First the good news. Thanks to Rabbi Dean and Cantor Shayndel for hosting our first (and hopefully only) online Seder. Honestly, it was good! Not as good as when we gather together, but it is important to be in community to the best of our ability. Next Year In Person!
At the part of the Seder where we offer to Let All Who Are Hungry Come and Eat, Rabbi asked how we can help the Food Bank feed people. The answer is to donate money. With the purchasing power of buying by the truckload, the Food Bank can acquire four times the amount of food than any of us can get per dollar. A special Virtual Food Drive for Temple Beth Hillel has been set up here. Please help.
And now for the somewhat disturbing news, as if we don’t have enough to worry about.
The other day one of my co-workers asked why do some people blame Jews for, well, pretty much everything. We discussed the Middle Ages, when our halachic hygiene protected us from the worst of the plagues, so we were an easy target for fault. And here we are again in a plague.
Anyone who has studied our history should know and be scared of what could happen – and then this happened last week. Two synagogues in Huntsville, Alabama were vandalized. Swastikas were painted on the walls of Chabad House and Etz Chayim Synagogue. One door was tagged with the phrase “Gas em All.” To the credit of the larger community, cleanup was accomplished quickly by members, neighbors, and Huntsville Police officers.
Now may not be the time to preach about politics, but I am too angry not to. I have cited statistics over the past eighteen months about the increase in anti-Semitic crimes since the last presidential election. Now I am afraid we have to face bigotry multiplied by the stupidity of fear. It is not a great leap from “the Chinese virus” to “the Jewish problem.”
So you all know my tag line. I’m not going to leave you upset. I am going to encourage EVERYONE to get involved in removing a president who tolerates, no – encourages racism. And we need to have a Congress that supports a president trying to unite us. But we live in California you say? True Blue California, how can we help? We can get involved in elections in other states. We can support Senate candidates in contested states like Colorado, Maine, North Carolina, Arizona, and hopefully Kentucky. We can write letters and text to voters in these states. We can even knock on doors in Nevada. I speak not in theory but from experience in all these actions.
We can defeat Coronavirus. We can defeat hatred and have a competent, compassionate government. Every Kabbalat Shabbat we pray for the leaders of our nation to govern with wisdom and forbearance. But it is not going to happen through prayer alone. We have to do the work, because
From the President – April 17, 2020
April 17, 2020 by tbhrich •
First the good news. Thanks to Rabbi Dean and Cantor Shayndel for hosting our first (and hopefully only) online Seder. Honestly, it was good! Not as good as when we gather together, but it is important to be in community to the best of our ability. Next Year In Person!
At the part of the Seder where we offer to Let All Who Are Hungry Come and Eat, Rabbi asked how we can help the Food Bank feed people. The answer is to donate money. With the purchasing power of buying by the truckload, the Food Bank can acquire four times the amount of food than any of us can get per dollar. A special Virtual Food Drive for Temple Beth Hillel has been set up here. Please help.
And now for the somewhat disturbing news, as if we don’t have enough to worry about.
The other day one of my co-workers asked why do some people blame Jews for, well, pretty much everything. We discussed the Middle Ages, when our halachic hygiene protected us from the worst of the plagues, so we were an easy target for fault. And here we are again in a plague.
Anyone who has studied our history should know and be scared of what could happen – and then this happened last week. Two synagogues in Huntsville, Alabama were vandalized. Swastikas were painted on the walls of Chabad House and Etz Chayim Synagogue. One door was tagged with the phrase “Gas em All.” To the credit of the larger community, cleanup was accomplished quickly by members, neighbors, and Huntsville Police officers.
Now may not be the time to preach about politics, but I am too angry not to. I have cited statistics over the past eighteen months about the increase in anti-Semitic crimes since the last presidential election. Now I am afraid we have to face bigotry multiplied by the stupidity of fear. It is not a great leap from “the Chinese virus” to “the Jewish problem.”
So you all know my tag line. I’m not going to leave you upset. I am going to encourage EVERYONE to get involved in removing a president who tolerates, no – encourages racism. And we need to have a Congress that supports a president trying to unite us. But we live in California you say? True Blue California, how can we help? We can get involved in elections in other states. We can support Senate candidates in contested states like Colorado, Maine, North Carolina, Arizona, and hopefully Kentucky. We can write letters and text to voters in these states. We can even knock on doors in Nevada. I speak not in theory but from experience in all these actions.
We can defeat Coronavirus. We can defeat hatred and have a competent, compassionate government. Every Kabbalat Shabbat we pray for the leaders of our nation to govern with wisdom and forbearance. But it is not going to happen through prayer alone. We have to do the work, because
We are what we do.