to add light to this dark world,” Cohen tells members of the group.
The effort’s meteoric rise began with a list of about 700 names, all from Cohen’s Facebook account and students at Birmingham-area universities. By Sunday night, 64 people had joined; 12 hours later, there were 1,000 confirmations. The number of responses is still growing.
“I am joining Jewish women around the world to light Shabbat candles in memory of the family slaughtered in Israel,” Michelle Liban Simpson wrote to the Facebook page.
“I cannot understand how someone can willfully kill the innocent with such malice,” wrote Elaine Rosenberg. “May my Shabbat candles illuminate for my family, the community, for the Jewish people, good health, happiness, safety and peace.”
A third, Rivka Willick, commented that the event had inspired her to light her candles five minutes earlier.
“I’m going to stop rushing and make the effort to greet the [Sabbath] prepared, with time to say Psalms for the Fogels,” she wrote.
And on and on, in English, Slovak, Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, German, Swedish and other languages.
“I never dreamed it would get so big,” says Cohen. “The idea was to bring the women together. Every mitzvah counts. Let’s use our power as women to do something positive, to bring light into the world to counter the darkness. What better thing to do than to light Sabbath candles?”
Referring to Tamar Fogel, who discovered her parents’ and siblings’ murder after returning home from a youth group meeting, Cohen says she hopes the project touches the girl.
“It is important for her to be able to say, I think, ‘Mommy, you can’t light your Shabbat candles this week, but there are thousands of women who are lighting them on your behalf, and they are all thinking of you.”
from something like this we can see that if used wisely, Facebook can be a very helpful too.
WOW this is beautiful its truly a great way to remember the fogels