What makes you Jewish?
The painful reality of antisemitism is that it often pushes Jews inward. That is, when we feel threatened, we turn to our communities for strength and support. In the past, when Israel was threatened, or even decades earlier, when the Nazis were ascendent in Germany, Jews came to synagogues or gathered for mass rallies. Rabbi Stephen Wise famously convened a gathering of thousands at Madison Square Garden to protest against Nazi Germany. These times are different. We turn to social media to express our anxieties, seek wisdom, and find other Jews. Given recent events, I expected larger crowds at synagogue, but that has not been the case.
Why has our response in 2022 been so different from that in the past? One explanation, perhaps, is that our own personal Jewish story doesn’t include accounts of connection to the Jewish community. Sure, we have Jewish friends, eat Jewish food, attend one or two services during the Jewish holy days, but how and when do we experience deep Jewishness with other Jews? There are a range of options: active membership in Jewish organizations, attendance at worship, study, and communal Jewish travel, to name a few. I still remember the powerful gathering at Wise on the Friday after 9/11. The sanctuary was packed and the sense of community brought solace and needed reassurance.
What about our children? Do we provide communal Jewish experiences for them? Individualized Jewish experiences such as B’nai Mitzvah or family travel to Israel are certainly meaningful, but those experiences don’t reinforce communal engagement.
When they attend Jewish school (daily or supplemental), take Israel trips with peers, join youth groups or participate in Jewish Greek life in college, they form the basis of their Jewish story because they engage Jewishly with other Jews. Do you have a story of Jewish communal engagement? Do your kids? What can you do to add to that story?
—Rabbi Ron Stern