As the week winds down, the news from Israel is incredibly painful — including the heartbreaking news today of the kidnapped IDF soldier, Hadar Goldin. Right now, we are consumed with the weight of the crisis. But if there is some comfort to be had, it’s in the truly uplifting ways we’ve come together as a people and a community since this all began.

Focusing just on the events of this week:

On Monday, we came together on the streets of New York City in a massive public display of solidarity. Right across from the United Nations, 15,000 people — Jews of every denomination, non-Jews, elected officials, kids from summer camps — gathered to say: “We are one with Israel. You are not alone.” This story was prominently reported across Israel. They heard us.

On Wednesday morning, hours after I returned from a two-day solidarity mission to Israel with a group of New Yorkers, the board of UJA-Federation of New York came together to authorize up to $10 million in emergency support for the people of Israel. And then, on Wednesday evening, 150 of our community’s leading philanthropists came together at the home of Merryl and Jim Tisch. We were joined by Michael R. Bloomberg, who talked candidly about what motivated him to get on an El Al flight and travel to Israel during the FAA ban. Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, told us how deeply grateful Israelis are for our support. Some in the room spoke emotionally of family and friends in Israel, and reminded us to reach out to them. And then, in a spontaneous and powerful display of generosity, more than $5.5 million was pledged to support UJA-Federation’s work meeting critical needs on the ground in Israel.

We saw those needs being met firsthand while in Israel: providing life-saving emergency medical equipment for hospitals; comforting the wounded and traumatized; taking tens of thousands of children on day trips away from the hardest-hit areas; distributing supplies for bomb shelters; giving food and medicine, and reaching out to the homebound elderly and people with disabilities; offering trauma counseling; and so much more.

The power of community coming together is what makes all of this possible.

This Shabbat is referred to as Shabbat Chazon, the saddest Shabbat of the year, preceding Tisha B’Av on Tuesday, when we commemorate the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. But next Shabbat is Shabbat Nachamu, the Shabbat of Consolation. This Shabbat, we grieve as a community and hope and pray that next Shabbat will bring consolation — with Hadar back home safely at the Shabbat table with his family, and a return to calm and stability in Israel.

Shabbat shalom