Since October 7th, I have found myself thinking very differently about life in general, the world we live in, values, morals, and ethics. I no longer wonder how the Holocaust/Shoah could have happened, how people could stay quiet, turn a blind eye, or even defend what the Nazis were doing. I see it daily.
I have been reading things that before October 7 I didn’t. I have been exploring different writers and topics to broaden my mind and to keep my heart open in a time when it is broken daily. I was struck by this line of poetry from Robert Frost’s, “After Apple-Picking”.
I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
With the rise of antisemitism over the past decade and what we have seen in the past two months, I have found myself exhausted dealing with all the hate. My family is scared of being publicly Jewish and won’t let me put out an Israeli flag, inflatable Hanukkah decorations, and don’t like me wearing my Israel or IDF hoodie or my new Israeli soccer jersey. I want to go to Israel to volunteer in the fields or at a hospital and they don’t want me to do that either. So, I think of Robert Frost’s words above.
What a great harvest we have had as American Jews over the past 75 years. We wanted to be accepted and we were. We wanted to be publicly Jewish, and we were able to be publicly Jewish. Mezuzahs on our doors with no fear of reprisal. Hanukkiahs in our windows with no fear of vandalism. Wearing our Chai’s or Magen David’s around our necks, outside our shirts, proclaiming our Judaism. Wearing IDF t-shirts or hoodies in public, flying Israeli flags from our flagpoles, big signs identifying our Jewish organizations and synagogues. What a great harvest. Everything we could have desired.
And I am overtired of what it is like today. The growing public hate. The nastiness, antisemitism and Jew hatred on social media. The threat of physical violence because we are Jewish. The fear of having public statements of being on Jewish on our homes or outside our homes or in our windows. Feeling the need to hide a necklace in public with a Jewish symbol. Wondering if it’s safe to wear a hoodie supporting Israel or a t-shirt that says Israel on it.
Throughout history, the Jewish people have lived mostly in exile and have become part of the societies in which we lived. And yet we had pogroms. We had the Shoah. And we have this growing antisemitism and Jew hate in America and around the world. The Presidents of MIT, Harvard, and The University of Pennsylvania could not state, in front of Congress, that threatening a genocide of Jews on campus would violate their policies.
In today’s world, it’s critical that we do two things. First, invest in our Jewish community. This means our time, talent, and treasure. It’s how we have survived for thousands of years. This is not a time to abandon being Jewish, but rather to invest in being Jewish. Secondly, we much reach out to our non-Jewish friends and colleagues and ensure we have their support. The growing hate is not limited to Jew hatred and together we can stand up to hate.
As Robert Frost so eloquently stated,
I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
I desire something different today. I desire the end of hatred. I desire the support of my Jewish community. I desire the support of my non-Jewish friends. Of those things, I will not be overtired and will be energetic and passionate. And it’s a far greater harvest.
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