Students read names and ages of victims of three suicide bombings in Jerusalem and Haifa. Prayers were said for leaders of America, for Israel and for peace.
By:Jeff Milgram
About 40 somber Princeton University students lit candles and said prayers Wednesday night near the 1879 Arch for the 10 teen-agers and 16 others killed in last weekend’s terrorist bombings in Israel.
"Look around you for a second, and take a good look at your friends. We all have different opinions about U.S. involvement in the Middle East, but we stand here united against terror, mankind’s worst enemy," said freshman Leo Lazar from Washington, D.C., co-president of the Princeton Israel Public Affairs Committee, which organized the 30-minute vigil with the Princeton Committee Against Terrorism.
Students read out the names and ages of the victims of the three suicide bombings in Jerusalem and Haifa.
Additional details were given about the 10 youngest victims, including when they came to Israel, what they studied and their survivors.
A moment of silence was held following the reading of the names.
Prayers were said for the leaders of America, for Israel and for peace.
The Palestinian extremist group Hamas has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Mr. Lazar spoke of his own experience last summer along the same Jerusalem street where terrorists set off bombs.
"As I stood there, watching hundreds of teen-agers hit the street in search of fun and laughter, I forgot about the intifada. I forgot about how all Israeli citizens spend three years between high school and college in the army. I forgot about how Israeli mothers worry themselves to death over the lives of their children and check the news every hour. I forgot that Israel had gone through more than five full-scale wars in only 50 years. For a moment I had completely disconnected from reality, and I loved it," Mr. Lazar said.
"But that didn’t last for long. As my friends and I walked down the street to take a cab ride back to our youth hostel, a car filled with explosives, broken glass, nails and screws exploded less than 50 feet away," Mr. Lazar said.
He also spoke about some of the young victims of this week’s attack.
"Think about Adam Weinstein, a 14-year-old kid who died on what was probably his first big night out," he said. "Think about how he will be missed, and think about all the things to which he looked forward."
He said the 10 teen-agers represented "the fruit of a land where, for the first time in history, Jewish children could be raised without fear of violence or intimidation simply because they were Jews."
Rabbi James Diamond, director of Princeton University’s Center for Jewish Life, said, "I feel diminished when I feel vengeful because our Torah teaches that revenge is not the Jewish way. And I feel soiled, frankly, but I have those feelings and I am sure many of you do, too."
As Rabbi Diamond started to speak, students began to light candles.
Rabbi Diamond ended on a hopeful note.
"I don’t know of utopian, simplistic solutions. I don’t know about peace now or maybe tomorrow. But I like to hope that this would be the last such gathering that we would ever have to have. You have to hope. You have to love one another," Rabbi Diamond said.