In This Moment: October 29, 2021

In This Moment Inspiring piece in last weekend's Stamford Advocate about the book drive in memory of Emmet Manheim. Yashar Koach to Lisa, Jeff and all who participated. Shabbat Shalom. I hope you'll be able to join us for services, hybrid on Friday night (where we'll celebrate the recent marriage of Ben Rosenthal and Stacy Newman). Mazal tov to them, and to Joan and Bob as well. And for those who might recall my sermons from a past life, in honor of the ghostly weekend of Halloween, I'll be talking about "Judaism and Reincarnation" (see a backgrounder here). On Shabbat morning we'll be on Zoom, but don't let that deter you. It's a really loving, supportive, participatory group. "Stop by" at 10 AM, when we'll check out a new weekly Torah study packet for all ages created by Machon Hadar. It's called "Dvash" (honey), based on the old notion that Torah study should be as sweet as honey. Here is the packet for this week's portion of Hayye Sarah. For more info and to subscribe to this excellent weekly parsha magazine, click here. And to read some Torah wisdom from one of our own students, see Lolly Socaransky's recent Bat Mitzvah d'var Torah for the portion of Noah. It's nice these days to have a spare moment to churn one of these newsletters out, and connect, given how many funerals and illnesses we've had lately. Lots to catch up on. Today I took a deep dive into the complete rupture taking place at Park East Synagogue in New York. Read about it here, What's happening there should send shivers up the spine of Jewish leaders everywhere - no schadenfreude allowed. When people anywhere see the synagogue as the place that brings out the worst in human beings, and not a place filled with integrity, warmth and trust among people who care for one another, we all lose. I know that we have fought hard to build that kind of atmosphere here. Sometimes with greater success, sometimes less so, but we have never lacked for trying. So what's happening at Park East is profoundly troubling - and it should be. But this is one train wreck that doesn't give us the luxury of averting our eyes. There are no good guys - there are no bad guys.... But good people are more than capable of making a huge mess, which is what has happened at Park East. A very different (though no less sad) story about another old clergy-guy appeared in the NYT this week - the 100 year old priest called to leave his community after 70 (seventy!) years. Read about it here. The narrative of his final mass is both heartwarming and heartbreaking. Are you a fan of Larry David? "Curb Your Enthusiasm" began a new season last week and immediately fired off some bad-taste jokes against a victim of Alzheimers. David famously has lampooned the Holocaust, so no surprise. But when is it OK to go over the edge? Here's a very interesting take from a columnist at Times of Israel. For you Halloween fans, check out "The Season of the Jewitch," from JTA. Meet the occultists who blend witchcraft and Jewish folklore. And from the Shabbat-O-Gram archives, pre-Covid edition: "Should Jewish Children Trick-or-Treat?" And gone but not forgotten - last week's death of Colin Powell brought out some interesting articles about his Jewish connections - including the fact that he and Thurgood Marshall both gained their early-life impressions of the Jewish community in the same way - as Shabbos goys. World Series? What World Series? Only the most Jewish ever! Meanwhile, Pew came out with one of it's provocative surveys this week, with the focus on church-state separation. It states, among other revelations, that 69 percent of Americans say the US government should never declare any religion as the official religion of the United States. Fifteen percent (38 million people) say it should declare the country a Christian nation. A quarter of Republicans say that the government should declare the U.S. a Christian nation. Six percent of Democrats say that. See the survey here, and below you'll find one of the more pertinent charts: Not to be outdone, just as we read about the potential erosion of that precious wall of separation, a new survey on anti-Semitism was released by the AJC. Some key takeaways: One in four American Jews has been the target of antisemitism—through in-person remarks, online or on social media, or by way of physical attacks—over the past 12 months. Four in ten American Jews have changed their behavior due to fears of antisemitism over the past year, with 22% saying they have avoided wearing or displaying things that would enable others to identify them as Jewish. While 82% of American Jews believe antisemitism has increased over the past five years, only 44% of the general public agrees—even though 41% of Americans say they’ve witnessed at least one antisemitic incident over the past year.  Most American Jews who heard about attacks on Jews in the United States and around the world during the May 2021 conflict between Israel and Hamas said they made them feel less safe as Jews in America—but most of the general public was largely unaware the attacks had even happened.  For the full results, along with expert analysis, click here. It is hitting very close to home, what with yet another anti-Semitic incident reported in Darien this week. See this opinion piece in Ha'aretz for more background on "The New Fascism" that confronts us and should scare American Jews - they are based on Umberto Eco's list of the Fourteen Common Features of Fascism (which is not behind a paywall).  In another Ha'aretz piece, Rabbi Eric Hoffman gets very specific about what should scare us most right now. And the long-awaited trial of the Charlottesville hate groups has finally begun. Click here to see how to get regular updates. Some may recall that Amy Spitalnick, who is coordinating this court battle, spoke here just one week before the murders at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh three years ago. It's hard to say if progress has bene made since then, but what's clear is that the hate groups singled out here have paid a hefty price already, and the trial is just getting underway. Click here for more background. Finally, speaking of Charlottesville, see this fascinating NYT op-ed by the renowned historian, Jonathan Sarna, on Jefferson's complicated legacy - especially with regards to the Jews. Shabbat Shalom Rabbi Joshua Hammerman

