750 seek comfort at S.F.‘s Emanu-El on Tuesday night

In 1985, Mauri Schwartz was one of 39 Americans onboard TWA Flight 847 from Athens to Rome, when Hezbollah hijackers forced the Boeing 727 to land in Beirut, Lebanon. One of the passengers, U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem, was killed, but Schwartz was eventually released in Algiers, Algeria.

"I feel a tremendous solidarity with the passengers on the planes," she said, referring to the four hijackings that took place Tuesday morning. "It's a terrifying experience."

Two of the planes crashed into New York's World Trade Center; one struck the Pentagon outside Washington; the fourth hit the ground outside Pittsburgh, Pa.

Schwartz was one of the approximately 750 people who gathered at San Francisco's Congregation Emanu-El Tuesday night for prayers of mourning for the victims and families of the terrorist attacks.

They met in the main sanctuary that, earlier in the day, had been swept clean by the San Francisco Police canine unit and was guarded during the service by police officers from the Richmond Station and the temple's own security force.

Worshippers came in suits and ties and in T-shirts and tennis shoes. Some walked in with the aid of canes and others were pushing baby strollers. People were somber and dazed and expressed the need to grieve in a communal setting.

Doris Cohen felt it important to connect with others. Kathleen Safer was grateful for the opportunity for spiritual support. Sharon Goldberger, a visitor from the Milwaukee area, wanted a way to deal with her anger.

Rabbis Stephen Pearce, Helen Cohen, and Peretz Wolf-Prusan led the Reform service along with Cantor Roslyn Barak and temple president Harold Stein. The Rev. Amos Brown of San Francisco's Third Baptist Church joined them on the bimah.

The service allowed the audience to express its patriotism and love of country by singing the national anthems of America and Israel.

Pearce likened Sept. 11 to Pearl Harbor, D-Day and the day President Kennedy was assassinated.

Congregant Roselyne "Cissie" Swig agreed, saying: "Everyone's life has been changed. No matter who you are, nothing will be the same again, and we must draw strength from each other." Pearce added that he hoped Americans would now better understand life in Israel and have no doubt about Arab extremists.

Many were quietly weeping, with arms around each other as they listened to the speakers. The setting sun reflecting through the stained glass windows sent brilliant color across the sanctuary, as one of the rabbis asked, "Can we imagine a world without color, a world without the grace of blue, the life of green?" And the audience replied in one voice: "Blessed is the Eternal One, for the rainbow's brilliant colors."

Stein spoke of his two conflicting feelings, one to withdraw and the other to reach out.

Roger Low came "in a time of crisis to share through prayer and to try to make some sense out of the tragedy."

Susan Hirsch, who had listened to the BBC, was glad to know that other nations supported the United States and condemned the attack.

Brown had just returned from Durban, South Africa, where he attended the U.N. World Conference Against Racism. He told the audience he had met with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, former South African President Nelson Mandela and others, and stressed the need "to settle our differences at the conference table and not on the battlefield."

Brown also called for an end to the "vicious cycle of name- calling" that equates Zionism with racism.

Like President Bush in his address to the nation, the rabbis turned to the psalms and the prophets for solace and, as Wolf-Prusan said, "for guidance to rebuild that which has been diminished."

Worshippers held hands as they recited the Kaddish.

Some said they took comfort from the service. Lori Rice said she was heartened that others outside the Jewish community attended. Her husband, Baxter Rice, had been home alone all day and "needed the opportunity to be with others at such a beautiful service."

Stephanie Mann was somewhat comforted, but she said through her tears, "I feel so deeply for the police, fire fighters and rescue workers who rushed toward the danger as all others fled."

The service also held special meaning for Schwartz's husband, Albert Levy, whose daughter Ruth Dasha Golda Levy died when a car careened through the crowded streets of Isla Vista in February. The incident also critically injured Levy's son, Albert Arthur Levy.

Many, if not most of those assembled, had friends, relatives and colleagues in the areas that had been attacked, and had spent much of the day trying to gain information about their safety. There was particular concern about passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93 originating in Newark, N.J., and bound for San Francisco. It was the plane commandeered by Tuesday's terrorists that ultimately crashed southeast of Pittsburgh, Pa.

There were many eloquent words, and Herbert Hoover Middle School student Jessica Levy felt a little better. But the 11-year-old said, "I still don't understand why anyone would do such a terrible thing. It's just plain stupid."