We are beginning 2025. As I write these lines, the transfer of power in the US is still some days away; the Prime Minister of Israel may not be allowed to attend the 80th-anniversary ceremony of the liberation of Auschwitz; the hostage/cease-fire negotiations are stalled, and Hamas entrusted the care of the hostages to a newly form “suicide brigade” with instruction to blow themselves out if Israelis are getting close to rescue the hostages. To compound it, Israeli troops found the bodies of Yusef Al Zayadni and Hamza Al Zayadni, two Israeli hostages, father and son, who had been included in the list of 34 hostages to be released by Hamas in a Cease Fire deal. Then, there are the fires raging through Southern California and the continuing antisemitic attacks on Jewish institutions in the US and around the world.
After reading the prior paragraph, you might think the world is dark and getting darker. That is one way to look at it. Another way is to realize that it is the perfect time to renew our hope because hope is not about how things are but how they could be. Our tradition always emphasized hope over despair, because we trust in our goal of a better world. That attitude has sustained our people through three destructions of our political commonwealth in ancient times and through 1,878 years of Exile and dispersion. We always turned hope into a call for action, and that has been one of the secrets of our survival and the secret of our active participation in so many leading-edge revolutions in the history of the World, be those revolutions political, social or scientific. We believe in the promise.
So 2025 has started badly. For me, it brings to mind the second stanza of Kipling’s poem “If”: “If you can dream—and not make dreams your master; If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:”. As a Jew I see these words as the embodiment of the search for a better world.
And we have many ways to do it. By calling out the lies people post on “X”, Instagram, and now that fact-checking is out on Facebook; by calling people to dialogue instead of conflict; by defending the value of Human life; by promoting respect; by supporting our Jewish brothers and sisters in Israel and around the world; by rolling up our collective sleeves and help those affected by disaster and YES, supporting Jewish life and the State the Israel by participating in the annual Campaign and the annual March for Israel in New York City (scheduled this year for 5/18 – mark the calendar)
The alternative is to allow current events to rob us from our hope and our determination in pursue of Tikkun Olam. I refuse to do that. I will pick up those worn instruments and continue to build the world of tomorrow. Join me.