“I love being Jewish so much more than anyone could ever hate me for it”
These words this week, expressed by Dodie Altman-Sagan, a student at Syracuse (and part of our KI family), should become iconic. Exemplary. Enduring.
Then there is this post, also a must read, from a self-described Quiet American Jew who can no longer remain quiet. It’s important. And she’s not alone.
Bari Weiss, who’s voice and clarity have emerged as a mighty and vital force for good, wrote the following, when she concluded her essential book How To Fight Anti-Semitism
“There are many forces in our world insisting, again, that all Jews must die. But there is a force far, far greater than that. And that is a force of who we are. We are people descended from slaves who brought the world ideas that changed the course of history. One God. Human dignity…
…The sanctity of life. Freedom itself. That is our inheritance. That is our legacy. We are the people commanded to bring light into this world.”
Mordecai said to Esther, in the biblical book that bears her name, “Who knows, perhaps you have attained your position for just such a crisis” (Es. 4:14). “Look at your own life” Bari concludes, “Perhaps you’ve attained your own royal position for this very moment.”
Theodore Herzl, who was awakened to Jew-hatred at a pivotal moment that changed the course of our people’s destiny, concluded his autobiographical short essay on the Hanukkah lights, The Menorah, with these words: “And no office is more blessed than that of a servant of this light.”
Am Yisrael Chai.
Rabbi William Hamilton
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