Metro-area Jews gather to support Israel

Standing-room-only crowd fills Denver synagogue

John Aguilar, Rocky Mountain News

Published July 17, 2006 at midnight

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Denver-area Jews gathered Sunday night in a show of support for Israel as the level of violence increased to a fever pitch in the Middle East.

The crowd at the BMH-BJ Congregation, a synagogue in east Denver, was standing- room-only and speeches were punctuated with frequent and hearty applause.

"Is there ever going to be an end to this terrible destruction of human life?" asked Rabbi Selwyn Franklin. "Are we not entitled to our place under the sun?"

Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon launched rockets deeper into Israel Sunday, killing eight people at a train depot in Haifa.

Israel responded to the attacks by fiercely pounding various cities throughout Lebanon with missiles and bombs, killing several dozen people.

In all, more than 200 people, mostly civilians, have died in five days of fighting.

"We pray in all earnestness that the situation will not get out of hand, that the madness will be suspended and reason shall prevail," Franklin said.

Rabbi Joel Schwartzman, president of the Rocky Mountain Rabbinical Council, told the crowd that Hezbollah started the latest fight when it kidnapped two soldiers in northern Israel Wednesday.

"The enemy invaded Israeli soil," Schwartzman said. "Israel did not want this fight, but now that it is here, we will stand shoulder to shoulder with her."

He said Hezbollah's goal, with the backing of Syria and Iran, is to eventually "destroy (Israel) altogether."

He urged congregants to contribute generously to the Allied Jewish Federation of Colorado and to persuade politicians to support Israel's right to defend itself.

Mohammad Noorzai, executive director of the Colorado Muslim Council, cautioned Sunday against a herd mentality that supports any one side in the conflict.

"If everyone sticks with their own clan - no matter what they do - we'll never get anywhere," he said.

Noorzai said the vastly stronger Israeli military should "restrain itself" and make a concerted effort to stop killing and hurting Lebanese civilians who have nothing to do with the conflict.

Armando Elkhoury, a native of Lebanon and pastor of St. Rafka's Maronite Catholic Church in Englewood, faulted both sides.

""What Hezbollah did is not acceptable: crossing into Israel and attacking Israelis."

But Elkhoury criticized Israeli military leaders as well.

"The response by Israel is disproportionate," he said. "They've taken a whole country hostage."

Back at the synagogue, Schwartzman dismissed the idea that Israel was overreacting to the attacks on its northern cities.

"Would the United States call for restraint if Canada were attacking Chicago?" he said.

The biggest applause of the evening came when Shaul Gabbay, a professor at the University of Denver, said, "Enough is enough" with regard to the latest attacks on Israeli civilians.

"We are dealing with hoodlums," he said, referring to Hezbollah.

Staff writer John C. Ensslin contributed to this report.

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