As a university and nation began the transition from shock to mourning one day after the deadliest shooting attack in American history, the network of more than 100 campus Chabad Houses declared a “Week of Goodness and Kindness” as a way to honor the memory of the slain. The goal of the effort, according to organizers, is simple: to translate the pain of grief into the healing of positive action.

Beginning the Friday after the attack, Chabad on Campus handed out “Hearts to Hokies” pledge cards at the campuses they serve. Students were encouraged to pledge a good deed in the merit of those lost; the collected cards were presented later to the students of Virginia Tech. Students and others can still complete an online “pledge card” at www.Hearts2Hokies.com.

“This tragedy hits uniquely close to home for college students across America,” stated Rabbi Yossy Gordon, executive director for the New York-based Chabad on Campus International Foundation. “Our campaign provided a tangible way to react in a substantive manner. It reminded us that grief can be channeled into positive action, and highlighted the concept that many small acts add up in a meaningful way.”

According to Gordon, “we look to our traditions for solace and direction. We recognize the essential human need to do something, to make something good result from tragedy, to attempt to somehow bring balance into the world by increasing in ‘senseless’ acts of goodness and kindness.”

In the immediate aftermath of an apparent rampage by a Virginia Tech student, two Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries from elsewhere in the state - Rabbi Yossel Kranz, executive director of the Richmond, Va.-based Chabad of the Virginias and Rabbi Shlomo Mayer from the Chabad House at the University of Virginia - traveled to the site of the attacks to assist with the needs of the students and faculty.

And as Mayer and Kranz were busy on Tuesday coordinating the care of a victim’s body in accordance with Jewish law - Virginia Tech professor of mechanical engineering Liviu Librescu, a 75-year-old Romanian Holocaust survivor who was shot by Cho Seung-Hui while shielding his class from the assailant’s bullets - and arranging its transport to Israel for burial, their colleagues as far away as Seattle were planning Chabad’s national response.

“Jewish tradition teaches that each person is created in the Divine image,” stated Rabbi Moshe C. Dubrowski, director of operations for the New York-based Chabad on Campus International Foundation, in reference to the April 16 carnage at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Va., that left 32 victims dead and more than 20 injured. “All those affected by this tragedy are in our thoughts and prayers.”