Amid Temple Israel horror, a small act of kindness — and pizza in Michigan

In lockdown and confusion and fear following an attack at nearby Temple Israel, the staff at Soul Café made pizza — cheese, mushroom, and margherita.

As dozens of police cars and fire trucks and ambulances screamed outside and bomb detection teams arrived at the Jewish synagogue, Soul Café workers emptied the shop’s pastry shelves onto a plastic cart and filled the shelves with Vitaminwater, too.

Four blocks away, there would be children in crisis, they knew. And there would be hungry first responders on the scene, where authorities say a man drove his vehicle into the synagogue but died after a confrontation with on-site security guards.

It was the end of lunch rush, and the pizza oven was still set at the perfect temperature, so they kept cooking — and soon delivered food to nearby Shenandoah Country Club, where parents were reuniting with children who had been relocated from Temple Israel’s early childhood learning center.

“We had staff. We had time. We had to do something, and we knew there was a need,” said Zeb Versele, 26, the restaurant’s chef.

The Soul Café is built on a culture of community. It caters to families with special needs as a division of the Friendship Circle, a West Bloomfield Township-based nonprofit that provides assistance and support to 3,000 individuals with disabilities and their families.

Some of the workers, in fact, have special needs.

Someone threw chocolate chip cookies in another oven.

“We did what we could fast,” Versele said. “There wasn’t a lot of discussion about what to do. It just happened.”

By midafternoon, Rabbi Benny Greenwald was rolling the now-empty plastic cart back uphill, returning to the restaurant, clunking over the uneven asphalt of the parking lot. Greenwald is known in some circles as the “ recovery rabbi ” for his work as the director of Daniel B. Sobel Friendship House, which supports people in substance use recovery. It, too, is part of the Friendship Circle.

While some want vengeance, answers, he saw “only one direction — goodness and kindness,” he said.

“The way I see it, everyone will do their role. Investigators will do their role. The justice system, politicians – they’ll do their role. As for the rest of the folks, it’s to add goodness and kindness to everything we do.”

The rabbi said he hoped something as simple as pizza and cookies made the afternoon a bit easier for those around the corner whose lives were violently interrupted on a sunny afternoon.

Persecution is something that Jews understand, he added.

“Unfortunately, this isn’t our first rodeo,” Greenwald said. “But we’re resilient and we’re loving, and that ultimately love is our faith. A little light dispels the darkness.”

Authorities have not confirmed a motive in Thursday’s attack but the FBI said it is investigating it as “ a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.”

This story was originally published by Bridge Michigan and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.