The Lessons We Learn From Each Other: Rabbi Dr. David Weiss HaLivni z’l

I have often written about people who have inspired me – the teachers and Rabbis whom I have had the ‘zechut’ (privilege) of learning with and from; my amazing peers whom I have been privileged to work with in trying to bring the best out from all of us; and the students who have always made everything so worthwhile and from whom I have always learned new insights. I have always taken the dictum of “Be not a sage on the stage, but rather a guide on the side” seriously and have tried continually to live by it.

Yesterday we learned about the death of one of the most remarkable teachers, people and ‘mensches’ (amazing human beings) with whom I have ever had the honor of sharing an orbit. Rabbi Dr. David Weiss HaLivni left our earthly community of learners, Jews, seekers, and human beings after 94 years of sharing his wisdom, his intellect and most important his heart with us. This loss comes at a time when our world is so fractured, too many have lost the sense of the importance of nuance and no longer value the skill set of listening and learning with and from others. While one of the most formidable sages, he always took on the persona of the guide on the side when I was in the room with him.

Rabbi Dr. Weiss HaLivni was acknowledged as a Talmudic prodigy and was ordained as a Rabbi in his hometown of Sighet before reaching the age of 17. He and Elie Wiesel were lifelong friends and Wiesel often publicly credited HaLivni with safekeeping his Jewish soul and spirit during the horrors of the Holocaust. HaLivni would learn daily in the most horrible of circumstances, using his photographic memory of the Talmud and so much else. His method of learning with others was to reflect the conversation in the Talmudic page, pointing to the disagreement amongst the Rabbis and continuing the lively questioning process drew a great deal of criticism. He was one of the scholarly, strictly observant Jewish leaders who chose to teach at the Jewish Theological Seminary (the Conservative Rabbinical Seminary where he earned his doctorate) at a time when this was a line of demarcation between Conservative and Orthodox approaches in learning. He was there until 1983 when the Conservative Movement changed considerably (ordaining women was part of the realignment, but to be sure, there were other issues as well).

I am an observant Jew who was brought up in Baltimore. In my own educational journey, I was exposed to and educated by scholars of all ideological positions who encouraged such questioning and dialogue – including educators and Rabbis from Gateshead in England, Ner Yisrael in Baltimore, and non-Orthodox learning institutions as well. This notion that guided Weiss HaLivni’s life that one’s level of observance and adherence is not compromised by questions and exploration, hoping to truly absorb the complexity of our faith and its elements resonated well with me.

During the 1980s, I was literally thrown out as a professional in the Conservative Movement’s Educational Leadership in Greater Philadelphia because I was “too observant and therefore not an apt role model.” I had been told I have no home in the movement that began as an incredibly rich intellectual journey in the 1800s with strictly observant Jews. It was then that I could only find community in an Orthodox shul. At the same time, in the fall of 1984, a new organization, The Union for Traditional Judaism was formed and both Rabbi Dr. Weiss HaLivni and I found a home there – he as our founding Rav and me as a founding board member. I was immediately embraced by this group, closer to the roots of the Conservative Movement than what was happening in too many communities and Rabbi Weiss HaLivni became my Rav. In fact, I was privileged to bring him to other communities in my professional world in the years that would follow. One particularly poignant event that was supposed to happen was a conversation between him and Elie Wiesel at a Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education winter conference. However, unfortunately Wiesel was ill at the time, so we just engaged in a wonderful chat with Rabbi Weiss HaLivni, in a style that was uniquely his. You always felt like you belonged and he became an important support structure for me during the 1990s.

This worked for a number of years and Rabbi Weiss HaLivni reinforced that I was on the right track as a learner, engaging with the culture of disputation that one finds in the Gemara, and in many ways keeps Jewish learning alive and fresh throughout generations. I think of him from time to time today and how much more we need voices like his in our deeply fractured world. Too much of Orthodoxy has in too many cases become narrowly “yeshivishized” and is barely recognizable to me, who grew up within its framework. The great divide between those way to the right and others way to the left of our Jewish continuum leave too many of us (who are indeed observant) bereft of our embracing wider Jewish tent.

This is in many ways a loss beyond words. Rabbi Dr. Weiss Halivni gave so much during his 94 years. It is now up to us to continue to take up what he called The Book and the Sword (title of his seminal book) and learn in his spirit and merit. May the teachings and the character of David Weiss HaLivni continue to inspire us all and for those of us who were privileged to learn from him, let us remember the spirit as well as the words and impart both to others.

