first time coming across your writing, and it so moving. As an Israeli Jew, living away from Israel I can tell you how devastating everything is for all of us, in Israel and Palestine. praying for peace and end of violence both In Arabic and in Hebrew. Happy Hanukkah
My Southern Christian mother went to Mt Sinai Nursing School in Philadelphia (now part of Albert Einstein) and had wonderful Jewish women as lifelong friends - on her mind even that last week of her life. I never questioned honoring each others’ faith traditions and culture. This current state of hate, violence, and war is not just to any side of this, but the glint in the eyes of countries wanting to take advantage of this flashpoint for their own reasons is absolutely wrong. I pray the USA plays the role of peacemaker.
As a Jew in Australia, feeling lonely, isolated and scared by what I'm seeing in my community and on the news, it is deeply comforting to read this and the comments here. Thank you.
Connie, thank you so much for your testimony. Yes, despite the safety we Jews of the United States have felt for many years, there is always a soft voice whispering in our ear that this could all end and now that voice is getting louder and louder. The Jews of Germany before WWII, the majority of whom where professionals, scientists or in the arts, citizens of an advanced and modern nation, never thought that their fellow non-Jewish citizens and the government would turn on them and slaughter them by sending them to the ovens. That is why the State of Israel was created: for Jews around the world to know that there is somewhere in this anti-semetic world where Jews could be safe. That promise is now not assured.
Thanks, Connie. As an American Jew who lives firmly in a progressive bubble, I have never felt so alone. I don’t think good people understand that Hamas’s deeds are an outgrowth of doctrinal hatred. Until last night, even me, with my deep connections to Israel, never fully understood that. But last night I read its charter, which is a page from the Nazi handbook Mein Kampf. (It is published in part in the Atlantic.) Rationalizing this as tit for tat, a mere part of an endless cycle of bloodshed in the Middle East, is not seeing this for what it is - outside of that cycle, an attack on the kid in your class (kind, popular and unknown) for her religion. Rationalizing this is where are brains are desperate to go-- we want to see this as part of a familiar pattern because it is orderly, consistent and reassuringly stable in its instability. And perhaps we can even one day find a solution to it that matches the way we want to see the world. But this was not that and the conclusion is that looking at venal hatred and brutality straight on is very uncomfortable. Especially when the targets - Jews- are not your typical targets in this country (changing by the minute, of course) of such irrational hatred.
Thank you for standing by us and bearing witness. It means so much.
“Bearing witness” to the pain of others is a huge part of what I do when I work with families, or adults, or very small children. This is the work that my friend, Judith Guedelia, also did (prior to her death from an obscure form of cancer) when she worked as a psychologist/neuropsychologist at what I always referred to as “Jerusalem General.” I called it that because I never could pronounce the name correctly, and it served all who were brought there regardless of religion, politics, etc. Judy taught me, and an entire list of psychologists, how to respond to mass casualties before they began to be such an every day occurrence here in the US. May someone as competent and kind as Judith and her husband, Rabbi Guedelia, look over all in Israel. And may the memories of all who have suffered be a blessing.
You have touched my heart, as always. But this time it’s personal. My daughter lives in Israel with her husband and their children almost 3 years and 4 months old. They are trying to leave, hoping and praying their flight tomorrow is not cancelled. I will not breathe until they are out of Israeli airspace. Thank you for witnessing our pain and sharing this with so many.
Thank you for filling in some of the space between the words that we who are Jewish cannot yet find. Everything you write is truth, from the armed guards at our places of worship to feeling “there yet separate”. We need our friends today, tomorrow, for a thousand tomorrows. Thank you & Sherrod for being the friends of today. We are devastated.
"He said we cannot retreat to the convenience of being overwhelmed." These words literally jumped off the page hit me in my soul and are clanging about in my head! Connie, I love your words, and what you and Sherrod did and I'm so moved by what so many have shared below.
We are facing a choice point, a place of reckoning, perhaps a tipping point - We are "packed" on a miracle of a planet; a finite. beautiful, increasingly fragile planet, AND despite humankind knowing better - knowing evolution, past history, science, and having technology, data analysis, and AI - CAN our "enlightened" species with our unique and powerful beliefs, attitudes, and biases PLEASE GET IT TOGETHER to love, care for, and work together to save ourselves (and the rest of the planet) from US? Or will "homo sapiens" become so overwhelmed by the cascading storm of dark emotions, exploding into anger, fear, and hate where people retreat into a convenient look-the-other-way ignorance or a complacent cop-out, OR will those poisonous beliefs overwhelm our morality and feed hate, fear into violent behavior and cruelty that will be the end of us all?
