Muslim and Jewish groups in McHenry County respond to Israel-Hamas war, killing of Plainfield Township boy

For the Shabbat service at the McHenry County Jewish Congregation in Crystal Lake this past Saturday morning, Rabbi Donni Aaron decided not bring her guitar.

“It didn’t feel right to bring it and do that today,” she told congregants.

The service concluded with updates on the Israel-Hamas war that has already claimed thousands of lives on both sides and started a week earlier with a surprise attack from Hamas, followed by a swift retaliatory action by Israel. At the local service, Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago Associate Vice President of Education Scott Aaron shared information he received from JUF staff in Israel and answered questions from attendees.

The JUF was in contact with Muslim communities in the Chicago area in hopes of preventing protests erupting into antisemitism or violent acts, Aaron said.

“There’s interest in us trying to find a way to make sure our two communities stay at least in some sort of symbiosis with what’s going on,” he said.

But later that same day, a 6-year-old boy was killed and his mother critically wounded in Plainfield Township after, authorities said, their landlord stabbed them during an argument over the Israel-Gaza conflict. The boy and his mother are Muslim, and their landlord has been charged with a hate crime as well as first-degree murder.

After the attack, leaders from local Islamic and Jewish organizations speak of peace and support of one another.

“We should respect each other. That’s what the fundamental values of America are.”

—  Tanveer Ahmad, President of the Islamic Center of McHenry County

Islamic Center of McHenry County President Tanveer Ahmad described the murder as “unacceptable for American values.”

“People come here to live in peace, grow, pray in peace and learn,” Ahmad said. “And that has been robbed from this child.”

American Muslim Community Organization President Jamil Azzeh also spoke about the values of religious freedom in America, and how the Plainfield Township attack is a direct violation to everyone’s rights.

“What do you say to this?” Azzeh said. “What happened to our constitution? What happened to our freedom of living together?”

Members of the Jewish community stand in a “shared humanity” with the Islamic community, Jewish United Fund Vice President Jay Tcath said. Members of the Jewish organization attended the funeral for the 6-year-old boy on Monday, Tcath said.

“While we are also under threat, we realize our community isn’t the only one under threat,” he said.

Attendance in Jewish schools dropped slightly last week, Tcath said. Though Jewish schools have exercised high safety measures for years, there were parents who still “didn’t want to roll the dice,” he said.

Ahmad has not personally seen any threats of security to his organization. Azzeh said the mosque, located in Lake in the Hills, is locked with keycard access as a safety precaution.

JUF has distributed $8 million so far to emergency, first responders, trauma care and partnering synagogues in Israel, Aaron said.

“We’re very much trying to create an advocacy and support relationship with the community,” he said.

The JUF is able to send funds directly to Israeli nonprofits, Tcath said. The organization is also focusing on therapy for the trauma people experienced and witnessed.

“Those are memories that will never heal and the Israeli Trauma Center will be overwhelmed for decades to come trying to help those people heal not just physically, but emotionally,” Tcath said.

To help on a local level, Tcath urges people to connect with their local Jewish community because Jewish people can be “susceptible to feeling isolated,” he said. The Islamic Center of McHenry County has a crisis text line that Muslims can use when feeling depressed, anxious or stressed.

Ahmad said he hopes people will continue to help out their communities in any small ways they can.

“We should respect each other,” Ahmad said. “That’s what the fundamental values of America are.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.