In This Moment, May 14: Israel: Two Paths in a Wood; Who Knew Jews? Pew Knew Jews!

 

In This Moment Only in Israel TBE congregant Pinchas Gross sends along regards from Tel Aviv, along with this photo of a handwritten sign, where a business owner is inviting passers-by into his shelter in the event of a red-alert siren. There have been many this week, in Tel Aviv and throughout the country. Stay safe, Pinchas and Yaffa! Mazal tov to last weekend's Bat Mitzvah, Sasha Handel. Read her d'var Torah, along with Torah commentaries related to her topic and see more screen grabs by clicking here. Shabbat Shalom and Happy Shavuot! Join us for all our special services and events this weekend, (including an outdoor Friday night in gorgeous weather), Sisterhood Shabbat on Shabbat morning, and Zoom based Shavuot festival services on Monday and Tuesday at 10 AM (no afternoon minyan those days). Spend Shavuot eve immersed in Torah, either at the Conservative movement's all-nighter or an assortment of other options - including one by the creative think-tank "Reboot." Please note that our office is closed for the festival from Sunday evening through Tuesday. I will be responding to emergency emails, but TBE routine business will take a much needed break. Israel: Two Paths in a Wood I'm a middle child, a practitioner of nuance - a "tradition-and-change," old fashioned Conservative Jew, someone who really does like to drive down the middle of the road. Whether dealing with Jewish ritual or with Israel, I'm usually looking for the shadings of truth on all sides. But the events of these past several weeks, and this week in particular, demand a less subtle approach, a certain moral clarity, a clear, binary choice. So let's talk about what's clear. Launching thousands of missiles targeting innocent civilians is a war crime and inexcusable. The attacks have been relentless- I know, I have the Red Alert app on my phone and it has been vibrating nonstop. The fact that Hamas has done this repeatedly without the clear and unconditional condemnation of the world in no way softens the nihilistic evil of this act - nor the shock of it's impact on individual lives. The fact that Iron Dome has kept the human cost relatively low will not bring back the life of that five-year-old killed in Sderot. The rockets are a crime against humanity. It is a binary choice. Here's a tweet that I saw this week, demonstrating another kind of binary choice: The Hamas attacks must be dealt with and defended against, until Israelis can feel safe. So set that aside. That said, Israeli is without moral leadership at the helm right now. So many wrongheaded decisions have been made that have frayed the social fabric, particularly between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs, and between Muslims and Jews. So much fuel has been poured onto this fire, especially in the weeks since the beginning of Ramadan, and it is still being done in places where Jews and Arabs have maintained a fragile but productive coexistence. As that tweet states, there are people who want coexistence - Jews and Arabs - and there are people who do not. It is a binary choice. And it is a choice we all need to make. Are you for coexistence, or not? There are people who respect the sanctity of holy places and holy times, in Jerusalem and elsewhere, and there are people who do not respect coexistence at all. There are people who open their shelters to all who need it, and people who do not. There are people who respect minority cultures and who understand the fragile balance that needs to be maintained without evicting long term residents in Sheikh Jarrah, and those who do not. There are people who see potential in building relationships, one person at a time, so that people won't be afraid of their neighbors, and people who do not - and who often exploit those fears for political gain. It is a binary choice. So choose. While you are choosing, here is a plea from leaders of mixed Israeli cities, places that have been havens of cooperation, like Ramla and Jaffa and Akko and Lod. it comes from the Abraham Initiatives. The instigators are primarily zealots recruited from the outside, along with those infected by social media. Here is a clearer version of the statement on the left: Press Release For Immediate Release May 12, 2021   We council members, Jews and Arabs, in the mixed cities in Israel, call on the mayors of mixed cities, our partners in the councils and the general public do everything in their power to allow legal demonstrations by members of the minority group, to refrain from acts of violence and to engage in dialogue aimed at reducing the tensions among residents. We call on the public to refrain from posting explosive images and videos, and in particular disseminating fake news that could further enflame the area. If there is one thing we can do to help the situation, it is to not inflame tensions by spreading the extremist garbage flooding your social media accounts. They are being sent to you by people who have already made their choice. Even the current Prime Minister of Israel has called the internal flames (which he has historically fanned) between Israeli Arab and Jew a greater existential threat than Hamas rockets. Think of all the Russian bots that have tried to tear the fabric of American society apart. Americans on the whole have become better at recognizing this manipulation. We learned our lesson in 2016. But so many Jews seem to check our intellects at the door when confronted by inflammatory videos trying to lead us to condemn every "other" as a murderous subhuman, deserving of eviction. We need to resist that. Think of the Arab in Jaffa who put out the fire. So before you pass along inflammatory information, make sure it is vetted by reputable journalists and other sources. At a time when there really have been lynchings and places of worship set aflame, we need to choose to help bring down the temperature. Our community had a prayer vigil yesterday and it was handled very well. I was glad, in a way, that it was on Zoom, where it was far less likely to become a rally. There were no speeches, only prayers. Right now is not the time for sloganeering. If ever there was a time for thoughts and prayers, or at least some thoughtful prayers, it is now. Make no mistake, we also need to act. But to do that, we first must choose. See also: I cannot put my anger aside until things are quiet - Donniel Hartman Prayer for Israel under missile attack (Rabbinical Assembly) Five Vignettes in Six Days (Yitzchak Sokoloff) An Open Letter to Trevor Noah (David Harris, AJC) ----------------- Here is