Pesach Sameach, Happy Easter and Ramadan Mübarek and ...

This is the season of celebrations and observances and we also wish our Zorastrian friends a meaningful Nowruz and Sikhs have just observed Vaisakhi, Baha’i faith adherents begin Ridvan and I am certain I am missing others, but know you are included in my heart and this message.

We love our holidays and so often mark time by our celebrations, observances and religious calendars. In so doing, each and every one of us are acknowledging that there is something bigger than us individually and very often that recognition is accompanied by a sense of humility and understanding that we are but limited human beings.

Unfortunately, we are all witnessing too many situations in our world in which this understanding is not exhibited and hubris takes its place. For me, this is antithetical to who I and so many people in my life are as individuals who adhere to a faith tradition – any faith tradition. You secular humanists are included here, for you too acknowledge that the good of the collective must define and limit the expanse of the individual. This we ALL share regardless of whether or not we believe in a Divine Being or the name and character of that Being.

My dear Muslim friends are in the midst of Ramadan, fasting from food and drink during the day for one entire month. A very dear friend and colleague (Thank you AN) explained to me during one of our many conversations that this is the easy part. The more challenging part is to also “fast” from bad thoughts of others, not engaging in gossip, not undertaking business transactions without considering the implications for ALL people impacted and so on. In other words, the 24/7 behavioral norms that we are told to observe are the most challenging. Any Jew who has experienced the fullness of Yom Kippur totally gets that – the more draining part of the day is the introspection and self-held accountability more than the withholding of food and drink (barring medical conditions, which incidentally may exempt one in both cases from that part of fasting but NOT the larger and more intentional part of our deeds).

Lent is about withholding some things we enjoy and praying and learning – amplifying our spirituality and lessening our physical emphasis if you will. Ramadan and Sefirat HaOmer (the counting of the Omer, the period between Pesach/Passover and Shavuot, which parallels the Christian Pentacostal) have the same focus.

We are watching hubris destoy our world on so many levels. These seasons are about thinking broadly and expansively about both our limitations as individual humans and how we can up lift ourselves through our beliefs and adherence to a Divine power. For me, that is G-d/HasShem/Creator of the World. Who is that for you?

Regardless of the belief system to which we adhere, can we all just take a moment, step back and ask ourselves how our actions are impacting those around us. Are we healing or destroying? If we are healing, then we are already working in the ways that God, in any manifestation ( or… Source of All or Force of All that Begins for some of us, including agnostics and atheists) intended for us as human beings to work together in community to heal, care and have compassion for each other.

Wishing all meaningful observances and joyful celebrations, in any way that works for you.

Two Profound Challenges – One Needs Medicine, Science and Reason; the Other Needs Compassionate Rebooting

Okay, forgive the pithy statement, but consider that… as we begin this new year, we continue to be confronted by two overwhelming challenges – one is COVID, the other is hatred. What I find so interesting is how they actually are intertwined. With the extreme political fracturing we are all experiencing at this time, whether or not one is vaccinated and masked have become political calling cards for too many. This simply makes no sense. With political loyalties dictating how one attends to one’s health or does not do so, we are endangering too many people in ways that are really quite reprehensible.

To be clear, I am NOT talking about those who have legitimate, well-researched concerns or health situations that would mitigate against their being able to safely be vaccinated. I myself had a one-hour appointment with a wonderful immunologist discussing my own health situation and only after that long evaluation and conversation and research, did I feel that it was safe for me to be vaccinated. I WOULD recommend that others do the same – and that our decisions are made for our own personal safety and health and those around us. It is difficult, there is not one simple answer and we are all in this together. Let us use our heads and avail ourselves of the medical and scientific resources that are meant to be used for our well-being.

Here is what I AM talking about. The fracturing of our world, our country, our communities is the result of too many years of seething hatred for each other building up just below the public surface (or not even), with a certain combination of factors allowing it to explode into our lives – through all types of media, choices made in elected officials, positions taken on issues that could potentially hurt the freedoms of so many of our citizens and send our country way too far back in time, and in the increasing drumbeat of anti-any group I do not like incidents in our world – fires, taking hostages, killings, distrust in our officials who are to protect us and so on.

I am presently reading Fareed Zakaria’s important book, Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World, in which he sets out the historical precedents that led to our present situation. Politics, governments, people who do not understand the intense responsibility they have as officials, everyone making decisions for themselves, etc… so much has worked against us. There are no surprises here – he and many others just remind us about the truly toxic germ of HATE and the MISTRUST that evolves from its presence. So many have written in this tone, showing how the fracture we see did not begin in 2015 – but rather has its seeds firmly planted many years earlier. Further, the hatred we are all subject to, has always been there and now permission has clearly been granted to shout it from the rooftops.

