Ask Rabbi Noah Arnow whether he had to endure some rain on Monday and his answer has a humorously rueful tone.

“‘Some’ is an understatement,” said Arnow of Kol Rinah. 

In fact, Arnow and others who attended protests at the Ferguson police station on Monday were soaked in a torrential downpour for hours but he said it was vital to come regardless.

“I didn’t agree with every single thing that I heard but it made me no less certain that it is important to be there,” he said.

Arnow wasn’t the only rabbi in attendance at Monday’s event, one of a number of happenings in the area as part of “Ferguson October,” an effort to revive protests that have waned since the August riots that brought international attention to racial tension in the North County suburb where black teenager Michael Brown was shot and killed by a white police officer Darren Wilson. The case has garnered supporters for both Wilson and Brown. A grand jury is currently reviewing the matter. No charges have been filed.

Meanwhile, some rabbis, like Arnow, have found themselves either involved in protests, relief efforts or other activities and they’ve worked it into their messages to congregants in many instances.

“One of the things I said in my High Holiday sermon at Kol Nidre was that all of us should choose one thing to atone for in our personal lives and one thing to work on that is no one person’s fault but is everyone’s responsibility,” said Rabbi Ari Kaiman of Congregation B’nai Amoona. “In that section of my sermon, I included structural racism at home in addition to all the other big problems in the world.”

Kaiman, who said he was part of an interfaith event at a local church not long after the shooting, noted that racial issues in St. Louis aren’t new. They’ve just become more obvious.

“Once everything started to happen in Ferguson, we all kind of woke up and said that if there is something we can do about it, then this is a good time to get involved,” he said. “I was happy to have opportunities to share a voice that is not black but is standing with the black community recognizing that they are feeling hurt and they are feeling the situation as it stands isn’t just and that they are unfairly targeted and profiled.”

He said he thinks that his congregation and many across the larger community are worried by the tensions between minorities and law enforcement.

“When there is a lack of trust between communal institutions and the community, we have a problem,” he said. “Many of us are concerned about ways we can move forward to live in a better St. Louis than the one we live in today.”

Rabbi Randy Fleisher at Central Reform Congregation had marched in Ferguson during the earlier protests and has since been involved with groups of young people and clergy advocating on the issues.

“The main thrust of my efforts has been to support those people who I consider to be serious demonstrators,” he said.

During one instance, he was part of a group of clergy who prayed while acting as a buffer between police and demonstrators.

“I think both groups backed away from a hostile stance into one that was more about trying to understand each other,” he recalled.

Fleisher, who also participated in the Ferguson October events, has spoken to his congregation about racial profiling.

“We have a number of Jews of color at our synagogue. We heard their stories about how they were targeted and viewed as threats when they were doing nothing threatening,” he said. “During the High Holidays, I don’t think any of us made a sermon that was completely about Ferguson but it was certainly mentioned in a number of ways.”

Now he just hopes that some good can come out of a bad situation.

“It is about trying to understand one another and trying to understand our role in society and the best ways we can come up with to involve ourselves in tikkun olam and making the world a better place,” he said. “Certainly, this is one of those areas where there is potential for real progress to be made in terms of the structure of society.”

CRC’s Rabbi Susan Talve echoed those sentiments.

“We’re all hoping that the tragic moment that took the life of a young unarmed black teenager and that in many ways will affect the life of the Officer Darren Wilson, that the tragedy that happened that day will not just be a moment that passes but will spark a movement that pushes us to have courageous conversations around race and class and justice in our legal system that we need to have,” she noted.

Like Fleisher, she also mentioned the presence of Jews of color in the community.

“It is personal for us but even if it wasn’t, it is something that is a justice issue that we know about because in the early part of the 20^th century, Jews were profiled,” she said. “Jews didn’t have equal treatment in the legal system so we know about this and we can’t let it happen.”

She said that ultimately, police and community members must work together toward a common goal. “We all want the same thing,” she said. “We all want justice and safe streets.”

Not all the rabbis who have been involved during Ferguson October were local. 

Rabbi Jason Kimelman-Block of Bend the Arc Jewish Action flew in from the District of Columbia to stand in Monday’s chilly rain.

“We think it is really important — critical — that those that are amplifying a voice in Washington are deeply connected to what’s happening on the ground locally here,” he said.

He said that previous efforts had been locally based but these protests invited in others from outside. That’s why he came.

“For me, it was important to come and meet people, see what’s going on, give support to people who are doing good work here,” he said. “Also, when I get back home, I’m able to tell people in Washington what I saw.”

“For myself, it was one of the most inspiring Sukkots I’ve ever experienced,” he added.

Kol Rinah’s Arnow said he was glad he went.

“I wanted to be there to see, to hear, to listen,” he said, “to be present and to begin to understand.”