Posted on September 30, 2024
(This Op Ed first appeared in the MetroWest Daily News on September 29th. 2024, it is available here)
On Wednesday evening, the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah begins. For Jews around the world this marks the beginning of the new year. Normally we prepare for this holiday with a sense of excitement and joy. While it is a day of reflection, it is also a day of celebration and sweetness, a day that celebrates the creation of the world and the renewed opportunity that a new year presents.
But this year, although Rosh Hashanah begins this week, for the Jewish community it is still October 7th.
This has been an unprecedented year for Jews around the world. Everything was turned upside down on that fateful day when Hamas attacked Israel. With the war still raging and hostages still in captivity in Gaza, it feels like we are living on an extended October 7th. How can we begin a new day, let alone a new year, when it feels like that day remains unfinished and unresolved.
Alongside events over there, the war has unleashed a wave of antisemitism with no precedent in modern American Jewish history. I talk to children, who share with me that they are scared to share their Jewish identity in public. I have heard from college students who fear for their safety when walking around their campuses. And I speak to so many adults who are frightened by what we are currently witnessing here and around the world. The wave of antisemitism released on October 7th has continued unabated and often unchallenged.
How are we supposed to celebrate in the midst of this changed reality? How will we dip the apple in honey to savor the sweetness, while our situation appears so bitter? And how can we ensure that this new year is different from the one that is ending?
As I write these questions, I also have to acknowledge that perhaps asking them internally is a mistake. Antisemitism is not a Jewish problem that Jews can fix. It is a societal problem that must be addressed by all of us. And I will add, that in matters of hate and prejudice, there is a long history of the Jewish community being the canary in the coal mine. While it is we who are being attacked today, we know that all too often society begins by targeting Jews, and very quickly the focus moves on to other minorities.
It has been sad to recognize that were these types of attacks or this rhetoric of hate directed against any other community, there would have been a much larger societal outcry. For some reason or other (and I could offer my suspicions on what these are) there is not the same level of concern for the safety of the Jewish community as for other minorities. There is not the same recognition of our pain, there is not the same willingness to stand by our side in support and in opposition to antisemitism.
As a Jewish community we will continue to call out antisemitism, we will continue to share our pain, and we will continue to fight against antisemitism and all forms of hate because we recognize that an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. And by extension, an attack on the values which I still believe are core to our American society. But we need your help and support. Please call out, stand up to, and report antisemitism in the same way that you would any other form of hate. Please offer a shoulder to cry on when we share our pain and anguish at the current situation. Please be there with us in this moment, because we are feeling awfully lonely and alone. (And please do not try to question or qualify what we are feeling – you would not do this with any other group or situation).
To begin this new Jewish year, I ask you to reach out to your Jewish friends and family. As a community, collectively, we are not alright. But knowing that we are not alone can be an important balm to begin a period of healing and recovery. This year, a phone call wishing us a happy new year (or Shana Tova if you want to use the traditional Hebrew greeting) will mean more to us than it normally does. It will be an important statement that the Jewish community is seen and valued as part of this society. It will be a chance to have a conversation about the year that has been – struggles and all. And most importantly, it will be an opportunity to turn the page and begin this new year with real hope that things can be different and better.