Much of the last few weeks has been spent in bed with the shades down and the sheets up. For over a year, a war of aggression in Ukraine has worried the world. Last week, we heard news that two kids of old friends had lost their lives in tragic situations. Then another young person was beaten and thrown out of his home. And now two weeks ago, Hamas murdered civilians in Israel and touched off a war that may threaten all of us. In the next block, fire damaged our nature center (and polling place). A few days later, across the street, a fire engulfed a car that someone was living in. Tragedy and violence feel very close and all around us.
I grew up surrounded by many Jewish friends, whose parents opposed the war in Vietnam. I went to many of these kids’ bar and bat mitzvahs. (They were modest affairs in the late 1960s and early 1970s.) As a boy, I also hung out with my circle of friends at their Jewish youth groups. Eventually my mother got a call from one of the kid’s mothers asking when she might come to Hadassah. No more Jewish youth groups. In my young adulthood, I dated several Jewish men. The parents of one of them survived the camps. Many years ago, my late sister converted to Judaism. Her research suggested that Jewish relatives of ours were converted to Mormonism in Germany in the late 19th century. They began their American life in Utah. At least they got out of Germany. My sister only left the continent twice in her life, both times to visit Israel.
In our living room, we had a bust of Martin Luther King, Jr. He seemed to offer a way forward in the 1960s. Despite the constant threats, he continued to advocate nonviolence. Today, there is a tendency to take sides in the war in Israel and Gaza. In Sunday’s New York Times, I read an insightful piece by Peter Beinart entitled “The Work of Moral Rebuilding Must Begin Now.” (In the online edition, the title is “There Is a Jewish Hope for Palestinian Liberation. It Must Survive.”) Everyone is discouraged. Racism keeps turning. Every day, I hear sirens several times. Nonviolence, love, compassion, and cooperation is like breathing. Without it, there will be no life.
