D'var Torah

Dear Friends,

I have just returned from Poland, where over 70 members of the Temple community traveled together in Warsaw, Krakow, Vienna, and Budapest. Some of the group began with a pre-trip in Berlin. Others stayed longer touring Prague.

This was one of the most difficult weeks of rabbinate, probably of my life. I, along with all of you, am holding so much. No matter where we are on the spectrum of beliefs in and commitments to Israel and all her inhabitants, we are in pain, we are anxious, we are searching for hope and praying for change. Witnessing the savage attacks on our people on October 7 was soul crushing. Watching so many innocent people die in the aftermath is devastating. We are horrified by the unprecedented rise in antisemitism, especially in our high schools and colleges, that is taking root in our country and that will not disappear with the end of the war between Israel and Gaza.

For the last week, that travelers and I carried all this while walking through the Warsaw ghetto, visiting Treblinka and enduring the horrors of Auschwitz-Birkenau. I stood in a gas chamber and cried thinking not only about the millions who died there, but the hatred that led to the creation of that place; a hatred I fear is emerging again.

In the midst of this tremendously emotional experience, some of us raised questions about the very nature of humanity, others shone a light on the resilience of so many of our brothers and sisters. There was resistance, there was creativity, there was caring and love and many who kept our traditional alive. There are over 23,000 individuals identified as ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ with surely thousands and thousands more who, in small or larger ways, helped a Jewish neighbor – once, twice, three times. It is true many more did not, but at this moment, we need the inspiration of these people and this theme. As they did, we need to connect to hope, to our own agency to do one, two, or more good deeds to change a narrative. We need to seek out the wisdom of our tradition that pushes us toward kindness and justice along with resilience and strength.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Amy Schwartzman