Hope Amidst Turmoil

Hope Amidst Turmoil

Rabbi Len Muroff | Temple Beth Ohr

העדתי בכם היום את השמים ואת הארץ החיים והמות נתתי לפניך הברכה והקללה ובחרת בחיים למען תחיה אתה וזרעך

Ha'idoti bakhem hayom et hashamayim ve'et ha'aretz, hachayim vehamavet natati lefanecha, haberacha vehaklalah, uvacharta bachayim lema'an tichyeh atah vezar'echa.

I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day: I have put before you, life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life— so you and your offspring may live.

Deuteronomy 30:19

Things must change. Now. Deuteronomy 30:19, cited above, guided American Jews for generations. Our ancestors came to these shores grateful for the opportunity to live here, where they could pray as they liked and could raise their families in a safe place.

But now something significant has changed, as we no longer feel safe simply being Jews in a public space. This is real and is shocking, upsetting, and completely abhorrent, and yet, sadly, it is not anything new.

This is a sobering time that leaves us wondering about our place in American society and about how we can live publicly without endangering ourselves.

There is much that is of great concern. The killings in Washington D.C. on May 21st, 2025, and fire bombings in Boulder, CA, on June 4th, 2025, are mind-numbing.

In her first words spoken publicly since Sunday's gruesome attack in Colorado, one of the victims, Barbara Steinmetz, an 88-year-old Holocaust Survivor, told NBC News she "wants people to be nice and decent to each other and to be kind and respectful”. Seems like a low bar; one we should be able to reach.

The latest incidents are a continuation of trends that began over twenty-five years ago.

On August 10, 1999, at around 10:50 a.m. American white supremacist Buford O. Furrow Jr. walked into the lobby of the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills and opened fire with an Uzi submachine gun, firing 70 bullets into the complex.

In 2023, in separate incidents, two men were shot in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood of Los Angeles, when they were leaving synagogue after morning services. Those attempted murders shook up the neighborhood’s Jewish residents and made people, including myself, feel very vulnerable and unsafe.

There is a creeping sense of insecurity for all Jewish people in this country. People are removing mezuzot and not wearing Stars of David in public. Others have pledged not to attend any Jewish event that meets in public.

Let me share what the writer Sara Hurwitz said at a recent lecture:

“Antisemitic acts and thoughts are here to stay. We cannot do anything but dive more deeply into living Jewishly and learning more about our Jewish Tradition. Also we must aim to bond more closely with our fellow Jews.”

Choosing life in the face of hatred is a difficult choice but it is a wise choice.

We can hold two truths at the same time. We can be worried and prepared. Concerned about living as a public Jew and still act Jewishly.