Tonight, well after Shabbos was over, I went into my email account and found this message:
In response to an attack by a gunman at the offices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle on Friday evening, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto and Canadian Jewish Congress Ontario are urging members of Toronto’s Jewish community to be vigilant, but assure them that all necessary steps are being taken to ensure their safety.
Immediately following the attack the following measures were taken as per existing security plans:
Consultations with Toronto and York Regional Police took place immediately
The Lipa Green Building, the Bathurst JCC, Nadal JCC and Wolfond Centres were shut down and evacuated.
Toronto Police and private security guards and vehicles were positioned in front of the institutions mentioned above.
A security plan has been put into place which will result in an increased police and security presence at the above mentioned Jewish institutions and facilities around the GTA so those that regularly open on Saturday and Sunday can do so as per their normal schedule.
Synagogues and Communal agencies have been informed of developments and alerted to the situation to the best of our ability given that Shabbat had just begun.
We regret sending this message during Shabbat but felt it was necessary to inform the community as to what security measures have taken place.
I read my emails after I'd already seen a news bit on the Internet about that Seattle shooting at the Federation offices. That sickened me.
To get this message is disturbing, especially because of the last sentence about sending the message during Shabbat. Disturbing that there's a NEED to send such a message during Shabbat.
Shabbos is a time for rest, but I find it so hard sometimes not to be in the know about matters for 24 hours. Nobody talked about this story at shul; no announcements were made about it. It took a small header in a news site and a personal email for me to learn about it tonight. Sad, isn't it.
Let us all hope and pray for our personal safety the world over and that of our IDF men and women fighting on all our behalf in Eretz HaKodesh.
