On a chilly Sunday, nearly 100 members of the Dor Hadash, New Light and Tree of Life congregations and others gathered at the corner of Shady and Wilkins avenues to bid a ceremonial l’hitraot, or “farewell for now,” to a building filled with memories, now the site of the most deadly antisemitic attack in the United States.
“We do not say ‘shalom’ because there is a finality to that word,” said Tree of Life Rabbi Jeffery Myers. “Instead, we say ‘see you later,’ knowing that we will return.”
A couple of hours before the ceremony, police blocked streets to traffic for at least a block in each direction from the synagogue, where a gunman entered and killed 11 people from three different congregations on Oct. 27, 2018. Uniformed members of the city police and Public Safety Department were present in force.