As more than one person I know in my own religiously observant world has declared, NOW, I will tell you what I really think – about all the groups that are bums, that I hate, that are lazy, etc. etc. Really? Yes, we ALL have bad actors in our respective racial, ethnic, religious, national, and cultural groupings – we all have those who identify as we do to whom we would NEVER want to be compared. But why are we defaulting to those examples of the abuse of our human capacities? Let us instead focus on the great examples of humanity and caring and compassion with whom we have contact. In so doing, we continue to work to build bridges that connect, not walls that divide.

In response to the deep sadness and angst I feel about our world at this present time, I try to work in groups and with colleagues with whom we build those bridges, insuring acceptance for LGBTQ Jews in a world and country in which new threats to their integrity and well-being abound. I find solace in sharing texts I learn with people who look for the healing messages that encourage us to stand by our convictions and not succumb to the negativity all around us. And then … there are my beloved colleagues and brothers and sisters in faith that I am so honored, privileged and humbled to work with to help our hurting world, showing how faith – ALL of our faith traditions – do indeed share messages of love, acceptance and compassion. I invite you to watch the following program which I was honored to be part of on Martin Luther King Day, with my colleagues from my Multi-Faith work. We believe that by addressing the Myth-conceptions we may all have about each other and sharing what we love about our faith traditions and what we find challenging with each other, we can work together to help spread something other than hate – overcoming it with love and compassions.

https://youtu.be/Qkoqb5FZ3Gk

If you want more of this type of conversation, please go to www.interfaithlibrary.com for an ongoing learning experience and feel free to share, comment and ask questions in the many places in which conversation is invited. Let us DIALOGUE that is dia-logos, or work together through words of understanding and care to address the far more compelling disease that pervades our world today. With prayers and hopes for our brothers and sisters in our human community in Ukraine and throughout the world in which too much hate and selfish quest for power does not allow too many to see the other. Let us see each other, embrace and have empathy for each other – this is what I believe G-d has put us here to do.

Hopes for Healing in 2022 – Can We Begin By Getting To Know Each Other?

Today is the one-year anniversary of January 6, 2021. I remember well exactly where I was and what I was doing an how horrified I was. Same feeling as September 11, 2001. Both acts of hatred, terrorism and lack of any sense of empathy for humanity. Both adamite statements of I AM RIGHT and anyone who disagrees with me is wrong and so much more. Too many people killed and lives permanently damaged due to hatred and lack of knowledge of “the other,” among many other dynamics. I woke up with this feeling of sadness and devastation at the destruction of so much I hold dear.

Then I turned on the television to check in on the news this morning and this is what I heard. It was a narrative of the goodness of so many with a kidney donation chain that began with one family searching for a kidney amongst their own and not finding a match BUT there was a match to someone else on the registry and then that family searched for someone to donate… and a chain of love, compassion, and saving the sanctity of lives was begun – without concern for race, religion, political beliefs, ethnicity or…. It was an affirmation that WE ARE ALL PART OF THIS HUMAN FAMILY. I feel better and energized to do the work I do today and going forth…

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of learning Torah and related Jewish topics with my 7-year old and 11-year old (x 2, they are twins) granddaughters. We generally learn weekly and in both of our lessons this past Monday we were talking about separation and divisions – specifically those that God makes in Creation of the world as we know and experience. You know, Bereshit/Genesis Chapter One, where God is constantly dividing – light and darkness, day and night, land and water, waters above and waters below and so on. The 11-year-olds and I were exploring how this notion of separation can lead to trouble. God separated and divided, organizing all so we could move on from chaos of “tohu v’vohu” – the massive confusion that needed organization or it was nothingness --- to organization and structure so that we could function. Then the 7-year old and I were discussing Parshat HaShavuah (the weekly Torah portion we learn and read in shul) about Pharaoh and the plagues and that here too there were many instances of separation and divisions.

We learn that separations and dividing all that is allows us to use what we have in more productive ways. BUT, it was NOT lost on these smart young ladies that separation can also lead to thinking that one is better than the other – light preferable to dark, day not as scary as night, and the slippery slope is short until we apply these distinctions to each other, the color of our skin, the nature of our religious beliefs, the political party to which we subscribe, and so on. THIS was not the intention, I believe, of God making these divisions.

