What it means to be Jewish in America, 2019 version part 3
So it’s the holiday season. The winter solstice was celebrated on December 21, Hanukkah began on the evening of December 22. Christmas Eve arrived on the 24th, as usual. Kwanza began on the 26th. Tonight we celebrate the new year. It’s a season of peace, a season of hope for all mankind.
I wanted to write a joyful post to end this year.
But ...
There were 7 anti Semitic incidents in the NYC metropolitan area, one for each of the first 7 days of Hanukkah. The last one, in Monsey, NY, involved a machete-wielding man who entered a Rabbi’s house and injured many ... five victims, including two children, had to be hospitalized.
I have a friend who is afraid to put her Hanukkah menorah in the window.
Once again, wearing my Jewish star feels like an act of bravery, an act of defiance in the face of evil.
The hate doesn’t come from just one place. The shooters at Tree of Life and Chabad of Poway were white nationalists. The shooters in Jersey City and the machete-wielding man in Monsey were anything but.
Hatred from the right. Hatred from the left.
We’ve survived it for 2,000 years. But how much more must we endure?
May 2020 bring us an end to hate, may it bring us an era of tolerance and acceptance, an era of peace.
An interesting version of Rise Up. The lyrics have not been changed. But watch the video, it tells a story.
Let’s end with Cantor Debbie Friedman. Oseh shalom bimromav hu ya aseh shalom aleinu v’al kol yisroal. V’imru amen. May the One who makes peace in the high places make peace over us and over all of humanity. And let us say “amen”.
I wanted to write a joyful post to end this year.
But ...
There were 7 anti Semitic incidents in the NYC metropolitan area, one for each of the first 7 days of Hanukkah. The last one, in Monsey, NY, involved a machete-wielding man who entered a Rabbi’s house and injured many ... five victims, including two children, had to be hospitalized.
I have a friend who is afraid to put her Hanukkah menorah in the window.
Once again, wearing my Jewish star feels like an act of bravery, an act of defiance in the face of evil.
The hate doesn’t come from just one place. The shooters at Tree of Life and Chabad of Poway were white nationalists. The shooters in Jersey City and the machete-wielding man in Monsey were anything but.
Hatred from the right. Hatred from the left.
We’ve survived it for 2,000 years. But how much more must we endure?
May 2020 bring us an end to hate, may it bring us an era of tolerance and acceptance, an era of peace.
An interesting version of Rise Up. The lyrics have not been changed. But watch the video, it tells a story.
Let’s end with Cantor Debbie Friedman. Oseh shalom bimromav hu ya aseh shalom aleinu v’al kol yisroal. V’imru amen. May the One who makes peace in the high places make peace over us and over all of humanity. And let us say “amen”.
We have been discussing this in the Conley house. I just put in the word White Nationalist in Bing and it came up, "Trump is a White Nationalist." I detest that word and I can see now how the MSM is spinning this word...horrible. On the other hand, I am for calling out hate, but not at the expanse of falsehoods. I probably stepped in it, and apologies if I did.
ReplyDeleteI also detest this thought, we as Christians/Jews (or whatever religion we are), have to hide are identities. It is a sad, sad state we live in. Whatever happened to the word r-e-s-p-e-c-t? Not one party is to be blamed, but us as a whole have responsibilities to treat each and every human being as such, this nonsense has to stop, period (I wish I could underline to stress my thought). The labels we put on people, just needs to end. Just my thoughts...we are human beings, we all bleed red, period.
I don't know what to say, it just breaks my heart, truly it does. I hope I made sense and I don't harbor any ill feelings etc.
On your last thought about Cantor Debbie Friedman; AMEN.
I can only say, at the end of 2019, you would have thought that by now we would have learned that hate is a dead-end road, and that hatred corrodes the heart, mind, and soul of the hater. Yet it seems to go on and on. I am so sorry about what happened in Pittsburgh, in Brooklyn, in Monsey. And in Texas.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what to say. I want to take these people and shake them, but it wouldn't give them any sense. No one should be afraid to practice their religion, and yet here we are...
ReplyDeleteSo sorry about our world. I wish I could do a spell and a lease make every one civil.
ReplyDeleteWith our current President I don't see us moving forward and growing.
Coffee is on