It was still light as people began wandering into the park across the street from Berkeley’s City Hall at 7 p.m. Tuesday for a prayer vigil. Some brought blankets to sit on. Others brought candles. Several wore yarmulkes. One woman distributed a sheet with some of the prayers that would be recited. People greeted each other with hugs and kisses and tears.
The crowd was young and old, black and white, Jewish and Christian and everything in between. But the one thing everyone had in common was their mood — somber, stunned and shell-shocked by the day’s terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Virginia. Although the 45-minute service was hastily called, by its conclusion the park was filled with more than 400 people who had come together to share their grief and horror and to pray for peace.
“I was at church this morning and the secretary handed me a list and told me to call these people,” said Virginia Anderson, who belongs to Trinity United Methodist Church in Berkeley. “I see many of them here.” Looking at the sheet of prayers and seeing one in Hebrew, Anderson added. “I think I’ll send this to my grandson in Cape Cod. He’s studying for his bar mitzvah.”
On a concrete deck in front of the crowd stood clergy representing the many faiths of Berkeley — Jewish, Christian, Islamic and Buddhist. The Rev. Kim Scott of Trinity acted as an emcee of sorts, introducing clergy as they stepped up to the microphone to offer prayers of reconciliation, compassion and peace.
Cantor Brian Reich of Congregation Beth El in Berkeley began the service by leading the crowd in the Hebrew prayer and song “Gesher Tzar Me’od,” which describes the world as a narrow bridge. Later Reich explained that when the clergy met earlier in the day to plan the service and set the order, they decided that the Jewish clergy would go first because it was “the oldest religion.”
Ironically, Tuesday night was supposed to be Beth El’s final hearing before the Berkeley City Council for approval of its plan to build a new synagogue. In light of the terrorist attack, the City Council rescheduled it for last night.
At the service, Reich was followed by Rabbi Ferenc Raj, also of Beth El, who led a responsive reading of the 23rd Psalm, “The Lord is my Shepherd.” Also representing the Jewish community of Berkeley were Rabbi Jane Litman of Beth El, Rabbi Stuart Kellman of Congregation Netivot Shalom and Rabbi Yair Silverman of Congregation Beth Israel. The Jewish part of the service concluded with the blowing of the shofar by David Cooper, who is serving as the rabbi of Kehilla Community Synagogue, also in Berkeley.
Throughout the service, voices cracked with emotion and people wiped tears from their eyes.
“I came to find some peace, to let go of some of the feelings,” said a weeping Karen Weill, who lives in Walnut Creek with husband Larry Hildes, a civil rights attorney. They belong to Beth El. “I was angry and sad, so sad. I wanted to help heal the hatred that led to this.” The service was cathartic. “I could feel the spirit of God going out.” But she worried about the fallout from the attack, specifically the potential loss of civil rights that could result from the government’s response. “If you respond with hatred and war, it only escalates things,” said Weill, a human resources specialist. The proper response is “not to offend back but to talk and compromise.”
Her husband agreed: “We have to promote justice and resolution instead of engaging in a cycle of retribution.”
Debby Graudenz, president of Netivot Shalom , thought it was important to bring 8-1/2-year-old son Avi to the prayer vigil. Avi Rosenblum is African American and was adopted.
“He doesn’t look like your typical Jew,” she said. “He struggles with his identity and it’s important for him to see his identity defined as part of a community. It’s important for children to see that whenever we feel helpless, that there’s something we can do and come together as a community.”
Graudenz’s husband, Rom Rosenblum, found solace in connecting with people, adding that he had a 45-minute conversation that day with a neighbor he had never spoken with before.
“Everyone has family in New York,” said Judy Montell of Berkeley. Montell is a filmmaker whose film “Timbrels and Torah” was shown at last year’s Jewish Film Festival. “Our world has drastically changed. Other people have been through this all along.”
Her companion Nick Bertoni, also of Berkeley, commented on Americans’ it-can’t-happen-here attitude. “We feel smug because we’re buffered by oceans.” A friend of his was scheduled to fly back from New York on Tuesday. Although he’d left messages at his friend’s house, he hadn’t yet heard from him.
“Prayer is the most political statement we can make against violence and grief,” said Scott of Trinity as the service came to an end.
The vigil concluded with the Rev. Mark Wilson of the Magee Avenue Baptist Church in Berkeley asking everyone to put their arms around those next to them. With voices raised, the crowd sang “May the Circle be Unbroken” and “Down by the Riverside.”
By 8:20 p.m., only a handful of people stayed behind to sit, think and pray. On the steps leading to the concrete deck were candles and flowers, a memorial to the thousands of lives that had been forever changed by the violent acts of a few.