Blog

Isn’t the greeting “Happy Memorial Day” a bit perplexing? I have been watching a couple of news programs and, sure enough, the greetings have been those words. I won’t even get into the phrase “Memorial Day Sales” as I have in the past. What is on my mind this Memorial Day is the thought that we are remembering all who served our country, men and women, and the sacrifices they made to preserve the ideals enshrined in our Constitution and the basic documents of our democracy. Memorial Day is exactly that, to remember those who gave their lives for us and an opportunity to express gratitude for their sacrifices and for the preservation of American ideals.

Needless to say, the various notions that they were to protect have been under attack and we are struggling as a nation to rediscover what our path is to get back to those ideals. Part of that current struggle is a rise of hatred and injustices against our Black communities, our Asian American - Pacific Islander communities and, now, in particular against our own Jewish communities. There has been a precipitous rise in acts of vandalism, violence, and verbal attacks against Jews over the past few years and, in particular, in the aftermath of the recent Israel-Gaza conflict. The mixing of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism further confounds the issues we are facing.

I would like to invite you to a community discussion of these issues on Tuesday evening, June 1, at 7 p.m. The discussion will take place on Zoom. If you would like to participate, send us an email at zoom@bnaiisrael.net.

The purpose of our session will be to forge our bonds and explore what this all means for us. It is vitally important that we stand as community in face of these challenges. Meanwhile, it behooves us to remember the fallen of our country who gave their lives in service of the ideals which have permitted our people to live freely in this nation and to flourish like never before.

—Rabbi Ted Feldman