an excerpt from Marc Schulman's excellent backgrounder on the events of the past few weeks, with the focus on the role of social media. Read the entire essay here. Social Media is responsible for many evils in this world, primarily for enflaming and expanding hatred. Still, when the history of this period is written, this may go down as the first time social media helped cause a war. While the latest battle with Gaza was directly caused by only one thing the Hamas missile fire on Israel, which I will go into in a minute, the latest series of events began with a series of Tik Tok videos which Arab Youth posted at the beginning of the Ramadan, showing them attacking Jews leaving the Old City of Jerusalem. The youth tried to outdo each other in showing how they could attack unarmed Jews by having their attacks which included pouring hot coffee on unsuspecting Yeshiva students. The police responded by closing off the area immediately outside the Damascus Gate, a popular place for Arab youth to hang especially during Ramadan. This resulted in clashes between the police and the Arab Youth, in which the police repeatedly used stun grenades to gain control. Meanwhile, not to be outdone, the racist elements of the Jewish society began taking things into their own hands. On the evening of April 20th, groups of Jewish youths marched through downtown Jerusalem chanting death to the Arabs and attacking any Arab they could find. Buoyed by now having one of their own Itamar ben Gvir in Knesset, they felt they could do whatever they wanted in Jerusalem. A sideshow in this drama is events in Sheikh Jarrah. The attempt to evict a few Arab families is neither a small real estate dispute as some defenders of Israel claim, nor is it a massive attempt to evict implied thousands of families as Israel's critics claim. What is involved is a few buildings in the overwhelmingly Arab section of Sheik Jarrah that were owned by Yemenite Jews during the mandate but were abandoned during the Arab riots of 36-38. the descendants of the original owners were able to prove their ownership in court. As part of a compromise, the course stated that if the current residents who have been squatting for 70 years paid rent, they could stay. They were encouraged not to, and thus the attempt at eviction. This would be a simple case of real estate law if the law were at all equitable. Our defenders will not say that our laws provide for Jews to reestablish ownership on properties in East Jerusalem while giving Arabs who fled West Jerusalem no equivalent recourse. In addition, the reacquisition of the homes in Sheik Jarrah is part of a long-term strategy by religious rightest in Israel to encourage Jews to move into East Jerusalem. However, what is not going on is a massive human rights violation, or for that matter, a violation of international law. Currently, the issue rests with the Israeli Supreme Court, which will not take up the case for another month. The next main event took place on the Temple Mount. The protests centered around the Damascus Gate spread, and on Friday, May 7th, reached a pitch when police were attacked around the Temple Mounts' outskirts, and stones were thrown at Jewish worshipers. Under the command of a new police commissioner whose background as the head of Magav is the use of force, the police stormed the Temple Mount using stun grenades inside the Al Aqsa Mosque. While the assault may have been justified, it was stupid. The temple mount has been a flashpoint since 1928 and probably before, and the police actions are unforgivable. On the other hand, their efforts to gain control of rioting represent no attempt at changing the status quo on the Temple Mount, as Israel's critics claim. Things went from bad to worse on Monday ( May 10th) afternoon when Hamas gave Israel two hours to remove all police from the Temple Mount and Sheikh Jarrah, something Hamas knew Israel would not do. Israel had earlier ignored a few missile firings believing that Hamas had no interest in confrontation. Most of Israel was expecting a missile attack on Tel Aviv. To everyone's surprise, Hamas fired a round of seven missiles at Jerusalem. Israel had no choice but to respond. (click here to continue) Who Knew Jews? Pew Knew Jews! Highlights from a landmark survey The long awaited sequel to the 2013 Pew survey of American Jews has just dropped - at a perfect time in the Torah reading cycle, as we open the book of Numbers with a census of the Israelites. You can find the Pew-Jew survey here and download all 250 pages. I'll have lots to say about it over the coming weeks. For now, here's a taste of some key results and some instant reactions.... Since 2013 (see table on the right), there's been an uptick on many of these categories, in particular the top three. While "observing Jewish law" has declined, I would contend that for Jews, "religion," ethics, law and culture are completely intertwined. My writing on the Holocaust has attempted to demonstrate that the "religion" of American (and Israeli) Jews has been profoundly influenced by that still-evolving phenomenon. And ethics and social justice are central to how we practice our faith. And traditional food is climbing, which is good, because I'm on Team Latke! The survey shows that the American Jewish population has risen over the past decade, despite all the predictions of our demise. We love those pets, don't we? Once again, Jews seem to downplay "religion" but culture, literature and family are huge components of who we are. We are coalescing around the idea of Judaism as a civilization rather than a faith. Diversity is growing markedly among the younger generation of Jews. (Similar trends are found in the increase of LGBT Jews). Synagogues need to take notice. For the three tables below, note that there is considerable shifting among the denominations - and that fully a third of Orthodox migrate out of orthodoxy, which accounts for the fact that the percentage of Orthodox among American Jews as a whole has not increased as much as the birthrate might suggest. But the political divide between Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews has increased dramatically and intermarriage has become the norm. See There are more American Jews - and they're staying Jewish 10 key findings about Jewish Americans | Pew Research Center Sog Five takeaways from Pew's massive study of American Jews - The Washington Post. To be continued... Shabbat Shalom and Happy Shavuot Rabbi Joshua Hammerman Temple Beth El 350 Roxbury Road Stamford, Connecticut 06902 203-322-6901 | www.tbe.org    A Conservative, Inclusive, Spiritual Community

