Roman Yossel Remis had not yet reached the Hineni prayer on Yom Kippur when a white supremacist attacked the synagogue in Halle, Germany, where he was leading services. After police had finally secured a cordon around the synagogue and the sequestered Jews had resumed their prayers, Remis continued with the service, an unmistakable irony nearing the absurd, as he proclaimed the traditional liturgical words "even though I am not worthy or suitable" to be the Jewish community's representative.
By several accounts, the tall but unassuming Jewish professional who leads a Jewish youth program for the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation (and who I have known for several years through my Jewish community of Kahal Adass Jisroel in Berlin) was the first to react and quickly took charge of the situation.
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