Some 100 men and women—educators, rabbis, community leaders, and family members of Shira Banki (who was murdered at the Pride Parade in Jerusalem)—gathered at the Hebrew University High School (“Leyada”), which Shira attended for an evening of study and conversation between members of all sectors and communities in the city. The evening, which was organized by Shaharit, a group of local Haredim, and Deputy Mayor Tamir Nir, featured study and discussion of questions regarding the current state of affairs and the ways to work together on building a society based on the common good and amity.

Tehila Friedman-Nachalon, coordinator of the From Tribalism to Solidarity working group, said in opening the evening, “I believe we can’t wait any longer. We’ve waited much too long already. We were quiet when we should not have been, and the murders of Shira, baby Ali [Dawabshe], and his father, are the price of this silence. Shira was murdered on the eve of Tu B’Av, at the end of the week of Tisha B’Av. The Jewish calendar told us, in all its power, ‘Stop!’. So here we are, stopping. This is a small event with just a few people, but maybe, perhaps, it can be the first step on a long road. This is the challenge our generation faces. We have been granted a state. We have been granted sovereignty. Now it is our turn—together—to determine our national purpose. The ‘Why?.’”