Shabbat-O-Gram for October 27

Shabbat-O-Gram

   

Above: a scene from Tuesday night's inspiring Reyut panel discussion

See our complete Fall and Holidays photo album and 

Click here for text and audio of  High Holiday sermons

Check out next summer's Israel @ 70 Tour - and reserve now! 

Shabbat Shalom!

 

Mazal tov to Aaron Eben and his three-generation TBE family, as he becomes bar mitzvah this Shabbat morning.  Our portion is Lech Lecha and on Shabbat morning we'll be talking about Jewish names and why we change them. See the parsha packet. And join us Friday night as well for another wonderful musical Shabbat.  Next week marks the 100^th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration and we will be hosting the AJC's Director of Contemporary Jewish Life, Steven Bayme.  Make sure to be here for that and for the Hoffman Lecture on November 7, featuring Daniel Gordis and Peter Beinart.

 

 

"The Band's Visit"

 

Last night I was able to see the new Broadway musical, "The Band's Visit."  It opens officially on November 9, but already the buzz is sky high, with nightly sellouts.  I really enjoyed this story of an Egyptian police band that gets sidetracked to a dead-end Israeli development town in the 1990s.  The acting is superb, the music spirited, the theme universal and the ambiance authentically Israeli.  The overarching message is of overcoming difficulties in communication. The premise of the show is a mix up at the border that sends the band to Bet Hatikva, instead of Petach Tikva, "with a P."  English is the common ground where the Israelis and Egyptians meet, but it's also slippery ground for all of them and the words never flow easily.  In some ways, though, the communications issues are more acute among couples and families that have known each other for years in the town.  It was nice to see a show about Arabs and Israelis where not a word is spoken about territories, terrorism or anything remotely political.  A definite two thumbs up!

