March 2003
Short of winning the lottery to pay for our new building,
it would be hard to think of anything pertaining to our congregation
that could bring me such delight as seeing BAJC win the URJ
Irving Fain Social
Action Award. It fills me with pride – with
nachas.
And if we had to select a single indicator to reflect the
health of a congregation, could we do better than serious
attention to social action, to social justice, concern not
simply for ourselves, but for those in need around us, in
our community and in the world?
It also makes me proud that the award honors us for taking
steps (our collaborative efforts with SIT last summer in
Salaam-Shalom, in the Jewish-Muslim interfaith service and
in sponsoring showings of the film “Promises”)
to help foster dialogue between Jews and Muslims, in some
ways the greatest challenge facing both of our peoples today
worldwide. The significance of this goes yet deeper.
On February 16 at the interfaith gathering to commemorate
the Muslim holiday of Korban Eid, the assembled group of
Christians and Jews formed a circle around Javed Chaudhri,
his family, and the other Muslims who were gathered with
the words (referring to the Patriot and Homeland Security
Acts) that “if they come for you, they’ll have
to take us first.”
My eyes welled up recalling just such a shield of love that
some brave Christians placed around many of our own parents
and grandparents in Europe during the World War II. And that
shield of love erected by those European Christians was placed
around a people not like themselves, indeed a people who
perhaps struck them as strange, different, a group apart.
And now, here we were, indicating our readiness to do the
same for others.
I am uplifted in the same way when I see congregants bringing
in food for the Drop in Center, or supporting Judy Greenberg’s
efforts to help poor school children in the Dominican Republic,
or supporting my son Noah’s efforts to help street
children in Calcutta. It expresses two of the defining attributes
of our people, rachmones and tzedakah, compassion and justice.
Janet and Judy , the energetic co-chairs
of our BAJC Social Action Committee are putting together
a rich agenda of activities for us over the coming year.
At our Shabbat Service on Saturday March 1, Melinda Bussino,
Director of the Windham County Drop in Center will speak
to us about ways in which we can support their important
work right here in our own community. Imagine that our congregation,
which doesn’t require tickets for the High Holiday,
would instead make bringing food for the needy our “ticket” for
services and put our children in charge of making it happen!
There also is talk of organizing a “Hunger Banquet” (some
of you remember our doing this in the distant past) in the
fall, perhaps together with our friends at All Souls Church.
Janet and Judy make the important point that all that we
do to help the needy must be accompanied by efforts to prevent
bloodshed in the world. A war against Iraq would kill many
more poor people - low income Americans as well malnourished
Iraqis - than our humanitarian efforts in the Dominican Republic
and Calcutta are able to save. In this regard it has been
gratifying to see the participation of our members in efforts
to oppose this war, to place limits on the enforcement of
acts which compromise our hard won liberties as a nation,
and to join in efforts to break the stalemate in the Middle
East. Janet, Judy and I are involved with John Ungerleider
in efforts to identify an appropriate Israeli organization,
perhaps a future “sister” group with which we
might partner in this work.
As I prepare this column, millions of people around the
world are flooding the streets of cities around the world
to protest the Bush administration’s threatened invasion
of Iraq. This, along with reports of the inspectors, gives
me hope that perhaps this terrible bloodshed can be avoided.
As Jews we are keenly aware that our insistence on “Never
Again” requires the containment of evil. And all of
us are dismayed by the callousness and maliciousness of Saddam
Hussein. But there’s simply no way that we can begin
to compare Saddam’s threat with that of Hitler leading
up to World War II. Hitler had amassed an enormous military
machine and was actively seeking world domination. Saddam,
ruler of a third rate military power, can be, and indeed
is being contained by aggressive inspections, surveillance,
and pinpointed airstrikes of military installations. Instead
of creating human carnage and killing innocent civilians,
we need to be moving in the opposite direction - reducing
tensions in the world.
I digress – although I’m hopeful that you will
continue to encourage my speaking with you not only about
prayer and community and our building plans but also about
our role in our community and in the world. Let me add that
no faith community with an active social action/social justice
agenda can have the 100 percent agreement of all its members
all the time. No way. But I like to believe that every one
of us feels pride in knowing that we are active in our community
and in the world. We also feel pride in recognizing that
our concerns do extend beyond our own immediate needs, and
in realizing that acting on such concerns is a sure sign
of our vibrancy as a faith community. And while honors and
awards are not our motivation for such action, it does feel
good to be recognized.
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