TEANECK — Community members including dozens of parents and religious leaders met Monday to discuss cautionary reminders to be taken from last week’s killing of a Jewish boy in what was thought to be a safe, insular Brooklyn neighborhood.
The event, organized by a local Jewish group, also brought out law enforcement officials to advise parents how to further keep an eye on their kids after 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky was allegedly kidnapped and killed in New York on July 12.
“Time is of the essence when something like this happens,” said Teaneck Detective Eddie Lievano. “The underlying suggestion as we go through this is to call us.”
The event, at Young Israel of Teaneck, was sponsored by Chai Lifeline, a Jewish organization. Many of those who came were parents of young ones.
Rabbi Abe Friedman, a police chaplain, said that Kletzky’s murder was a life-changing event for Jewish communities because the man who’s been charged in the incident, Levi Aron, 35, of Brooklyn, is Jewish himself.
“We believe that what happened last week is our 9/11,” Friedman said. “It was a wake-up call.”
The presentation also included a California couple, Rabbi David Fox and his wife Debbie Fox. Debbie Fox touched on some of the circumstances that led to the boy’s alleged fatal encounter with Aron: Leiby had become lost in the neighborhood and accepted help from Aron in finding his way home, according to police. She urged mothers to never let their children keep secrets with strangers, and, if they become lost, to seek the help of uniformed police, or, if they are not around, other mothers with children.
“It’s our job to make sure they are protected,” Debbie Fox said.
Rabbi Philip Weinberger, co-host of the event, said there were no easy theological answers to the killing.
“A week ago, when we hears the news, any human with a heart reacted,” Weinberger said. “There’s no class of people that are so defenseless and in need of our help than our children.”
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