Warding off Evil Spirits, Jewishly

For this week of Halloween, for those interested in a variety of responses to the question, 'Should Jewish children trick or treat?" click here.  And if you click three times, you can escape the clutches of the Wicked Witch of the West!  One way to resolve the dilemma of whether or not to go out would be to trick or treat in a Jewish costume.

You can also take a look at my packet on Vampires in the Jewish tradition.

 

Meanwhile, if you are concerned about how to ward off evil spirits, Jewish folklore provides lots of advice.  Because, you see, over the centuries, no matter what the rabbis poo-poohed, the ordinary folk in the country side were spitting on their fingers and going "poo, poo, poo." Jewish folk religion was - and is - full of the occult.  Below are some helpful hints, direct from my great great grandmother, whom I contacted at a seance, assisted by the Long Island Extra Large (the Medium was unavailable)

  

How to Ward off Evil in Jewish Myth and Superstition

 

Spirits of the dead who wander between heaven and earth and are trapped, unable to ascend:    Wear a prayer shawl and blow a shofar (preferably in the cemetery where the bodies of the wandering souls are buried).  The gates of heaven will open for the souls to enter. (From "The Boy Who Blew the Shofar," Gabriel's Palace: Jewish Mystical Tales.)

 

Stand inside a chalk circle to protect yourself from evil spirits.

 

Say the Shema to ward off demons.

 

To keep demons away, read Psalm 91.

 

To exorcise a dybbuk, you need a minyan (ten adults past B'nei Mitzvah age) and a rabbi.  The rabbi will contact the spirit and try to convince it to leave the person and move on to the afterlife (heaven). A dybbuk is a wandering spirit who has invaded a human being.  You can spot a dybbuk because they will sometimes speak nonsense or behave in a strange and disturbed manner. 

 

Red string is said to ward off evil.

 

Salt protects one from demons and evil spirits. Place it in the corners of the room where evil spirits like to hide.

 

To put a golem to rest - erase God's name on his forehead. Angels can provide protection from demons and evil spirits.

 

Spitting 3 times is done in response to seeing or hearing something especially evil or good.  Spitting protects against demons.

 

When traveling, wear a metal pin on your clothing as protection against evil.

 

 

 

The Religious Landscape

 

A very interesting survey on the American religious landscape came out this fall, based on interviews of over 100,000 Americans from every state.  It's summarized here.  The headline finding from a national perspective is that white Christians, once the dominant religious group in the U.S., now account for fewer than half of all adults living in the country. Today, fewer than half of all states are majority white Christian.

But for me the more interesting finding is that the religiously unaffiliated-those who identify as "atheist," "agnostic," or "nothing in particular"-now account for nearly one-quarter (24%) of Americans. Since the early 1990s, this group has roughly tripled in size (see the chart below).

 

This is not just a Jewish phenomenon, but for Jews it has unique implications, because Jewish identification can be - and often is - based on peoplehood rather than religion. But for us the key is that what we are seeing in the Jewish community is reflected everywhere.

 

See also this recent Washington Post article on the state of American Jewry.

 

Embracing Auschwitz

Finally, my article "Embracing Auschwitz" summarizing some the themes from my High Holidays sermons, appeared in this week's New York Jewish Week.  Here it is.

 As a rabbi, I've long felt that the Holocaust took up far too much Jewish bandwidth, smothering our joy and replacing it with resentment. It posed questions that were unanswerable, eclipsed centuries of achievement, gave us a pretext to hate others and gave our children the excuse to opt out of this Debbie Downer of a religion altogether.

 

But recently I've come around to a very different perspective, one validated by the pending release, on Nov. 3, of a video game. Not just any video game, but "Call of Duty: WW2," the long-awaited next installment of a series that has sold 30 million units worldwide. What makes this one different is that it will depict the Holocaust, a topic avoided in prior WW2 video games, and the creators indicate that the subject is being handled authentically and truthfully.

 

"We didn't want to shy away from history," creative director Bret Robbins told Mashable.

"We wanted to be very respectful of it. Some very, very dark things happened during this conflict, and it felt wrong for us to ignore that."