Rather, I seek out differences and love the unique nature of each element in our world and how everything combines to result in something so much more powerful than the individual parts that compose it. Think about it – dissect a beautiful sunset in your mind, notice all of the different elements, and how they all combine to give you this breathtaking effect. Why can we not do the same with each other?

One of my favorite teachings of the sacred text of Islam, the Qur’an is Sura 49:13 where we learn

We have created you all out of a male and a female, and have made you into nations and tribes, so that you might come to know one another.

In Judaism, we know all too well that we begin the narrative of our faith with the story of Creation that my lovely young scholars are learning as they prepare for their B’not Mitzvah next year, when they will share some of these lessons with those who come to celebrate with them. We know that we are ALL B’nai Adam – the children of Adam. We too teach that we should all remember that we share ancestors and should treat each other accordingly. This is what I strive for every day, whether in my work finding accepting and welcoming communities for LGBTQ observant Jews with Eshel or in my Multi-Faith work with so many incredible colleagues or in the many shiyurim (classes and lessons) I share with others. We all know we share so much and respect our differences. We know to ask when we do not understand something and DO NOT attack or assume. We build bridges that connect not fences that divide. We come to know each other across so many potential divides and instead appreciate the tapestery of humanity we represent. This is what bolsters me.

To be sure I will watch the January 6 anniversary observances today. I will also watch the celebration of Betty White’s one hundred years (according to the Jewish/Hebrew calendar she did make it to 100 years and 7 days) of goodness and compassion and I will carry with me the joint message of those wonderful donors and recipients in the kidney donation chain. There I find hope and optimism that as my husband Ken always says, there are more good people in the world who care and want what is right for all than others who do not…. and I pray that our grandaughters can share these lessons with the entire congregation that will join them next year.

Israel: So Many Stories of Cooperation and Sharing

Note: Many people have asked me about this program, which you can take yourself through by using all of the links below. I am placing it on my blog so that people think about these many initiatives that cross so many divides. ISRAEL: SO MANY STORIES OF COOPERATION AND SHARING Dr. Saundra Sterling Epstein Director, BeYachad – Bringing Jewish Learning and Living Together shulisrose@aol.com

There are so many stories and organizations committed to sharing across lines of religious, ethnic, and national identity in Israel at the present time. While too many people focus on extreme positions pitched far to one side or the other, the reality is that there are hundreds of thousands, even millions, of Israelis, Arabs, Palestinians, Jews, Muslims, Christians and others working together for the betterment of all. Why can’t we focus more on this aspect of the reality that is Israel? We should be aware of these in thinking about a collective model of cooperation and sharing.

Here is just a small sampling of these many efforts and realities bringing together Israelis and Palestinians, Arabs, Jews, Muslims, Christians, and others:

I. Yad B’Yad School System- BiLingual School system in Israel that brings together Muslims, Jews, Arabs and Israelis and so many other to learn, play and live together. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H_jCWJb4yo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74aEijqoYDg

II. Givat Haviva – A wonderful learning community in which children and students of all ages share art, food, languages, dance, history and so many living experiences. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMEcoCeTusw

III. Haifa, a Community of Co-Existence and Sports (for fun) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15BIKfcb1eo Note: The Circassians (Circassian: Адыгэхэр, Adygekher) are a Northwest Caucasian ethnic group native to Circassia, many of whom were displaced in the course of the Russian conquest of the Caucasus in the 19th century, especially after the Russian–Circassian War in 1864.

IV. The Galilee Circus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa-KUCDNPL8

V. A Muslim-Jewish Wedding – notice the different sides…. This is included here just to show that there are other issues, in this case, intermarriage amongst faiths that people have strong feelings about. In 2014, it was estimated that one in ten marriages involving a Jewish partner are intermarriages with those of other faith traditions. While this is a separate issue with its own challenges, it should be noted as another way in which people are indeed crossing identity lines. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs5yYFOvt9E

VI. Just Jamming Through food, dance, art, relaxing and just jamming people from different religious and national/ethnic identities come together and have a blast. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rJ_RB3Iwws

VII. Muslim – Jewish Dialogue in Israel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly0niHW-zRA

VIII. Combatants for Peace and Circles of Bereaved Families https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uULjkeTYv2A

IX. Shorashim, an Orthodox Rabbi and a Muslim colleague bring together the members of their respective communities for shared experiences. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Wy7vnnv1VY

X. The Arava Institute is one of many environmental institutes that allow people with shared concerns about our planet to come together. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmbiKimLDkc

