About 250 people came together Tuesday at the Tucson Jewish Community Center for a memorial service for three Israeli teenagers kidnapped June 12 and found murdered Monday. The service was organized by the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, the JCC and local clergy. Against a backdrop of photos of the teens, Eyal Yifrach, Naftali Fraenkel and Gilad Shaar, Rabbis Thomas Louchheim, Samuel M. Cohon, Batsheva Appel and Yehuda Ceitlin, cantorial soloist Nichole Chorny and Cantor Avraham Alpert read prayers they had composed along with the words of local rabbis unable to attend, calling for both justice and end to violence. Rabbi Robert Eisen spoke via Skype from Israel, where he is leading a congregational mission. Rebecca Crow spoke on behalf of the Weintraub Israel Center and read a message from community shlicha Oshrat Barel, also currently in Israel, expressing her admiration for the grace of the families of the boys amid their fear and grief. Steven Seltzer spoke as a representative of the Tucson Parents of North American Israelis.