Imagine if - you were hated, hunted, and killed because you were left-handed, sneezed on a Friday, or were taller than 6 feet. You can't help it, and nothing is right or wrong with how you are- it's just who you are. Imagine your whole life being banned and not able to do something others have a right to do - because you believe in the religion of comedy, sneeze on a Friday, have blue eyes, or believe in cats but not dogs. Grief is a language we all understand - but we can translate what our pain means for our future either by hate or fear or love and acceptance.
Much of our world (for all manner of reasons) has developed a deficit of empathy... and when faced with increasing levels of "negative intensity" reported from all over the world - our human psyche CAN deeply bond us with that pain, suffering, the anger, and outrage of others in the world around us. We can feel the overt and open hatred, and grasp the magnitude of the terror and strife. However, the increasing global access to a media onslaught (focused on the shock and awe) of everything, everywhere, all at once barrage can lead to overwhelm.
People can characterize their experience as:
A) My capacity is fried - it's all too much!!! This or that in our daily onslaught of amplified chaos, strife, & hate. Yes - this is a real thing - we can lose the capacity to take anything more in -but in truth, it's a "cop-out."
B) Blindness "It's not about me, or it's not here, or just doesn't affect ME ME ME! It's intentional an unwillingness to be aware - rationalized in one way or another -meh, I don't know what to do,
We know it's urgent and we know what to do. Our path to a future that prioritizes acceptance, and love means it is time to come together to overcome our past - or doom our species to repeat. This does not mean to casually forgive and forget - it means to grieve and then translate that into love - a universal language that heals- and the only one that WE ALL can live with.
"He said we cannot retreat to the convenience of being overwhelmed." These words literally jumped off the page hit me in my solar plexus and are still clanging about in my head! I love your words and I'm so moved by what so many have shared below. It is overwhelming given the incessant wide array of dangerous threats to people, democracy, and being able to freely live your life and be who you are in the world. Overwhelm - to be honest, seems like kind of a cop-out... because we have no time to waste.
I feel like we are facing a choice point, a place of reckoning, perhaps a tipping point - when we have to choose. We are "packed" on a miracle of a planet; a finite. beautiful, increasingly fragile planet. But despite humankind knowing better - knowing evolution, past history, science, and having technology, data analysis, and AI - CAN our "enlightened" species with our unique and powerful beliefs, attitudes, and biases GET IT TOGETHER to love, care for, and work together to save ourselves (and the rest of the planet) from ourselves? Or will"homo sapiens" become even more overwhelmed by the cascading storm of dark emotions, exploding into anger, fear, and hate where people retreat instead into a convenient look-the-other-way ignorance or complacent cop-out? Choosing a path that escalates those poisonous beliefs and reactions could overwhelm our morality and feed the hate, and fear into violent behavior and cruelty that could be the end of us all.
Imagine being hated, hunted, and killed because you were left-handed, sneezed on a Friday, or were taller than 6 feet. You can't help it, and nothing is right or wrong with how you are- it's just who you are. Imagine your whole life being banned because McCarthy accused you of being a communist, or if you are unable to able to do something others have a right to do - because you believe in the religion of comedy, sneeze on a Friday, have blue eyes, or believe in cats but not dogs. Grief is a language we all understand - but we must learn to translate what that grief means for our future - we can translate it into hate or fear - or love and acceptance.
Much of our world (for all manner of reasons) has developed a deficit of empathy... and when faced with increasing levels of "negative intensity" reported from all over the world - our human psyche CAN deeply bond us with that pain, suffering, the anger, and outrage of others in the world around us. We can feel the overt and open hatred, and grasp the magnitude of the terror and strife. However, the increasing global access to a media onslaught (focused on the shock and awe) of everything, everywhere, all at once barrage can lead to overwhelm.
People can characterize their experience as:
A) My capacity is fried - it's all too much!!! This or that in our daily onslaught of amplified chaos, strife, & hate. Yes - this is a real thing - we can lose the capacity to take anything more in -but in truth, it's a "cop-out."
B) Blindness "It's not about me, or it's not here, or just doesn't affect ME ME ME! It can be an intentional way to be too busy, detached, a "fill in the blank reason" rationalizing one way or another -meh, can't do anything, don't know what to do thing, or choosing to not have any empathy to care.
We know it's urgent and we know what to do. Our path to a future that prioritizes acceptance, and love means it is time to come together to overcome our past - find a new translation or doom our species to repeat. This does not mean to casually forgive and forget - it means to grieve and then translate that into love, It's a universal language that heals, and given the stakes - it could literally and figuratively be the ONLY LANGUAGE WE CAN ALL LIVE WITH.
