Shabbat Under The Gun

I’m a little late covering these latest stories, but they are too good not to point out.

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Photo: Jewish Journal

The Jewish Journal has a great piece about MAJ Eric Goldie’s experiences while deployed to Iraq and elsewhere.

On Shabbat, Goldie and a small group of soldiers, embassy workers and contractors — and even one Iraqi-Jewish woman — would gather in the U.S. Embassy to daven. That woman, Halida, would sneak into the embassy to participate, a considerable risk in a city where Jews were hiding their true identities. But her commitment to “B’nai Baghdad,” as the group was called, made Shabbat that much more special for everyone.

In a time when it seems like there are countless excuses to avoid services, Goldie was determined to get there despite the circumstances (or risks).

“One time, on my way to Shabbat, the enemy fired a missile on the embassy,” Goldie recalled. The whole compound went into lockdown, a duck-and-cover alert blaring over the sound system. Goldie ducked into a bunker, waiting for the danger to pass. When the “all-clear” was issued, he decided to continue on to services, having already come so far.

Read the full article at the Jewish Journal.