MACON, Ga. — Temple Beth Yeshua in Macon built a wall -- not to keep people out, but to bring people in.
Rabbi Greg Hershberg was inspired by the prayer wall in Jerusalem and decided to create one for Macon.
"I just thought one day, 'What about people that don't have a prayer network? What about people that don't attend a church or synagogue? What about people that had a bad situation happen to them in organized religion? They deserve to be prayed for,'" Hershberg said.
He says the level of grief, fear, and anxiety that many people feel in this day and age is why he felt it's important for Macon to have something like this.
"You don't have to be a psychologist to know that people have a tremendous amount of anxiety. They have a tremendous amount of fear. There's a lot of terror. There's a lot of unknowns about the future. 20 percent of teenagers think about suicide on a daily basis. This is real. It's real life, and I'm here to tell you -- prayer works," said Hershberg.
2,600 prayers have been collected so far.
Temple Beth Yeshua is located on Price Road in west Macon.