Amid the fear and confusion that followed an attack at nearby Temple Israel, Soul Café staff in Michigan kept cooking—turning the restaurant’s food supplies into pizza and other items for people caught in the emergency response.
Chef Zeb Versele said the decision to help was immediate. “We had staff. We had time. We had to do something, and we knew there was a need,” Versele said, describing how the lockdown situation and the urgency outside the restaurant shaped what happened next. “We did what we could fast,” he said, adding, “There wasn’t a lot of discussion about what to do. It just happened.”
According to the account, as dozens of police cars and fire trucks and ambulances screamed outside Temple Israel and bomb detection teams arrived, Soul Café workers emptied the shop’s pastry shelves onto a plastic cart and filled the shelves with Vitaminwater. In the meantime, the pizza oven remained at what they described as the “perfect temperature” and the restaurant kept making pizza—described as cheese, mushroom and margherita—for people nearby who needed food.
The effort expanded beyond the immediate scene. Four blocks away, the restaurant delivered food to Shenandoah Country Club, where parents were reuniting with children who had been relocated from Temple Israel’s early childhood learning center, the story said. Soul Café’s staff also described throwing in small additions as the operation continued, including chocolate chip cookies made in another oven.
Versele’s comments came as the restaurant and its parent organization worked to translate “community” into action. Soul Café, the story said, caters to families with special needs and operates as a division 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 also noted that some workers have special needs themselves.
Rabbi Benny Greenwald, who returned later with the plastic cart after it was emptied, said the response reflected a broader approach to crisis. Greenwald is known in some circles as the “recovery rabbi” for his work as director of the Daniel B. Sobel Friendship House, which supports people in substance use recovery, and the Friendship Circle operates alongside that work as well, according to the account.
Greenwald said there was no focus on revenge. “While some want vengeance, he saw ‘only one direction — goodness and kindness,’” the story reported. 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.”
He said he hoped the simple food—pizza and cookies—made the afternoon a bit easier for people whose lives were “violently interrupted,” and he linked the reaction to what the Jewish community understands about persecution. “Unfortunately, this isn’t our first rodeo,” Greenwald said. “But we’re resilient and we’re loving, and that ultimately love is our faith. A little light dispels the darkness.”
Authorities have not confirmed a motive in Thursday’s attack, the story said. The FBI said it is investigating the incident as “a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community,” and the report said a man drove his vehicle into Temple Israel but died after confronting on-site security guards.
The account described Soul Café’s response as a quick, practical act carried out under pressure—one that unfolded alongside the wider emergency response, including police, fire and bomb detection teams—before investigators moved to determine what happened and why.