Connie, I’ve shared this with so many non-Jewish friends today - you’ve helped me tell them what it feels like to be Jewish in America. Thank you for showing up for us.
first time coming across your writing, and it so moving. As an Israeli Jew, living away from Israel I can tell you how devastating everything is for all of us, in Israel and Palestine. praying for peace and end of violence both In Arabic and in Hebrew. Happy Hanukkah
My Southern Christian mother went to Mt Sinai Nursing School in Philadelphia (now part of Albert Einstein) and had wonderful Jewish women as lifelong friends - on her mind even that last week of her life. I never questioned honoring each others’ faith traditions and culture. This current state of hate, violence, and war is not just to any side of this, but the glint in the eyes of countries wanting to take advantage of this flashpoint for their own reasons is absolutely wrong. I pray the USA plays the role of peacemaker.
As a Jew in Australia, feeling lonely, isolated and scared by what I'm seeing in my community and on the news, it is deeply comforting to read this and the comments here. Thank you.
Connie, thank you so much for your testimony. Yes, despite the safety we Jews of the United States have felt for many years, there is always a soft voice whispering in our ear that this could all end and now that voice is getting louder and louder. The Jews of Germany before WWII, the majority of whom where professionals, scientists or in the arts, citizens of an advanced and modern nation, never thought that their fellow non-Jewish citizens and the government would turn on them and slaughter them by sending them to the ovens. That is why the State of Israel was created: for Jews around the world to know that there is somewhere in this anti-semetic world where Jews could be safe. That promise is now not assured.
When I have no words for the world's sorrow, I find a kind of solace in other people's words. Like these.
Thanks, Connie. As an American Jew who lives firmly in a progressive bubble, I have never felt so alone. I don’t think good people understand that Hamas’s deeds are an outgrowth of doctrinal hatred. Until last night, even me, with my deep connections to Israel, never fully understood that. But last night I read its charter, which is a page from the Nazi handbook Mein Kampf. (It is published in part in the Atlantic.) Rationalizing this as tit for tat, a mere part of an endless cycle of bloodshed in the Middle East, is not seeing this for what it is - outside of that cycle, an attack on the kid in your class (kind, popular and unknown) for her religion. Rationalizing this is where are brains are desperate to go-- we want to see this as part of a familiar pattern because it is orderly, consistent and reassuringly stable in its instability. And perhaps we can even one day find a solution to it that matches the way we want to see the world. But this was not that and the conclusion is that looking at venal hatred and brutality straight on is very uncomfortable. Especially when the targets - Jews- are not your typical targets in this country (changing by the minute, of course) of such irrational hatred.
Thank you for standing by us and bearing witness. It means so much.
Beautifully written. I was raised Lutheran. I married a Jew. And I fear for him and Jews all over the world. You comforted me with this. Thank you.
“Bearing witness” to the pain of others is a huge part of what I do when I work with families, or adults, or very small children. This is the work that my friend, Judith Guedelia, also did (prior to her death from an obscure form of cancer) when she worked as a psychologist/neuropsychologist at what I always referred to as “Jerusalem General.” I called it that because I never could pronounce the name correctly, and it served all who were brought there regardless of religion, politics, etc. Judy taught me, and an entire list of psychologists, how to respond to mass casualties before they began to be such an every day occurrence here in the US. May someone as competent and kind as Judith and her husband, Rabbi Guedelia, look over all in Israel. And may the memories of all who have suffered be a blessing.
Thank you, Connie.
When will anybody understand that the Palestinians will have no reason to fight if they get their homeland back.
You have touched my heart, as always. But this time it’s personal. My daughter lives in Israel with her husband and their children almost 3 years and 4 months old. They are trying to leave, hoping and praying their flight tomorrow is not cancelled. I will not breathe until they are out of Israeli airspace. Thank you for witnessing our pain and sharing this with so many.
❤️💔❤️
Thank you for filling in some of the space between the words that we who are Jewish cannot yet find. Everything you write is truth, from the armed guards at our places of worship to feeling “there yet separate”. We need our friends today, tomorrow, for a thousand tomorrows. Thank you & Sherrod for being the friends of today. We are devastated.
"He said we cannot retreat to the convenience of being overwhelmed." These words literally jumped off the page hit me in my soul and are clanging about in my head! Connie, I love your words, and what you and Sherrod did and I'm so moved by what so many have shared below.
We are facing a choice point, a place of reckoning, perhaps a tipping point - We are "packed" on a miracle of a planet; a finite. beautiful, increasingly fragile planet, AND despite humankind knowing better - knowing evolution, past history, science, and having technology, data analysis, and AI - CAN our "enlightened" species with our unique and powerful beliefs, attitudes, and biases PLEASE GET IT TOGETHER to love, care for, and work together to save ourselves (and the rest of the planet) from US? Or will "homo sapiens" become so overwhelmed by the cascading storm of dark emotions, exploding into anger, fear, and hate where people retreat into a convenient look-the-other-way ignorance or a complacent cop-out, OR will those poisonous beliefs overwhelm our morality and feed hate, fear into violent behavior and cruelty that will be the end of us all?
