Jewish organizations and community leaders joined the chorus of congratulations following the news of Al Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden’s demise.
Even before President Barack Obama took the podium in the East Room of the White House Sunday night to make the announcement, cheering crowds had gathered outside the property’s gates. People ran through the streets to converge on the White House, chanting “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” and singing the National Anthem.
Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Levi and Nechama Shemtov, who live on Embassy Row less than a mile from the White House, heard a cacophony of revelers coming from all corners of the nation’s capital.
“There was partying going on at midnight like you can’t imagine. One soldier who always prays with us in the morning didn’t show up,” said the rabbi, director of American Friends of Lubavitch in Washington, D.C. “Everyone is just so overjoyed. So many have lived, and unfortunately even died, to help achieve this moment. It’s a watershed event, no doubt about it.”
Coming almost 10 years after four hijacked airliners piloted by Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists slammed into both towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon building outside Washington, and a field outside Shanksville, Pa., the death of the Sept. 11 attacks’ mastermind produced a collective sigh of relief felt around the world.
In Israel, statements of support poured in from government and non-government sources, mingling with equally ecstatic calls of triumph from Arab countries in the Middle East. Throughout Europe, heads of state marveled at the U.S.-led strike against a compound one hour outside of Islamabad, Pakistan, that produced bin Laden’s body and several of his family members’.
At the American Jewish Committee, executive director David Harris, expressed his organization’s “heartfelt admiration and appreciation to the United States government for the relentless pursuit of bin Laden.”
“This is an extraordinary moment for all concerned about the fight against international terrorism, he said. “It sends an unmistakably powerful message of American resolve to go after those who would wreak human havoc in the name of their perverted hatred, packaged as fanatical faith.”
Those who were at Ground Zero – the so-called site where the Twin Towers came crashing down – poured over their memories of the disaster and expressed relief that, as Obama declared at 11:30 p.m. Sunday, “justice has been done.”
“Our Sages tell us that souls are not at rest until justice comes to those who” robbed them of life, said Rabbi Mechel Handler, executive director of the Chevra Haztalah Volunteer Ambulance Corps, a collection of first responders that primarily serves Jewish neighborhoods in New York.
Handler was coordinating the organization’s response on Sept. 11 and was standing on West Street when one of the Trade Center towers came crashing down in front of him.
“I had a list of how many personnel we had on site and where they were stationed, and I was going to report to the emergency command there,” detailed Handler. “Amazingly, every one of our 120 members survived. We treated the people who came out.”
Shemtov, whose children could see the smoke from the burning section of the Pentagon from their bedrooms, quoted an Arab official who pointed out that bin Laden caused the death of more Muslims than non-Muslims.
“There is a palpable sense of accomplishment across the entire spectrum – political, military and civilian – without regard to party or other source of division,” said the rabbi. “The Torah tells us to eradicate the evil among us, and this has indeed been done for the entire world.”
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