I recently was delighted to meet a former Hebrew school student and his mother at the market.
The woman proudly shared that her son was active in combating anti-Semitism in his school, reporting swastikas on lockers and publicly condemning the hostility some of them were experiencing.
I congratulated the boy’s sense of justice and asked him my usual question about what his favorite mitzvah is.
“Fighting hate crimes. Making sure every person feels safe in my school and in my neighborhood.”
Anti-Semitism is undeniably on campuses — even at some elementary schools — and along with the subtle and not-so-subtle occurrences comes the obligation to stand up and condemn them, and prevent them from happening again.
I could give you a whole slew of examples, many of which you are likely to be somewhat familiar with, but this is the very problem in Jewish life today, particularly among young college students.
We understandably become so preoccupied with Jew hatred — preoccupying ourselves with proclaiming what we are not — that we’ve forgotten to explore what we actually are.
We are so involved in damage control that we’re failing to give ourselves and our children a positive Jewish identity.
I worry about a generation of Jews whose closest association with Judaism is fighting anti-Semitism. Although it is certainly a noble preoccupation, it’s hard to imagine taking Judaism into adulthood, cultivating good feelings — joyous feelings — of being a Jew if we are exploring only how terrible it is to be picked on.
Anyone in a thriving business knows that with all the PR in the world, and all the successful attempts to clean up Yelp pages from negative reviews, without a really good product, you have nothing.
So I suggest that this Friday evening, together with friends or family, let’s bask in the priceless product: what we are.
Let’s look at the values that Jews not only died for, but lived for.
Let’s bask in the knowledge that we are a vibrant nation; millions of Jews are learning about their Judaism today more than any other time in history.
Let’s experience the joys of Judaism — the glow of the Shabbat candles, the wine of the Kiddush, the crusty challah, the words of our timeless Torah to uplift and invigorate us all, and the prayers that connect us to our Creator … all in a tech-free zone, where we’re not just hearing each other, but really listening.
Let’s show the world not only our intolerance for racism, but that Jewish people love being Jewish.
Rebbetzin Shula Bryski is co-director of Chabad of Thousand Oaks and the founder of rentaspeech.com.