 

As a response to the recent surge of anti-Semitism, the Holocaust is increasingly being brought into the mainstream of popular culture. Aside from "Call of Duty," this year's hit conventional board game is called "Secret Hitler," which simulates the rise of fascism. The subject has become so prevalent in social and political conversation that a rule was created, Godwin's Law, asserting that if any discussion goes on long enough, eventually someone or something will be compared to Hitler.   

 

The Holocaust is everywhere.

 

Back in the 1970s, Elie Wiesel disparaged the lowbrow TV mini-series "Holocaust" as "untrue and offensive." But the series was seen by 20 million West Germans, half the country's population, which led to massive reforms in the German educational system. Hopefully after the release of "Call of Duty," millions of fans will convert their gamer's rush into a strengthened commitment never to let such evil prevail again.

 

Wiesel also said that anyone who hears the account of a witness becomes a witness. With Wiesel gone and the survivor generation dwindling, it is time for Jews to embrace Auschwitz and to fully assimilate the power of its narrative into our collective story. I believe Jews are finally ready to do just that - and that Judaism itself is adapting to prepare us for that role.

 

In the 2013 Pew survey of American Jews, what stood out most was the response to the question, "What does it mean to be Jewish?" Leading the way by a large margin was "remembering the Holocaust," at 73 percent. If there is a core to the Jewish self-image, a consensus narrative, that story is far more likely to revolve around what occurred at Auschwitz than at Sinai.

 

Jews, like all people, crave to live lives of joy, love, acceptance, community and faith. After seven decades of going through various stages of grief, we are at last recognizing the potency of the Holocaust message and its potential to help us check those positive boxes. What used to evoke only guilt and vulnerability is becoming a source of vitality and inspiration. While the narrative remains utterly shattering, sparks of hope are beginning to emerge.

 

In a series of sermons over the recent High Holidays, I demonstrated how classical Judaism is now being interpreted anew through the prism of this epochal event, and a "Torah of Auschwitz" is emerging.

 

Keep in mind that I use the term "Torah" with some deliberate irony - it is intended to provoke thought, not to show disrespect. For in the broadest sense, the word means "sacred teaching," and as a verb it connotes an ongoing, evolving process of discovery. I contend that such a "Torah"- like process of sacred discovery has been dramatically aroused by the epochal events of 70 years ago.

 

For example, in Leviticus 19:14, the Torah of Sinai says that we should not place a stumbling block before the blind. In Germany today, there are memorial plates in the ground for Jewish victims - "Stolpersteine," or stumble stones, they are called, because when you stumble over them you have to notice. As of last January, there are 56,000 Stolpersteine throughout the country. So the "Torah of Auschwitz" offers this corollary to Leviticus: "Yes, you should place these stumble stones everywhere a victim lived, to remove blinders from the eyes of those who try to forget their suffering." 

 

Or take Deuteronomy 17:19, the commandment to remember what Amalek did to Israel in the wilderness, attacking the meek and innocent.  For centuries, this has been interpreted as a call for vigilance in the face of evil. But in light of Auschwitz, this commandment has been reinterpreted, not as a call to punish the villains, but rather to remember the victims and to ensure that never again should a cry from the depths of despair, danger and loneliness, from anywhere and anyone, go unheeded. 

 

Sinai's Torah also calls upon Israel to love the stranger - no fewer than 36 times - "because you were strangers in the land of Egypt." Egypt was a living hell for the Israelites, as was Auschwitz for Jews. But in Egypt, save for Pharaoh's daughter's rescue of baby Moses, there were no Raoul Wallenbergs or Oskar Schindlers to buck the genocidal trend. 

In stark contrast, Yad Vashem has honored at least 26,120 Righteous Among the Nations from 51 countries. So, the "Torah of Auschwitz" states "Love the stranger," because not only do you know how it feels to be a stranger who was hated, but you also know how it feels to be a stranger who was, occasionally and inexplicably, loved.

 

Just as the evil perpetrated by the Nazis has no historical parallel, so does the courage of that era dwarf anything we see in the Bible. As the decades pass, selfless supernovas like Janusz Korczac, Mordechai Anielewicz and Hannah Senesh will further brighten the midnight sky as their stories merge into the collective, sacred narrative.

 

Jews need to embrace this story with love, conviction and overflowing pride at the unfathomable fact that somehow we survived this genocidal onslaught. And we survived with one mission only: to tell the tale. As the release of "Call of Duty: WW2" demonstrates, the world has never been more receptive to, and in need of, that message.

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman