The following is a guest blog by Rabbi Audrey Korotkin: “In the wake of the horrific murders last Saturday in Pittsburgh of 11 Jews at prayer, congregations and communities across North America have gathered in sanctuaries and in parks and on street corners to mourn the victims – sharing the names of the dead as they share their own grief. Even for those who did not know the victims, the slaughter is a dagger in the heart, for each life taken so violently strikes at us all. This is the essence of Jewish mourning: no one grieves alone. The service of Yizkor – remembrance – originated in Europe over time as a communal response to the massacre of Rhineland Jews during the Crusades beginning in 1096, as Crusaders took time to slaughter Jews on their way to retaking ....READ MORE.