Overcoming anti-Semitism, sustaining cherished relationships

With the approach of the New Year, 5775, our thoughts turn to our families, security and sense of sanctity as we survey the terrain of our most complex and at times, daunting world. We have just seen an end to the 50 days and nights of continuous attacks by Hamas rockets upon Israel’s cities and innocent men, women and children.
In spite of Israel’s defensive, “Operation Protective Edge,” the world media and the United Nations blame Israel for the deaths of the “innocents” in Gaza and label the Jewish state evil. It is quite clear that Hamas is solely and directly responsible for the loss of innocent Palestinian lives, as Palestinian leader Ahmoud Abbas said himself. Israel did not want this conflict, did not start this conflict and did everything in its power to stop this conflict which has also cost Israel dearly. World Jewry told the truth in a world filled with lies.
The Anti-Defamation League, this year, issued a comprehensive study representative of one billion people worldwide on anti-Semitism. It showed that anti-Semitism has reached new and unprecedented levels. The war in Gaza has further exacerbated the situation.
On the eve of Bastille Day (July 14), Parisian Jews were trapped in a synagogue by pro-Palestinian rioters and had to be rescued by the police. Signs were posted in Rome urging a boycott of 50 Jewish-owned businesses. In central London, anti-Israel protesters targeted a Sainsbury’s grocery, and the manager pulled kosher products off the shelves. The supermarket chain later apologized. In Toulouse, France, a Jewish community center was fire bombed. A shooting at the Jewish Museum in Brussels in May, a month before the latest Gaza conflict began, killed four people. The list of anti-Semitic attacks and rhetoric against world Jewry goes on and on and on and on. Finally, our sense of security at home is shaken by the daily and seemingly unending reports of the wanton murder and barbaric acts perpetrated by Islamic State militants.
While our community has a long and laudable record of fighting anti-Semitism at home and abroad, supporting Israel and bringing people of diverse and religious cultures together, combating extremism and working toward peace, on Rosh Hashanah we are commanded, not only to focus on issues that affect our world, but also the matters that direct and fill our personal lives.

It is a transcendent moment for intensely searching our souls, taking stock of our lives, and performing the difficult task of repentance. On Rosh Hashanah, we pray for the moral courage to turn our lives around, and change our actions or the attitudes that have prevented us from becoming more complete and fulfilled individuals, at peace with ourselves and those around us. Rosh Hashanah demands that we make amends for past mistakes, ask forgiveness for those we have wronged, and set the record right. And, God has given us the inner strength and intellectual capacity to overcome adversity. While we may not be able to control some of the events that affect our lives, be they global or matters of health, finance, or our relationships with others, how we deal with these events is in our control.
Relationships between family members and friends that were once precious can be so again, if we reach out in sincerity and love and focus on not who is to blame, but rather how much we respect, need and love one another. Memories of loved ones that have passed from this life to life-everlasting, can sustain, inspire, and uplift us if we let them. And let us remember, that our faith and fate as a people, teaches and proves that each day brings new opportunities. We are God’s eternal people; our souls are immortal.
Together, during these High Holy Days, which includes Yom Kippur, let us raise our hopes in the blessings that the coming year can bring for all of us as we turn to God and each other.

Rabbi Jay Rosenbaum
Temple Israel