I was proud of our community Sunday night.
There in the center of the Orthodox neighborhood, at the Etz Chaim campus, the memories of two people most of this community never knew, were being given the honor and memories they deserved.
Alan Scherr and his daughter Naomi, were killed while on a spiritual meditation visit to India. They were cut down as part of the horrific acts of terrorism that hit Mumbai last week.
Mr. Scherr grew up in not far from Etz Chaim’s Fords Lane campus on Nadine Drive. He attended Baltimore public schools and taught photography and Loyola College.
His sister, Soozie Seiden and her husband Kurt are Etz Chaim students and members of Rabbi Goldberger’s shul.
If one looked around the Etz Chaim synagogue on Sunday evening, one would be likely to see the mix of Orthodox Jews and secular Jews, gentiles and people who were there just because they loved Alan and Naomi.
But the way Rabbi Shlomo Porter, who has helped so many Jews navigate their quest for spirituality navigated the sensitive, emotional evening was done with such beauty, validation and feeling.
It’s not often that those of us from diverse backgrounds have an opportunity to come together and turn something tragic into a lesson of love and hope. I believe this is what Rabbi Porter accomplished Sunday night.
Alan Scherr, himself not Orthodox, I believe would have found all of this at the highest level of spirituality. This tragedy brought people together. And Rabbi Porter helped take us all to an even higher place.