Imagine if - you were hated, hunted, and killed because you were left-handed, sneezed on a Friday, or were taller than 6 feet. You can't help it, and nothing is right or wrong with how you are- it's just who you are. Imagine your whole life being banned and not able to do something others have a right to do - because you believe in the religion of comedy, sneeze on a Friday, have blue eyes, or believe in cats but not dogs. Grief is a language we all understand - but we can translate what our pain means for our future either by hate or fear or love and acceptance.
Much of our world (for all manner of reasons) has developed a deficit of empathy... and when faced with increasing levels of "negative intensity" reported from all over the world - our human psyche CAN deeply bond us with that pain, suffering, the anger, and outrage of others in the world around us. We can feel the overt and open hatred, and grasp the magnitude of the terror and strife. However, the increasing global access to a media onslaught (focused on the shock and awe) of everything, everywhere, all at once barrage can lead to overwhelm.
People can characterize their experience as:
A) My capacity is fried - it's all too much!!! This or that in our daily onslaught of amplified chaos, strife, & hate. Yes - this is a real thing - we can lose the capacity to take anything more in -but in truth, it's a "cop-out."
B) Blindness "It's not about me, or it's not here, or just doesn't affect ME ME ME! It's intentional an unwillingness to be aware - rationalized in one way or another -meh, I don't know what to do,
We know it's urgent and we know what to do. Our path to a future that prioritizes acceptance, and love means it is time to come together to overcome our past - or doom our species to repeat. This does not mean to casually forgive and forget - it means to grieve and then translate that into love - a universal language that heals- and the only one that WE ALL can live with.
"He said we cannot retreat to the convenience of being overwhelmed." These words literally jumped off the page hit me in my solar plexus and are still clanging about in my head! I love your words and I'm so moved by what so many have shared below. It is overwhelming given the incessant wide array of dangerous threats to people, democracy, and being able to freely live your life and be who you are in the world. Overwhelm - to be honest, seems like kind of a cop-out... because we have no time to waste.
I feel like we are facing a choice point, a place of reckoning, perhaps a tipping point - when we have to choose. We are "packed" on a miracle of a planet; a finite. beautiful, increasingly fragile planet. But despite humankind knowing better - knowing evolution, past history, science, and having technology, data analysis, and AI - CAN our "enlightened" species with our unique and powerful beliefs, attitudes, and biases GET IT TOGETHER to love, care for, and work together to save ourselves (and the rest of the planet) from ourselves? Or will"homo sapiens" become even more overwhelmed by the cascading storm of dark emotions, exploding into anger, fear, and hate where people retreat instead into a convenient look-the-other-way ignorance or complacent cop-out? Choosing a path that escalates those poisonous beliefs and reactions could overwhelm our morality and feed the hate, and fear into violent behavior and cruelty that could be the end of us all.
Imagine being hated, hunted, and killed because you were left-handed, sneezed on a Friday, or were taller than 6 feet. You can't help it, and nothing is right or wrong with how you are- it's just who you are. Imagine your whole life being banned because McCarthy accused you of being a communist, or if you are unable to able to do something others have a right to do - because you believe in the religion of comedy, sneeze on a Friday, have blue eyes, or believe in cats but not dogs. Grief is a language we all understand - but we must learn to translate what that grief means for our future - we can translate it into hate or fear - or love and acceptance.
Much of our world (for all manner of reasons) has developed a deficit of empathy... and when faced with increasing levels of "negative intensity" reported from all over the world - our human psyche CAN deeply bond us with that pain, suffering, the anger, and outrage of others in the world around us. We can feel the overt and open hatred, and grasp the magnitude of the terror and strife. However, the increasing global access to a media onslaught (focused on the shock and awe) of everything, everywhere, all at once barrage can lead to overwhelm.
People can characterize their experience as:
A) My capacity is fried - it's all too much!!! This or that in our daily onslaught of amplified chaos, strife, & hate. Yes - this is a real thing - we can lose the capacity to take anything more in -but in truth, it's a "cop-out."
B) Blindness "It's not about me, or it's not here, or just doesn't affect ME ME ME! It can be an intentional way to be too busy, detached, a "fill in the blank reason" rationalizing one way or another -meh, can't do anything, don't know what to do thing, or choosing to not have any empathy to care.
We know it's urgent and we know what to do. Our path to a future that prioritizes acceptance, and love means it is time to come together to overcome our past - find a new translation or doom our species to repeat. This does not mean to casually forgive and forget - it means to grieve and then translate that into love, It's a universal language that heals, and given the stakes - it could literally and figuratively be the ONLY LANGUAGE WE CAN ALL LIVE WITH.
Connie, I’ve shared this with so many non-Jewish friends today - you’ve helped me tell them what it feels like to be Jewish in America. Thank you for showing up for us.