While this isn’t even the first time in recent months that we have seen horrific flyers distributed in neighborhoods where our congregants reside, we need to name that it has happened again.
As many of you are aware, on Sunday morning, many in our community (Jewish and those of other faiths/backgrounds) awoke to little baggies filled with corn and an antisemitic flyer at the bottom of their driveway.
Your rabbis and Stephen were immediately in touch with one another, reaching out to those directly affected and communicating with the ADL to make a report and walk through the next steps.
All this was happening as 250 Jewish students flooded our building with skips and smiles to see their friends, teachers, and rabbis.
Each and every Sunday, these kids of all ages enter the sanctuary at different points throughout the morning for t’fillah, prayer. And each and every Sunday, Rabbi Max and I invite the students to rise for Shema. We ask them to wiggle their toes and to feel their feet grounded on the floor. We ask them to stand tall and proud of their Jewish identity.
Surrounded by their friends, teachers, and rabbis, they engage in this spiritual exercise every week. Whether flyers have been dropped at their homes, threats have been made to Jewish communities in other cities, or whether it has been a quiet week. Each student stands a little taller, a little prouder, and a little more firm in their Jewish identity.
This exercise is just one piece in the fight against antisemitism: Raising a generation of kids who are proud of their Jewish identity.
I hope you’ll join me tomorrow night for Shabbat services. We’ll come together as a community with our traditional Shabbat prayers, and I’ll share a message—found in this week’s Torah portion—answering the question: Now What?
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Rachael
