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May, 2023
Dear Coalition Community,
When I went to work during Passover, no one blinked an eye. Although I was home for the seders, Jen and I went to work during the week and Talyah and Kol went to school. The world continued to spin, and little (outside of our diet) changed. This month, we will have a very different experience when we observe Shavuot. Although this happens with some regularity, I am often struck by the unique experience when an American holiday coincides with a Jewish one. This year, Memorial Day weekend overlaps with Shavuot, which begins on Thursday evening, May 25th. In America, neither holiday is taken too seriously, and that is really a shame. They both provide powerful lessons, particularly in combination, about how to make American Jewish life more compelling and relevant.
Unlike Israel’s Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day), America’s Memorial Day was founded after the close of the Civil War and is mostly observed with picnics, car sales, and rituals that mark the beginning of the summer. Instead, Israelis mark Memorial Day with rituals of reflection and memory best known for an air raid siren that calls the entire country to a hard stop for a minute. Americans are, by in large, aware of Memorial Day and take the day off. Jews in America pass by Shavuot with little notice, and it is often understood as one of the least-observed Jewish holidays.
There was an article in Ha’aretz several years ago about the ties between Memorial Day and Shavuot. American Memorial Day invites us to reflect on the heavy price of freedom, to explore the core values that carry forward our nation, and to ask the question, “what do we stand for.” Shavuot is also about this question, interestingly. After the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed and the rabbis began to shift the focus of Shavuot away from the sacrificial system surrounding the grain harvest, they turned to the story of the Exodus and the receiving of the Torah at Sinai. This newly-framed Shavuot holiday, then, is now understood as a reflection that freedom is not sufficient. What is required is purpose! It invites us to reflect on the heavy price of slavery, to explore the core values that carry forward our Jewish civilization, and to ask the question, “what do we continue to stand for.”
I think it is a missed opportunity to not think about this during the cycle of our Jewish year, just as it is a missed opportunity to not reflect on these questions during our American year. When we attend a BBQ, but don’t think about freedom and the associated costs, we are missing a chance to be relevant in continuing the journey of our nation. And when we see Shavuot as a time to eat cheesecake and learn Torah alone, we are missing the chance to be relevant in continuing the journey of the Jewish people. And this year, with these overlapping holidays, we miss a chance to see how these identities – Jewish and American – support one another.
Imagine a Jewish world where we insisted that Shavuot was not just a time to reflect on the purpose of Judaism, but also the purpose of being an American. The traditional all-night study could include the 10 Commandments and the 10 Amendments that make up the Bill of Rights. In our effort to keep the Jewish customs of this holiday, we might just need to have a dairy BBQ! Synagogues could also hold Memorial Day rituals where we recite Kaddish in memory of those who died in defense of our nation. Memorial Day could, in this way, also become a Jewish holiday that finds new life separate from the American norms that sideline its important historical meaning.
I offer this image not because our observance of Shavuot or Memorial Day is insufficient alone, but rather to offer that they may be incomplete. And, to invite you, during this year when they come during the same weekend, to think about how you might use one to complete the other. I hope that your Shavuot and Memorial Day observances are filled with thoughtful reflection, joyful food, and meaningful connection to these multiple civilizations to which we are connected!
Kol Tuv (Be Well),
Rabbi James
TZEDAKAH APPEAL:
During this desperate time for many, we think of and reach out to the many who are struggling.
HIAS : “Welcome the Stranger. Protect the Refugee” The oldest refugee agency in the world, established in 1902 as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. http://hias.org
American Jewish Committee: addressing challenges Jews are facing worldwide, defending Democratic values for all. ajc.org
JEWISH News and Culture:
https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/
https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org
https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/language-literature-culture/the-shmooze
ENLIGHTENMENT and ENTERTAINMENT FROM YOUR SITE LIBRARY…
Go to“Learn” tab, scroll down to “Jewish Resources” and click “MY JEWISH LEARNING” (or go directly to MyJewishLearning.com).
Here you’ll find an aggregator that is regularly updated with a huge breadth of content and all sorts of goodies and surprises!
For example, the“Daily Guide to Zoom Events, Livestream and Other Online Resources.” Among the wide range of subjects, programs and activities you’ll see here are: “The Only Jewish Miss America” (Museum of Jewish Heritage), “Mindfulness Melodies” (Jewish Life in Maine), “Art as a Spiritual Practice,” A Midwives, Musicians, Soldiers and Rabbis: Whose Stories will Become History?,” “Bioethics During a Pandemic,” etc., etc.
And other treats too! Recipes for the holidays and everyday: “Potato Chip Schnitzel, Shwarma Chicken Kabobs, Roasted Butternut Squash with Orange Tahini, Briskett Tacos, Ethiopian Red Lentil Soup,” etc., etc…
Come visit and linger, you’ll be glad you did!
https://marketplace.jewishtogether.org
OTHER RECOMMENDED MEDIA
“The Swimmers,” on NETFLIX.
MEMBER PICKS…
FOR YOUR READING PLEASURE
“A Pigeon and a Boy,” by Meir Shalev
Review: “A powerful novel of two love stories, separated by half a century but connected by one enchanting act of devotion — of how deeply we love, of what home is, and why we, like pigeons trained to fly in one direction only, must eventually return to it…”
“My Russian Grandmother and her American Vacuum Cleaner,” also by Meir Shalev
Review: “A charming tale of family ties, over-the-top housekeeping, and the sport of storytelling in the small village of Nahalal…”
“The Baron,“ TYCOON Baron Maurice de Hirsch (1831-1896) by Matthias b. Lehmann
Review: “Philanthropy combines genuine compassion with the display of power”
In his lifetime, Hirsch was a giant of the “gilded age of Jewish philanthropy.” He was a German-born Jew who lived in a palace in Paris and kept his office in Vienna. He cut his biggest deal, a railway, with the Ottoman sultan. (When Hercule Poirot took the Orient Express, his train ran on Hirsch’s tracks!)
Hirsch funded schools and vocational training for Jewish communities not only in the Ottoman cities, but the Russian Pale, the French colonies of North Africa and in large areas of Argentina. The Jewish Colonization Association, the vehicle for his Argentine settlements, was the largest charitable organization in the world at a time when philanthropy was the principal form of Jewish political action…”
Visit LINKS OF INTEREST (on this site under “For Members” tab) to read an excerpt of an essay on Baron de Hirsch, his vision and involvement with Jewish farming in Connecticut.
ACTIVITIES TO CONSIDER
The Great Courses, learn a language, instrument or subject; create something new or master a skill… and more. www.TheGreatCourses.com
jigsawplanet.com — Jigsaw puzzles. Be forewarned, (mildly) addictive!