Miami

Rabbi Remembered 1 Month After Murder

It’s been one month since Rabbi Joseph Raksin was murdered as he walked to temple in North Miami Beach and many in the Orthodox Jewish community gathered Tuesday evening to mark the anniversary and push a message of hope.

“On the way, right here, he was murdered,” said relative Israel Labowski. “This place became a place of darkness. What we came today, we are here to bring light into that place of darkness.”

Raksin, 60, had traveled from Brooklyn to South Florida to visit his family when he was cut down by a bullet. Tuesday night, on the same corner where he was killed, Raksin’s daughter Shuli Labkowski talked about hope for the community going forward, but still recalled what the murder made her feel.

“When I was sitting here the first time, passing by, I started crying because it felt real,” Shuli said. “We will continue to perpetuate his customs, his mitzvahs as a community, for as a community, when one is affected by the entire community is affected.”

The community created a new scroll, or torah, that featured 300,000 letters spreading a message of goodness, kindness, and morality. If one letter is cracked, the community starts over.

North Miami Beach Police said they are looking for two young suspects. One of the suspects was apparently on a bicycle and the other was on foot, police said. North Miami Beach Police have said in the past they don’t believe the shooting was a hate crime.

“This is real and that’s how I felt. My emotion overflowed and I just started crying and I really wish and hope that this is what we are going to do; we are going to dispel the darkness and bring in light,” Shuli said.

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