Our Diversity Is Our Strength
On any given day this summer, our Wise Temple and Schools campus is alive with the energy of children. We host three programs running simultaneously, weaving together a tapestry of activity and joy.
Recently, around 2:45pm, I stepped outside and saw a line of family-sized SUVs waiting in the carpool line to pick up children from the Aaron Milken Center. Moms, dads, and nannies greeted their little ones with big hugs, their love unmistakable.
At the same time, kids involved in our Wise Readers to Leaders program were immersed in a multicultural day filled with discovery. Volunteer Junior Literacy Leaders from our region’s public and private schools brought their enthusiasm to the program as they mentored the young scholars. Latino, Black, Middle Eastern, and children of many other backgrounds worked together to craft large posters depicting the cultures of China, India, African nations, and other regions.
Into the mix stepped the middle school Wise Readers to Leaders scholars as they emerged from Zeldin-Hershenson Hall after hearing inspiring potential career insights generously shared by members of the WRTL board of directors. In its eleventh year, the committed board is mainly composed of West LA Jews but also including a sprinkling of other ethnicities.
Meanwhile, on the large commons and at Katz Pavillion, our Wise Camp, children were laughing and playing as they enjoyed their fun-filled days of field trips, sports, and Jewish community building.
As I stood there and reflected on the diversity of faces and experiences before me, I was reminded of a profound passage from an ancient Jewish text, the Targum Jonathan—an Aramaic interpretation of the Bible likely composed in the third century:
“And YHWH Elohim created the human in two formations; and took dust from the place of the house of the sanctuary, and from the four winds of the world, and mixed from all the waters of the world, and created them red, black, and white; and breathed into their nostrils the inspiration of life, and there was in the body of the first human the inspiration of a speaking spirit, unto the illumination of the eyes and the hearing of the ears.”
Nearly 1,700 years ago, its author imagined the story of creation as a celebration of humanity’s wondrous diversity. The first human was formed as an intricate mosaic of colored soils—God’s embrace of all variations within humankind. Even beyond the celebration of varying skin tones, the passage reveals something deeper in its closing words. It suggests that our capacity for speech, vision, and hearing—the deepest elements of connection and understanding—are products of this extraordinary blend of human diversity.
This notion is echoed in another beloved midrash. The rabbis teach that all humans are descended from Adam and Eve, our shared common ancestor emphasizes that no one can claim a more esteemed ancestry than another. The rabbis, deeply aware of societal inequalities, intentionally crafted this countercultural narrative. Even in their time, they sought to underscore the fundamental equality and dignity inherent in every human life.
Yet, looking around today’s world, it is clear these timeless lessons are tragically lost on many. How easily we humans fail to see others as beings created in the divine image (B’tzelem Elohim). Our perception is often clouded by biases based on skin color, nationality, economic status, gender, physical stature, and countless other differences. Instead of recognizing common humanity, so many in our world easily reduce others to categories of “less than,” undermining their dignity and worth.
The wisdom of our rabbis and ancient ancestors remains as essential today as ever. Humanity’s struggle to see one another through the lens of equality is ongoing, and few understand the painful consequences of this failing better than the Jewish people.
As I stood among our children, from the littlest ones to those on the cusp of adulthood—a radiant variety of skin tones, origins, and cultures surrounded me. In that moment, I realized that each summer at Wise, we create a microcosm of what the world can one day become. Every day is more beautiful than the next: our little paradise that is so filled with the laughter of children and with hope.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Ron Stern