After a Dark Year, a Ray of Light

To most of us, 2020, which promised to be a strong year all around, turned out to be the most devastating in a century. Not since the Spanish Flu did so many innocent people lose their lives to disease. Families were separated. Parents could not see their loved ones. People died alone. Add to that a presidential election that featured Democrats and the Republicans relentlessly bashing each other. The tragic death of George Floyd, demonstrations and riots seemed to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. Everywhere we turned this year, there was a new source of sadness to mourn.

And yet, for all the darkness of 2020, there were some rays of light. Simple things. Good things. People, forced to stay home or quarantine, rose to the challenge of survival and discovered how to feel safe, stable and secure. Streaming became crucial. We shared jokes online. We read, organized and finally got to the projects we had been putting off for years. We created new friendships and business ideas. We still had hope.

There was one more miracle. In the Middle East, power brokers were working to create a historic peace between the UAE, Bahrain and Israel. On September 15, 2020, marshaled by President Donald Trump, the UAE’s Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed the Abraham Accords on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C. This historic statement marked the first normalization of relations between Israel and an Arab country since Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. And we were there for the signing.

Unfortunately, in June, my husband’s father was dying. So, we decided as a family to defy the odds, driving to be at his bedside. Our boys flew in from the West Coast, too. Our need to have closure trumped COVID-19.

We were fortunate to have that special time together as a family, quarantining for several days and simultaneously saying goodbye to my husband’s father and my children’s grandfather. He died with all of us at his bedside. Not many people and their families had that good fortune this year.

With death, as the Jewish faith commands, one’s children are required to say Kaddish on a daily basis for eleven months We all know of the challenges of having a minyan — let alone a mourner’s minyan — these days. But my husband has managed to keep the mitzvah of saying Kaddish daily.

Saying Kaddish was all the more special on September 15. We were fortunate to be invited to the historic signing of the Abraham Accords. As I stood there and witnessed a true miracle on the South Lawn of the White House, I realized that it was soon time to daven (pray) Mincha (the afternoon service). I organized a group of male attendees so that my husband could say Kaddish. What better opportunity to have a live minyan, so rare these days?

Saying Kaddish was all the more special on September 15, at the historic signing of the Abraham Accords.

I stood back and watched this scene. Only moments ago, the world had seen a miracle of the signing of the peace accords. Yet, as I watched the men daven on the very same lawn, with the White House shining yards away, I realized that the simple act of saying Kaddish was the true kiddush hashem — another historic moment.

For me, this scene cemented not only a future for Israel and the Jewish people, but it also solidified a tradition that has endured centuries of Jewish life, even during a pandemic. Being an amateur photographer, I quickly took out my phone and started recording this momentous moment, my small addition to history. My video went viral, spreading this very poignant moment.

There were moments of hope in 2020; some of those moments made history. I was glad to have been a small part of it.

Karen Lehmann Eisner is an event planner who resides in Washington, D.C. and New York City.