In the aftermath of an attack at Temple Israel, staff at Soul Café in Michigan made pizza and cookies to help people affected nearby, the FBI said it is investigating the incident as a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.
The AP report said authorities have not confirmed a motive for the Thursday attack, in which a man drove his vehicle into the synagogue and died after a confrontation with on-site security guards.
While police, fire trucks and ambulances responded and bomb detection teams arrived, Soul Café workers described turning their work toward nearby needs. The report said that in lockdown and confusion and fear, staff emptied the shop’s pastry shelves onto a plastic cart and filled the shelves with Vitaminwater, then kept cooking on an oven that was still set to a temperature they described as suitable.
Chef Zeb Versele, 26, described the decision to act as both quick and practical. “We had staff. We had time. We had to do something, and we knew there was a need,” Versele said, according to the report. “We did what we could fast,” he added, saying, “There wasn’t a lot of discussion about what to do. It just happened.”
The report said the pizza included cheese, mushroom and margherita, along with the cookie-making that also continued during the response. It described that someone threw chocolate chip cookies in another oven, as the staff prepared food for people in the area.
Four blocks away, the report said, children were in crisis and parents were being reunited after children were relocated from Temple Israel’s early childhood learning center. Soul Café delivered food to nearby Shenandoah Country Club, where the parents were reuniting with the relocated children, and the report said the deliveries also targeted hungry first responders at the scene.
Soul Café is described as part of the Friendship Circle, a West Bloomfield Township-based nonprofit that provides assistance and support to 3,000 individuals with disabilities and their families. The report said some of the workers, too, have special needs, and that the café is built on what it described as a culture of community.
Rabbi Benny Greenwald also connected the response to the community’s broader approach. The report said Greenwald is known in some circles as the “recovery rabbi” for his work as director of Daniel B. Sobel Friendship House, which supports people in substance use recovery and is part of the Friendship Circle.
As the response unfolded and some people sought vengeance, Greenwald said he saw a different path. “While some want vengeance, answers, he saw ‘only one direction — goodness and kindness,’” the report said. He added, “The way I see it, everyone will do their role. Investigators will do their role. The justice system, politicians – they’ll do their role. As for the rest of the folks, it’s to add goodness and kindness to everything we do.”
By midafternoon, the report said Greenwald was rolling the now-empty plastic cart back uphill, returning to the restaurant. He said he hoped the simple act of pizza and cookies would make the afternoon a bit easier for those whose lives were violently interrupted, and he said, “Unfortunately, this isn’t our first rodeo.”
Greenwald said the community would respond with resilience and love. “But we’re resilient and we’re loving, and that ultimately love is our faith. A little light dispels the darkness.”