** A Day Early-
We have a congregant who will, God willing, soon be 106 years old! I remember visiting her one day and talking about the Holocaust and her early years in Germany. She couldn’t understand how it is that such hatred has existed. And she couldn’t understand how it continues to exist.
I have been thinking about her over these past few days as I have followed with sadness, shock, and anger this weekend’s horrific and violent demonstration by neo-Nazis in Charlottesville. We are a people that speaks of “Never Forget.” We are a people that knows the face of hatred, of anti-Semitism. We are a people who lost over six million souls, less than one hundred years ago, due to the very same hatred that we saw by white-supremacist demonstrators over the weekend. If you have not yet seen the pictures, the Nazi marches through the University of Virginia, or the posters calling for the “end of Jewish influence” in America that led up to these demonstrations- take a look. They are quite disturbing and could have been from Germany in the 1930’s.
As we strive to move through this very difficult period as a country that has seen an increase in anti-Semitism, hatred, and violence in recent years, let us never forget the central Jewish idea that all are created in the image of One God. Let us remember that our diversity, is our strength. As our rabbis taught in Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5
Therefore, humans were created singly, to teach you that whoever destroys a single soul [of Israel], Scripture accounts it as if he had destroyed a full world; and whoever saves one soul of Israel, Scripture accounts it as if she had saved a full world. And for the sake of peace among people, that one should not say to his or her fellow, “My parent is greater than yours…” and…to declare the greatness of the Holy One, blessed be God, for one stamps out many coins with one die, and they are all alike, but the King, the King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be God, stamped each person with the seal of Adam, and not one of them is like his or her fellow….
In other words, it is our very diversity that is to be celebrated and honored, not feared and maligned. Judaism is clear. We are all God’s children. Hatred, violence, and incitement has no place in civil discourse or civil society. It has no place in Jewish values. It should be called out clearly, directly by each of us and should never be tolerated. This is not a political idea. It is a basic, Jewish and human value.
At home I have a Shadow Box that I created with medals that my Uncle received for his service during World War II. One of them, is a swastika taken off of a Nazi soldier that surrendered to him. It is clear that this medal has not been completely relegated to history. Unfortunately, this weekend’s events remind us that its shadow still looms large. We, who thought that we had rid the world of Nazism in World War II, still have so much more work to do as a society.
As we pray for peace, tolerance and healing in our country, as we pray for all of those injured in Charlottesville, and ask God’s comfort for the family of Heather Heyer who was killed in these clashes, let us remember our individual and collective responsibility to speak out against hatred. As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel taught: “Some are guilty, but all are responsible.” Let us pledge to work daily, in our own small ways, to promote love, tolerance, and respect between human beings. Let us speak out and work to support local and national organizations that work to celebrate diversity and promote peace and tolerance among all human beings.
We must never forget. We must never be silent. We, the descendants of survivors; we members of the Jewish people, must be forever responsible.
