Outside Temple Beth-El (3330 Grove Ave.)
Parking available in lot behind Temple off of Roseneath Road, and along Grove Avenue and side streets.
Tisha B’Av (the 9th of the Hebrew month of Av) is the saddest day of the Jewish calendar, a day of mourning, fasting, and lamentation, marking the ancient destruction of the Holy Temple, Judaism’s holiest site, and the subsequent exile of the Jewish people from their homeland. This year, as Tisha B’Av falls amidst the backdrop of a moral crisis in our country, we feel it is appropriate to gather to mourn this brokenness and call for a new direction. As children are separated from parents—not just on the southern border, but every time a parent is put in detention for months on end—we lament. As people who seek asylum from violence and economic devastation are denied refuge, we lament. As Muslims are denied access to their family members in the U.S. simply because of their national origin, we lament. In the face of the fear and uncertainty plaguing our immigrant communities, we lament. All are invited to this public lament in the closing hours of Tisha B’Av. We will share stories, sing laments, and offer both support to those most impacted and call for a new vision of healing and justice.”
We are encouraging people to wear either black clothing or attire that reflects their own culture’s practices regarding mourning.
We are encouraging people to bring signs with messages appropriate to their culture’s expressions of mourning/that communicate lament over current immigration policy and actions that demand a turning around of hearts and minds and policies in the spirit of the biblical book of Lamentations’ injunction to “Shuv,” go back.