IN THE FACE OF HATRED
I want to address the horrific terrorist attack on the Jewish community in Boulder—an act of pure hatred that came just weeks after the murder of a young Jewish couple in Washington. I fear more may follow.
Rather than recount the details, I’ve chosen to reflect on how all of this fits into the narrative of the Jewish people.
This Is How We Go On
We were born more than three thousand years ago in the Land of Israel.
Ever since then, they have tried to scatter us,
to silence us,
to burn us down.
But we have endured.
Not through miracles.
Not through religious faith.
(Our beliefs may be the least unifying thing about us.)
We have survived because we have always known that we are a people.
A family with a shared story.
We have preserved our story in remembrances and texts,
and in holidays and traditions.
We have called upon our story
in times of joy
and in times of great sorrow.
From one generation to the next—l’dor vador—we have passed our story on,
raising our children with the memory of where we come from
and the hope of where we’re going.
We have taught them that they are part of something larger,
something both ancient
and unfinished….
We have survived because we are a People.
We have survived because we are a Family.
Not always an easy one.
Frequently an argumentative one.
But still—one.
The Jewish People has endured because what holds us together
is the most human force of all:
Love.
It is the kind of love that only a family can know.
That forgives and fights
and shows up anyway.
That knows we belong to one another
even when we do not see eye to eye.
This is because, above all,
it is the kind of love that remembers and refuses to forget.
That mixes grief and hope in the same breath.
That resists
and never despairs
and always, always rebuilds.
The Jewish People is one of the world’s oldest families,
one of its most resilient
and one of its strongest.
This is how we traveled so far down the path of human history.
And this is how we will go on.
Together.
עם ישראל חי
Am Yisrael Chai
The People of Israel Lives.
This was so useful to read and think about. Thank you.
A minor quibble: The man murdered in D.C. was a Zionist Christian, with adds to the sadness of their both murder by terrorist – The murder a man committed to the survival of the Jewish people and soon to be betrothed to a murdered Jewish woman. It is just, just so saddening. We must be very, very watchful, more than ever than before in close to the end of my 85th year of life in America.
Proud to be part of the family, thank you Jeffrey.
Extraordinarily expressed!