Dear {{first_name}},
Today is the 84th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the horrific "night of broken glass" when Jewish shops, businesses and homes were smashed and burned. 267 synagogues throughout Germany, Austria and the Sudetenland were destroyed along with over 7,000 Jewish businesses. The history of the Holocaust is always such an important and sobering reminder of the violence and cruelty that is unleashed where there is hatred and bigotry. As we see an alarming increase in national and global antisemitism and hate crimes, and the knowledge that racism and bigotry are alive and well in the world, we must never forget these stories and this history. Many of us lovingly remember Bonai's former congregant Doris Small, who vividly retold her own stories of that harrowing day as a young girl on the streets of Berlin with her sister, witnessing that violent destruction.
Some of you may have seen the very disturbing story reported in theJerusalem Post about KFC Germany encouraging customers to "treat themselves" on Kristallnacht. It simply defies understanding. Even if it was some kind of mistake, it is such an insult to the significance of this day.
I have just returned from the Rabbinical Assembly Convention in St. Louis, where we were so moved and inspired by a panel on Monday evening with the accounts of some of the beautiful clergy relationships that were built during the protests in Ferguson following the killing of Michael Brown. Rev. Traci Blackmon and Rabbi Susan Talve, and Pastor Carlos Smith and Rabbi Noah Arnow told incredible stories about the loving and trusting relatiosnhips between white rabbis and African American clergy. They shared how they have each other's backs and show up for each other in response to both antisemitism and racism, courageous and uncompromising in their mutual support. Rabbi Talve, a longtime advocate for justice in St. Louis, shared a teaching on this week's Torah reading (Vayera) that contains the two painful stories that we read on Rosh HaShanah - the banishment of Hagar and Ishmael and the binding of Isaac. She said, "if we banish hager (the stranger) in this chapter, we will sacrifice our own children in the next." The lessons of our history teach us the ugly consequences when we do not stand up for our neighbors against hatred; "the good Germans" who did not participate in the evil, but did not stand against it. As Rev. Martin Luther King Junior stated it, " In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
In honor of the anniversary of Kristallnacht, our friend and former Bonai member Jennifer Weissmann, now living in Israel, has shared a podcast of her interview with Tova Friedman, an 84-year-old Holocaust Survivor, author of "Daughter of Auschwitz" and (thanks to her grandson Aaron)TikTok star.
You can listen to it here.
On this day after the US election, we hope and pray that all who have been elected to represent us throughout this nation, Israel and the world, will be guided by love and the knowledge that every human is in the Divine Imagine, deserving dignity, love and respect.
May we never forget!
Rabbi Marc
