When the cameras pulled away, the disoriented congregation at Chabad Weltman Synagogue was left to heal as one of its members recovered from two gunshot wounds and another sat behind bars.
Then Wilma struck. Confusion flared. So did prayer in the dark while Chabad volunteers walked through mangled neighborhoods to feed the hungry.
Chabad house endures trying times
West Boca – After one worshiper shot another outside the crowded prayer hall, a media storm descended.
When the cameras pulled away, the disoriented congregation at Chabad Weltman Synagogue was left to heal as one of its members recovered from two gunshot wounds and another sat behind bars.
Then Wilma struck. Confusion flared. So did prayer in the dark while Chabad volunteers walked through mangled neighborhoods to feed the hungry.
How do these worshipers who observe a celebratory form of Judaism now make sense of the Job-like trials that marked the fall and still reverberate?
“They were High Holy Days to remember,” laughs the synagogue’s charismatic leader, Rabbi Zalman Bukiet. He is in consistent contact with shooting victim Jonathan Samuels, a well-regarded member of the synagogue.
Samuels, 44, is recovering at home weeks after being shot during Rosh Hashana services Oct. 4 by Mark Benayer, 79. Benayer was arrested on charges of attempted murder and aggravated battery. His estranged former girlfriend, Marta Pinto, said Benayer targeted Samuels after she sought Samuels’ help when the relationship grew abusive.
Bukiet, who is originally from Brooklyn, the cradle of the Chabad Lubavitch movement in the United States, founded the synagogue, informally known as a Chabad house, 16 years ago. Since then, it has drawn more than 500 worshippers to its Sabbath services. Many arrived as disaffected Jews looking for an alternative to conservative or orthodox Jewish worship.
“We have the capability of showing Jews that everyone can observe the Torah in their own way,” said Bukiet after a Sunday service. “We’re all Jews trying to be Jews,” he said.
Today, Chabad has more than 3,000 prayer houses worldwide, Bukiet said. More than 105 are in Florida. The movement has embraced modern technology, using Web sites and satellite-linked services to spread its message. Bukiet says the commitment of his congregants holds firm even in times of doubt.
“We were challenged by man and then we were challenged by God,” he said of the fall’s bizarre sequence of events. “Why did this synagogue deserve it? I don’t know. That’s the million-dollar question.”
