Shelter Islanders gather in prayer for Israelis — Seeking healing, hoping for peace
Moved by the loss of innocent life and the capture of hostages in the Hamas attack in Israel on Oct. 7, Islander Susan Friedman Schrott organized an Interfaith Peace and Prayer gathering at the Community Center on Sunday, Oct. 22.
“I was responding to the families of the Israeli victims and hostages,” Ms. Schrott said, “who asked over and over, ‘Please pray for us.’ I felt this was the one thing I could do. In the presence of fear, I choose love.”
Once she decided to organize the gathering, Ms. Schrott said, she went to Police Chief Jim Read and the leaders of the local faith communities, and the immediate response from each was “Yes.”
She opened the ceremony with prayers for the victims of the massacre and the hostages. Rabbi Gadi Capela, from Congregation Tifereth Israel in Greenport, Reverend Dr. Stephen D. Adkison, of Shelter Island Presbyterian Church, Father Peter DeSanctis, from Our Lady of the Isle Catholic Church and Cindy Belt, representing St. Mary’s Church, offered prayers and readings from their respective faiths.
