Terror Vigils
Unfortunately during the time I was at the University of Michigan there were many terror attacks in Israel. As a response a number of local Ann Arbor and University of Michigan groups arranged vigils after every terror attack. The groups involved were the American Movement for Israel - AMI, the Israeli Community of Ann Arbor (ICAA) and the Israeli Student Organization (ISO).
The vigils took place at the University of Michigan Diag, which is at the heart of the Ann Arbor campus. They were short ceremonies lasting about 15-20 minutes. We would gather together holding candles, start with a moment of silence, and then information about the terrorist attack would be read after which the floor would be open for anyone to speak their mind. The ceremonies would conclude with the singing of the Israeli national anthem "Hatikva" - "The Hope". Each time we ended with the wish that we will never need to hold these vigils ever again. Unfortunately, we had to hold repeated numbers of vigils in the years 2002-2005.
What did we define as terror? Any attack that was against innocent civilians for a political gain was considered terror by us. The question was raised about what would happen if the terror act would have been propitiated by a Jew killing Arabs, whether we would have a vigil. The answer was YES. That was part of the agreement by all groups who took part in the vigils.
An article in the Detroit Jewish News was written after one of our vigils. You can find it here.