Being a part of a loving, egalitarian community built on empathy and mutual respect leads one to behave in more compassionate ways with others whom one encounters in the broader world.
After what we’ve been through together, after everything we’ve seen, one would hope that we’d finally learned our lesson, that we’d figured out how to get along, to embrace and even celebrate our differences so that we might love one another fully.
Imagine the pain of the families who had traveled a great distance for this sacred moment only to see it ruined.
On this Independence Day, let’s celebrate that ideal, and rededicate ourselves to reaching it.
It is easy to forget that each of these lives represents an entire world, each face a family broken.
With all the talk about that dramatic moment at the Oscars, much of the world ignored a more important story, one about true courage and what it really means to come to someone’s defense.
Of their harrowing three-day escape from Dnipro to Odessa to Moldova to Chișinău to Israel, Menachem Mendel said, “So many people helped us to get here.”
Calling out others for failing to see the truth of our experience can be uncomfortable, but it is a discomfort that can lead to greater understanding.
Sadly, we don’t need any more reminders about how rising antisemitism in America and around the world threatens our safety and security. We understand all too well that the Jewish community must be ever vigilant.
Given my experience at the Hartman Institute, my relationships with its leadership, and my great esteem for the values the Institute carries, I was both surprised and horrified to read about a controversy involving it this past week.