XI. Project Wadi Attir, a joint effort between Bedouns, Israelis, and the Arab community http://www.sustainabilitylabs.org/wadiattir/home/

Centers for Cooperation across lines of faith and nationality in Israel are numerous, here are just a few:

• International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (Rabbi Ron Kronish, Reform) • Sholom Hartman Institute (Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman, Orthodox) • Rabbis for Human Rights (Rabbi Arik Ascherman, Reform) • Israeli Religious Action Center (Anat Hoffman, Reform) • Alliance for Middle East Peace • Mosaica Center for Inter-Religious Cooperation • Center for Jewish - Christian Understanding and Cooperation (Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Orthodox) • Interfaith Encounter Association • The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies • Middle East Institute (Environmental Cooperation) • Center for the Study of Relations between Jews, Christians, Muslims

Read these articles for additional perspective: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/11/israel-jews-arabs-palestinians-work-together-peace https://www.allmep.org/members/ http://investinpeace.org/peacemakers/ with introductory words by Shimon Perez

Millions of people are crossing lines of religious belief, national loyalty and ethnic identity to work together for a world of peace in Israel and in Palestine. This should be duly noted and heavily publicized. So, can we stop ignoring these important and wide-spread initiatives, that involve SO MANY individuals?

Let us think about that as we have finished the Festival of Lights in the Jewish community, are in the midst of Advent in the Christian community, on the precipice of a new secular year and engaged in so many opportunities to heal our fractured world.

My New Project in The Big, Wide World Of Interfaith Dialogue and Understanding

As you all know, I have always treasured sharing different points of views and approaches with my fellow friends in faith, across the Jewish spectrum, the monotheistic spectrum and through all faith systems of the human family of which we are all part. I have always firmly believed that we miss opportunities far too often to learn with, from and about each other by holding onto preconceived notions that lead to fear and ultimately to hatred and enmity instead of looking at how we can come together in strength and conviction, holding onto and representing well our own beliefs while embracing others who are doing the same. As one of my treasured colleagues in this work, Sheikh Aziz Nathoo often repeats, we come together to converse not to convert. And, I will humbly add, by conversing, we learn by our own actions to appreciate and treasure what we share while respecting and showing regard for our differences.

In the Jewish cycle of Torah readings, we are in the book of Bereshit/Genesis. We are reading about too many stories of family dysfunction and conflict. This year in my own Parsha (weekly Torah reading) teaching, I am focusing on missed opportunities. For example, while Jacob/Yaakov is characterized as the studious obedient student who resides inside with his mother Rebecca/Rivkah, Esau is outside being wild and living on the land. His father Isaac/Yitzchak is drawn to him, perhaps due to some shortcomings of his own in that aspect of life. We see Yaakov working the land and developing great riches because of his husbandry skills, which one could legitimately ask, from where did he pick them up? By watching his brother, perchance?

Balancing our lives and understanding of each other and caring for all forms a large part of the foundational thinking represented in a large percentage of Jewish law and practices. The same can be said for Christianity and Catholicism as well as Islam and other communities of faith. YET, this is not the focus of the media, too many teachers and their teaching, and as a result, we are all suffering from too many MISSED OPPORTUNITIES for bettering ourselves and learning new skill sets, without compromising one iota of our belief system and religious lives.

I am truly blessed to be surrounded by people of different faith communities who hold this same concept that the sum total of who all of we are together is greater than the arithmetric total of the parts. Together, we discuss, share resources, program and enrich each other by interacting in honest and intentional ways, including having some of the harder conversations, which are softened by good will and care for each other. During these years of much too much fracture in our world, my Multi-Faith work has been the salve that has kept my heart whole and my soul intact. For this I am truly grateful.

I now invite all of you to share this journey by going to http://interfaithlibrary.com and see what my dear friend and colleague, Imam Mekye Abdus Salaam and I have been up to for the past weeks. Imam Mekye has served faithfully as the architect for something truly special, and I have been honored to partner with him to help build and realize his plans along with another dear friend in my work of building bridges of understanding, Sheikh Aziz Nathoo. Along with other Christians, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and adherents of multiple other faiths, we are all trying to convey that we can indeed celebrate what we have in common while showing respect and regard for where there are differences. We ask questions, we do not assume or attack. We listen, we do not shout each other down. And in the end, we as all of God’s children (both those of us who believe in a Supreme Being and those who may not) appreciate and develop a true sense of community with each other while learning so much more about ourselves.

Please note that this is part of an official roll out of The Interfaith Library and I invite all of you to join us on this journey. Please note that we are continuing to work on this venture and refine it. Please be sure to read the “Camp Rules” on the Home Page before “choosing your journey” and we hope that we all can continue to learn more about each other while confirming who we each are within our own faith journeys. Happy Travels or Nesiah Tova - נסיעה טובה!

Our Pervasive and Threatening Identity Crisis

I often deal with identity issues in many avenues of my professional life. I am finding an increased exhaustion and frustration among a growing number of our young people and rising adults in terms of feeling pummeled by negative messaging, conflicting accounts of important matters fueled by political biases, exclusivity that does not include all, insensitivity to important social justice and human rights issues that are important to them, and so on. I am constantly reminded in my Multi-Faith work that religious/faith communities are all feeling that their respective rising adults are slipping away from them and feeling that religious teachings and community are rendering themselves irrelevant as the issues important to our 20- and 30-somethings are not adequately addressed in their eyes.

This correlates with what I am finding to be the case in my work with LGBTQ+ individuals, addressing Jewish identity in our 20- and 30- somethings, and in general through the articulation of my colleagues in the religious/academic leadership world. Our younger adults are feeling that their religious traditions are NOT responding to what is critical in their lives. This is so sad to me as I know that in my Jewish world, the focus on the one who is disadvantaged, the immigrant, the stranger, the one without family, the one without economic stability and security and all other disadvantaged individuals are to be cared for and tended to as part of our communal responsibility. I love that the very notion of TZEDAKAH is that G-d distributes resources so that we partner with G-d to insure that they are shared equally.

In the Jewish calendar we are beginning the year of 5782, and this is a year of Shmita – during which the land must rest, we free those from debts that are owed, and social justice and concern for the land are to occupy our minds as we consider our many blessings and the gratitude we are to have for them – in short, this is an opportunity to REBOOT. My husband and I just spent Rosh HaShana at Isabella Friedman Retreat Center where all of this is fundamental to the philosophy of this incredible and special space. It was and always is a wonderful experience as the Adamah cohort – an intentional group of environmentally conscious 20- somethings spend the Chag with those of us davening and participating in meaningful Tefillah(prayer and reflection). Meditation, consciousness of the land, Tefillah, the beauty of nature, healthy and delicious farm grown food, and a spirit of community of diversity come together in a way that too many of us seldom find. I think it is in this context that we can shepherd and protect our children’s and the next generation’s meaningful and multi-faceted Jewish identity.

In our very fractured political environment, we MUST be collectively mindful of too many people that are suffering from not being included, from all of the inequities that are part of our world – social, racial, economic, regional, political, etc. – and use this Shmita year to think carefully and consider our own intentional use of the land, our intentional interactions with each other, our intentional concern for those less fortunate than we are. In the year of Shmita, in which there are so many acts of social and economic justice indicated, how do we bring these very real problems in our world and our Jewish sensibilities together in a way that will allow us to share a platform of concern with our 20- and 30-somethings who ARE our Rising Leadership? This is the way we will begin to heal the rift that is widening precipitously in our reality.

A 30-something Jewish community professional writes as follows regarding identity issues and the impact on the challenge to them by Anti-Semitic rhetoric and tropes:

I live in a progressive, often queer, often multi-racial, Jewish community where we are dealing with such intense political and social unrest and have become deeply committed to the vision of a progressive, multi-racial democracy in the United States, our home, where we live. In this reality, my read on the tension between progressive Jewish engagement and perspectives on Israel is that a lot of younger progressive Jews feel much more committed to making our diasporic American context better and more just. This is our home…on top of that many of those people would say that one strategy to fight antisemitism is to be aligned with other fighting for the same multi-racial U.S. democracy that Jews need in order to survive and thrive.

We learn in Pirke Avot that It is not upon you individually to solve all of the problems but you may not desist from doing your part.

We are in the midst of the Ten Days of Repentance/Aseret Yimai Teshuvah. How will we do better this year? What will we individually and collectively do to insure and facilitate the continued identity of our leaders of tomorrow? Let us remember to engage in conversation with each other, show that we care about more than ourselves and can agree to disagree. Let us remember that our younger community’s concerns are our concerns as our future is in their hands. My prayer is that we go into this Shmita year, not bemoaning what is often perceived as the loss of identity among our younger Jews but claiming the identity and issues that they have taken on – social justice, proper and measured use of the land, acceptance of all who come in our gates, not judging others, and so on – all fundamental Jewish teachings that unite us as a people and formulate the basis of the identity that claims us all.