IN THE FACE OF HATRED

This will be my last commentary for a while as Arthur and I take a short break. But before I step away, I want to address the horrific terrorist attack on the Jewish community in Boulder—an act of pure hatred that came just weeks after the murder of a young Jewish couple in Washington. I fear more may follow.

Rather than recount the details, I’ve chosen to reflect on how all of this fits into the narrative of the Jewish people.

This Is How We Go On

We were born more than three thousand years ago in the Land of Israel.

Ever since then, they have tried to scatter us,

to silence us,

to burn us down.

But we have endured.

Not through miracles.

Not through religious faith.

(Our beliefs may be the least unifying thing about us.)

We have survived because we have always known that we are a people.

A family with a shared story.

We have preserved our story in remembrances and texts,

and in holidays and traditions.

We have called upon our story

in times of joy

and in times of great sorrow.

From one generation to the next—l’dor vador—we have passed our story on,

raising our children with the memory of where we come from

and the hope of where we’re going.

We have taught them that they are part of something larger,

something both ancient

and unfinished....

We have survived because we are a People.

We have survived because we are a Family.

Not always an easy one.

Frequently an argumentative one.

But still—one.

The Jewish People has endured because what holds us together

is the most human force of all:

Love.

It is the kind of love that only a family can know.

That forgives and fights

and shows up anyway.

That knows we belong to one another

even when we do not see eye to eye.

This is because, above all,

it is the kind of love that remembers and refuses to forget.

That mixes grief and hope in the same breath.

That resists

and never despairs

and always, always rebuilds.

The Jewish People is one of the world’s oldest families,

one of its most resilient

and one of its strongest.

This is how we traveled so far down the path of human history.

And this is how we will go on.

Together.

עם ישראל חי

Am Yisrael Chai

The People of Israel Lives.