| Dear Friends,
This is my second to last Rabbi’s message to you, and I am sorry to leave you at such a tragic, terrifying time for our people and our State. I am heartbroken when I think of the fear or grief of parents of kidnapped or murdered children. I have my own anxiety for family and close friends fighting in the IDF, including our own Adirchai Haberman-Browns, our hazzan at High Holy Days.
In less than two weeks, so much has knocked us off balance. Invincible Israel is no longer safe for her own citizens. The lid seems to be off the boiling pot of antisemitism in America.
We can see it in academic institutions all over the country. I was horrified to see a young Jewish Israeli graduate student at Harvard Business School attacked by pro-Palestinians in Harvard Yard.
Like you, I am deeply disturbed as the Brookline School Superintendent, Harvard, Berklee, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, Columbia and more missed the opportunity to make strong statements against terrorism. It is hard to understand why a rejection of terror is such a challenge for Western American institutions. The leaders of some of our institutions of higher learning have lost the ability to teach higher morals and human decency. They have put fear of reprisals above their obligation to teach ethics, and the basic values needed for a healthy collaborative society. They have failed the students who are entrusted to them. They have failed America and fundamental Western values.
As Kohelet/ Ecclesiastes says,” There is a time for speech and a time for silence.” Academia has been silent for too long as Jewish students face antisemitism on their campuses. It is time for the ivory towers of intellectualism to deliver the clarion call to all students and faculty: that antisemitism, islamophobia, racism, and prejudice are antithetical to morality, cooperation, and peace in the world.
Now is the time for us to speak, as a united Jewish community. Reach out to your alma maters and ask them for their statement about the terrorist attacks. Ask them about their reporting procedures in cases of antisemitism, homophobia, and racism. Let them know that we are holding them to a high standard of safety and a sense of security for Jewish students, and all minority students. No student should have to hide in their rooms for fear of being verbally or physically assaulted, as Jewish students at Harvard reported they felt over the last weeks.
Political and philosophical debate is valuable free speech but calling for “Death to Jews” and “Israel deserves to burn” is hate speech. Our institutions need to recognise and teach the difference.
Our parasha this week, Noah, gives a traumatic example of what happens when people’s hearts turn against each other, and lose sight of the godliness in each person. Humanity becomes flooded with evil and anger, and we drown in our own hatred, even in the midst of a terrible war, and horrific attacks against our people, we still must hold up the light of the rainbow to other nations. We carry within us God’s promise for a better world. The covenant of the rainbow is not just God’s promise to us. It also includes our promise to protect each other and the earth. Let us not turn away from that covenant by filling our hearts with rage or revenge and let us teach others to reject this path as well.
This Shabbat may our homes be filled with compassion for all innocents killed. May we be filled with resolve and courage to speak up for our people, and all innocent persecuted peoples.
May our prayers for the return of the hostages be fulfilled.
With hopes for a Shabbat of Shalom,
Rabbi Marcia Plumb |
