Restoring What Should Have Been Prevented

A few days ago I had a conversation with my sister, who is a physician, and worked as a genetic counselor for years before starting medical school.  I was asking her for some advice.  Without getting into the details, because of our family history I was advised to seek genetic testing and I was asking her about the pros and cons of knowing certain things.  She said, basically, if the knowledge will be able to lead to prevention, then it’s worthwhile; if it will just lead to you walking around anxious about possibilities that you can’t do much about, then it’s not so worthwhile.

Migrant children rest on cots inside the house of Refugee in El Paso, TX

I said, me walking around anxious over things I can’t do much about?  Who do you think you’re talking to?  And then we had a good laugh.  She’s known me all my life.  I do have a tendency on occasion to walk around anxious over things I can’t control which, ironically, might be genetic.  

Of course we want to do whatever we can to prevent bad things from happening.  Medically, for sure.  But also societally.  If we can take actions to ensure that discrimination and persecution not take place, that people live with decency and receive just treatment, we are morally obligated to do so.

Trying to Right What Is Wrong

I shared these thoughts with my congregation, Temple Israel of Great Neck, one week after the shootings at Chabad of Poway:

A week ago, on the last day of Passover, I spoke about how important it is for us to claim religion as a source of affirmation and love, rather than discrimination and violence.  Roughly at the time I was speaking, a hateful murderer was preparing to kill as many innocent worshipers as he could at Chabad of Poway in San Diego.

As we learned more details, we discovered that the murderer is 19 years old, had been influenced by white supremacist teachings, and had also been accused of setting fire to a nearby mosque.  We discovered that the woman killed, Lori Gilbert Kaye, was fatally shot as she tried to protect Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein who was wounded, along with 8-year old Noya Dayan and IDF veteran Almog Peretz.

How awful that the topic of my sermon last week ended up being tragically relevant once again in this way.  Religion as a source of affirmation and love, rather than discrimination and violence.

A woman is dead, leaving behind a husband and a daughter whose lives are shattered.  Those in the synagogue who witnessed the shootings and survived, including children, are traumatized.  

I am angry, frustrated, despondent.  

This happened 6 months after the shootings in Pittsburgh, there have been shootings of Jews in Europe and shootings in churches and mosques the world over.

Which Side Are We On?

Last year I was in Washington with a group of rabbis under the auspices of AJWS (American Jewish World Service), urging our elected officials to advocate for human rights in a variety of areas.  One of our meetings included a conversation with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.  

We discussed a variety of things with her and asked her if she would be prepared to support them.  When we were done with that part of the conversation, one of us asked if there’s anything she wanted us to do that would help her.  And she said, "reclaim scripture."  That was a bit terse so we asked what she meant, and she said, so many religious leaders quote the Bible in order to judge and constrain; as I get to know you and what you stand for, I am asking you to invoke the Bible in order to embrace and empower.  

If, like many people, you sometimes wonder if religion is making the world better or worse, this past month provided grim reminders of religion’s negative potential.  In mid-March we learned of the murder of 50 Muslims in New Zealand by a Christian white supremacist terrorist who, among other things, yearns for the Christian reconquest of the Istanbul.  Just this past week we saw the murder of 100s of Christians in Sri Lanka by Muslim ISIS operatives avenging the murders of Muslims on, as they put it, “the infidel holiday.”

Also quite damaging are the numerous statements and policies that discriminate based on gender and sexuality and ethnicity and race in the name of religion.  

Not just because Senator Gillibrand mentioned it, but because I think it’s one of the most essential issues we can wrestle with as Jews in this point in time, I turn to us and ask, pointedly, Which side are we on?