LET'S CELEBRATE AMERICAN JEWISH HERITAGE MONTH

Last week, I wrote about my plan to continue addressing the rise of Jew-hatred across the political spectrum. Among other things, I intended to discuss the recent incident in Philadelphia involving Barstool Sports and a student at Temple University. You can read about that at this link.

While I fully intend to continue covering this crisis, the sheer weight of all of this has led me—for now—to seek a brief break and turn to something a bit more uplifting. I suspect many of you feel the same way.

Although I don’t believe in signs (!), I do think it’s sometimes helpful to pay attention to reminders that there are positive things worth talking about. One of those reminders came when I realized that May is Jewish American Heritage Month—a tradition that began over forty years ago.

The story of American Jews stretches back nearly four centuries. It is a tale of resilience, adaptation, challenge, and creativity. Back in October, I launched a detailed course on American Jewish history. After 19 sessions, we only made it to the mid-19th century! We’ll pick up where we left off this fall, but in the meantime, you can watch all of the sessions at this link.

In the spirit of this month of learning and celebration, I’m excited to be this month’s guest on the Society for Humanistic Judaism’s webinar series, Life, the Universe, and Humanistic Judaism. It takes place this Thursday, May 15, at noon Eastern Time.

My plan is to cover a few major themes of early American Jewish history, beginning with the arrival of a tiny group of refugees in 1654 who planted the seeds of what would become the largest Jewish population outside of Israel.

Throughout both my course and other teaching about America’s Jews, I’ve emphasized how, in this land, our people encountered something truly unprecedented: the notion of complete religious freedom and the radical idea that identity could be a matter of personal choice rather than communal enforcement.

During the webinar, I’ll explore how these and other American innovations brought with them not only new possibilities but also new challenges. Early American Jews grappled with profound questions: How can we sustain Jewish life in an open, pluralistic society? How can we pass on traditions in a land that encourages innovation and individualism? What shape should Jewish communal institutions take?

Throughout the course, we examined the early Jewish experience through these lenses, seeing how America’s democracy, diversity, and even its economy revolutionized Jewish life—not just here, but ultimately across the world. Time permitting, I'll talk about how the earliest American Jews—some through steadfast tradition, others through bold reform—set the stage for the community we know today.

My central message is always this: the American Jewish experience is truly unique in Jewish history—and truly worth celebrating.

The live webinar is limited to SHJ members—which includes all of our congregants—but a recording will be posted afterward to the SHJ YouTube channel (they post them at this site).

To register for the live webinar, visit this link: https://bit.ly/hjrabbis.

Of course, we all know that the story of American Jews is also a story of confronting American antisemitism. Rest assured (or, perhaps, uneasily) that I’ll be returning to that topic (sadly) all too often in the days and months ahead.