by Lauren Pastrana, CBS Miami
Family and friends of Rabbi Yosef Raksin gathered Tuesday evening for a street side service in his memory.
“Thirty days ago, my father-in-law walked out from my house. He went to shul, a place of light, and on the way, right here, he was murdered,” Raksin’s son-in law Israel Labkowski said.
Police still haven’t made any arrests in the month-old case out of Northeast Miami-Dade, believed to be a robbery gone violently wrong.
“Only thing I know is that he’s with us here. He’s taking care of us, he’s looking after us,” Labkowski explained.
The memorial service was held at the spot where Raksin was killed, the corner of NE 8th Court and 175 Street.
During the service, a Torah scroll was begun. According to Jewish tradition, each of the more than 300,000 letters of the Torah must be perfect, or the entire scroll is invalidated. Some compare that to the link between each member in the community.
“Each person is a valued, intricate part of the community,” Abi Friedman said. “When one gets damaged, or God forbid in this case gets murdered, it affects everybody.”
Perhaps, no one more so than the Rabbi’s daughter, Shuli.
“When I was sitting here the first time I passed by, I started crying, because it felt real,” Shuli Labkowski said of her first time going by the street corner where her father was gunned down.
She worries about the recent rash of crimes in which her brothers and sisters in faith have been victimized.
“There was a synagogue that was vandalized this morning. There was synagogue vandalized here. There’s a rabbi that was killed 30 days ago. There have been anti-semitic things yelled at kids when they walk down the street here. That has to be addressed,” Yehuda Kaploun with the Orthodox Alliance of Florida said.
With the Jewish High Holidays fast approaching, the faithful are praying for safety and justice. “We are going to dispel the darkness and bring in light and grow from it,” Labkowski said.
A new campaign called America’s Torah launched at the ceremony. The concept is to start the writing of a bible scroll that will travel around the United States and be completed along the way.
Organizers say the goal of the scroll is to “unite people from all walks of life and spreading a message of goodness, kindness and morality, while offering opportunities for education and dialogue throughout the U.S. ”
I feel terrible for this tragedy but unfortunately the miami dade police is not to be relied on. They are very very corrupt inside their system. While the community needs to deal with them in order to make a keli to bring justice Hashem with no doubt will do the job
We Can’t rest,
We need to get some Askonim, Balabatim and high level politicians to be involved pressing the right buttons and get some things moving, perhaps maybe the Shliach in the FL. state capital, or even get in touch with FL. Senator Marco Rubio and stay on top of this,
Yehi Zichro Boruch
Moshiach Now!
if it was a black they would done something there would be a riot.something.us Jews we are too nice
Sad
BS”D Tzadik Zacher L’ Brocho
The Government should be hold legally liable
For lock of safety in the streets and around the entire community, this is the only language and positive outcome that it will be remembered
The message has to be clear and persistent
Accountability – consequences=Legal Action $$$$$$$
L
the more unlikely it becomes to uncover and find the truth.
based on all evidence out there, he was targeted because he was a JEW, their was no altercation,no mugging attempt just shot him and continued walking.
why is the media trying to cover it up.