This Monday evening begins Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. The ugliness of the antisemitism that permeated those dark, difficult, and horrific days has once again risen to the surface. However, we will not let the evils of the past be repeated, not now, not ever. We will not give up hope.
I find hope in the loving support of the greater community who chooses to stand alongside our Jewish people and stand up for us in ways big and small. I find hope in our Jewish community and other partners who join together in unity and solidarity, speak “truth to power,” and pray with our voices, feet, and actions. I find hope in our educational leaders, community and civic leaders, and governmental leaders, who speak out against unmitigated hatred, violence, and xenophobia. I find hope in all of you – our TBS members who are doing your part to make a difference, to change our world for the better. (For some specifics, see the Kulanu section of our TBS website).
I also find hope in our students and teachers: from our very youngest ECC students to our college students. Our students have bright and inquisitive minds, they are eager to learn, keen to be active part of our Jewish community. Our teachers encourage them to explore all that life has to offer. Our teachers are partners with our parents in enabling each student to fulfill their own unique particular destiny in life, shining like a star from heaven. When I see our ECC and Religious School teachers, guided by ECC Director Tamara Levin, and Religious School Interim Director, Janet Liss, lovingly and thoughtfully plan their curricula and lessons, the hope in my heart expands into gratitude. When I observe our students celebrating life here at TBS with joyous abandon, my gratitude is overwhelming.
Hope and gratitude: these can be two of our antidotes to the darkness we feel at the moment. The Talmud teaches us that “the true guardians of a community are the teachers.” Philosopher, rabbi, and social justice activist Abraham Jonathan Heschel expanded on this by stating, “What we need, more than anything else, isn’t textbooks but rather text people. It is the personality of the teacher which is the text that students read – the text that they’ll never forget.” Our teachers are our “text people.” We are so very grateful for the hope that our teachers instill within us, by equipping our children and youth for a brighter future for each and every one of us.
We invite you to join us tonight at 6:00 pm as we celebrate our Religious School Teachers and Madrichim (student teachers) at our Erev Shabbat Family Service: a service of hope and gratitude.
