Synagogue Updates

Friends,

Before getting into the heart of this message, two PSAs:

1. Our MLK Day of Service activities tomorrow have been moved to 3:00 – 5:00pm. This will best enable us to avoid the storm coming this evening. Please feel free to come even if you haven’t officially RSVPed. Be in touch with Hallie with any questions.
2. We will be including a special in-person Prayer for Healing and reflection time as a part of our evening service on Monday evening at 7:45pm. This will take place as a part of our regular evening minyan and will use the same link if you want to join online. If you plan on attending, please let me know so that we can decide between the Chapel and Sanctuary. 

And now back to the regular Sunday email. It is a rare experience that I am at a loss for words, but like many of you, I am not yet able to describe in words the myriad of feelings that I have after yesterday's news reports. 

But I will tell you the two feelings that I am fighting hard against - acceptance and fear. It is too easy to feel that this is the way the world operates and to let it change who we are. As I am still processing, I am going to channel this powerful weekend of MLK's birthday and share a different story that I believe ties into my emotions.

As I have mentioned before, in a previous life, I was a group leader for Operation Understanding - a Black and Jewish dialogue group that took teenagers on a year long process and three week trip to learn about the civil rights movement and the Holocaust. One of the stops on the journey was Selma, Alabama, the site of Bloody Sunday. There were multiple marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama to fight for voting rights. Upon leaving Selma, marchers needed to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge. This bridge is not flat, when you are standing on one side, you can not see what is on the other side. 

When walking across the bridge years ago, I recall feeling a sense of dread, even though it was a peaceful afternoon. I can only imagine the amount of strength it must have taken to begin walking over that bridge for the march, not being able to see what was on the other side but knowing what might be awaiting you. I am in awe of the marchers. 

This ability to persevere and to keep moving forward, to not accept the status quo is where I am finding inspiration at the moment. 

Every time we leave our homes, whether to synagogue, to school, or anywhere else, we don't know what is waiting for us. Whether because of covid, anti-semitism, random accidents, we each have a choice for how much to let fear influence our decisions. And to be clear, fear does need to influence our decisions, but it cannot control our lives. It is too easy to choose to stay home, to choose to avoid wearing Jewish symbols, to avoid coming together. That is not the world I want to live in. Our community has been constantly striving to find our balance and we will continue to do so. Our security committee, which was already scheduled to meet this week, will be once again reviewing our safety protocols.  I want to share two, personal actions that I will be doing this week, in part to fight my own feelings of fear and acceptance:

1. I have long wrestled with the concept of wearing a kippah in public. I like the idea of publicly declaring my Judaism and my connection to the Jewish people, but at the same time wrestle with my own level of observance and how my personal practice reflects on yarmulke wearers. This week, I will be wearing my kippah as I go through my daily life. I feel it is important to visibly demonstrate who I am and my place in the world. 
2. I have always loved that MLK's birthday has been turned into a day of service. As I have often said, I believe one of our jobs when there is darkness is to try to bring light. Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker has a reputation for being a bridge builder and a community leader. We need to follow his example. I want to be very intentional about my bridge building this week and to see what acts of kindness I can do to help others.

There is obviously so much going on in our community right now, with covid, congregants that need support, scary news, according to my weather mom updates - a storm coming tonight. I want to encourage each of you to try to take a few minutes for self care. If we can be of support, or if there is a program or initiative that you think would help with self-care for our community, please let Hallie or me know.  

Ken
513 503 9559

p.s. It feels a little more mundane, but from this long suffering Jets fan, Go Birds!