On May 18th the Floor Session of the State Assembly began in prayer led by Rabbi Mona Alfi of Congregation B’nai Isreal, the oldest synagogue in California, founded during the Gold Rush, just down the street from the State Capitol where we were assembled on the meaningful occasion of the introduction of California Jewish Heritage Month, Bill ACR195.
To mark this occasion, 14 women and men were honored for their roles as community leaders. I traveled, with a small group of Angelenos, at the invitation of our friend, Karl Thurmond, one of the honorees, to support and celebrate him as he received this inaugural year honor for distinguished service to the Jewish community.
I was in the very same room a decade ago, accompanying another honoree, Michele Rodri z”l, a Holocaust survivor and dear friend who was being honored along with an extraordinary group of survivor elders for their resilience, their lifetimes of service and as beacons of resilience and Jewish endurance. Since 2010, with Resolution 31, and with the creation of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus in 2013, these annual ceremonies were treasured by survivor elders, their families and the lawmakers who hosted them, and walked them, with dignity, ritual and respect, down the aisle.
In my years working with Holocaust survivors, I was often asked to nominate Holocaust survivor elders for this honor. Each year the invitation became harder to realize, my asks met with either “Thank you but I have been honored” or “I don’t think I can make the trip.” Each year it was clear there would come a day when that cycle, that rhythm, of honoring would become muted until the day when the legacy was finally an historic article and an indelible past.
On my first visit to the State Capitol, I was awed by the grandeur and history, as well as the vibrant emerald green carpet that I wasn’t expecting: somewhere between a shamrock, a newly mown lawn and a brand-new dollar bill. This time I expected that rush of green when I entered the room but was surprised that it was muted. Maybe the carpet was 10 years older? Maybe my eyes are older. This time it was a return to a sacred space, to an institution that held so much memory – I closed my eyes and imagined all the survivors I knew and didn’t know who progressed down this corridor, their district’s elected official holding their arm, supporting them physically and emotionally with their presence.
This May 18, with a calendar date “chai” dedicated to life and to Jewish service and leadership, I was touched by the power of ceremonial continuity. In the first piece I wrote for The Jewish Journal, 13 years ago, I explored the relay of history, passed dor v’ dor from survivor to child survivor to the generations who would follow them.
On this day, 14 remarkable honorees from across the state included Angelenos Julie and Jonah Platt and Karl Thurmond. Assembly member Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino), the bill’s co-author was joined by a long list of legislators who supported its proceeding. Gabriel lifted up the Jewish story over more than 175 years and expressed pride “that our Jewish community has contributed in deeply meaningful ways to the building of California,” citing contributions in building “not only synagogues and community institutions, but we have helped to build unions, universities, hospitals, film studios, tech companies, legal aid organizations and public institution that have strengthened American life for everyone.”
Many Assembly members shared potent words of allyship for their Jewish colleagues and constituents including Assembly member Isaac Bryan (D-Pico Robertson), who said: “I couldn’t be more honored to be here the first time that this floor is celebrating Jewish American History Month. Jewish American history is American history. It has made the world better. It has made our country better. It makes California better, and I respectfully ask for your aye vote”
On this morning, as the gathering commenced, Gabriel shared breaking preliminary news of the mosque shooting in San Diego. Three innocents murdered, two suspects dead and yet another community traumatized. A new tragedy to grieve and grapple with, in a line of incomprehensible and increasingly comprehensible tragedies where the preciousness of human life is subordinated to the brutality some humans will enact.
On this beautiful Sacramento morning, in the face, perhaps in defiance of, so much in the world that is painful, tenuous and deeply troubling, we convened and we lifted up what connects us– the promise of growth and healing, and the potent ability for people to endure, to create change, and to scaffold our communities in justice and truth. Rabbi Harold Schulweis z”l taught us that the memory of the Holocaust must be carried “as a flame and not a stone.” May the survivors, and their stories, memories and legacies , continue to light our way.
B’shem…..Michele Rodri z”l, Marie Kaufman z”l, Curt Lowens z”l, Armin Goldstein z”l, Freda Goldstein z”l, Idele Stapholz z”l, Maria Wida z”l. Peter Daniels z”l, Yisrael Zilberstein z”l, Lidia Budgor z”l, Joshua Kaufman z”l, Regina Lewin z”l, Jack Lewin z”l, Kalman Aron z”l, Henry Oster z”l, David Lenga z”l, Avraham Perlmutter z”l, Sarah Moskovitz z”l, Yitzchak Moskowitz z”l, Betty Cohen z”l, Dana Schwartz z”l, Vera Hirtz z”l and Estelle Laughlin z”l.
Samara Hutman is the co-founder of The Righteous Conversations Project, a program of Remember Us and Animate Possibility, a program of Second Nurture, where she serves as Associate Director.
