Hello everyone, my name is Iris Grossman and I am happy to be sharing with you all a reflection on my hopes for the future.
When Rabbi Greene first emailed me about this topic I thought gosh that is a bit ambiguous, does she mean my personal hopes for the future? My hopes for our Sinai community or the broader Jewish community? Or my hopes for Israel for the future? Thinking about this more, I realized it was probably intentionally ambiguous, and that all of those different groups likely have similar and intertwined future hopes.
My hopes for the future, including for myself, our Sinai community, our broader Jewish community, and the state of Israel, are all rooted in the past.
For the past year at Friday night services, we have been including a prayer for the state of Israel which is on page 484 (no need to turn to this now). Not going to lie, sometimes I flip around pages and one time while we were reciting that prayer, I flipped a few pages, and realized that on page 487, there was a letter from George Washington to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport Rhode Island, dated August 21, 1790. As an attorney and someone who is generally interested in American History, I immediately thought wow what a wonderful piece of history to include in our prayer book and how thoughtful it was of George Washington to reach out to the Jewish community in early America.
In reading his letter, I realized that he had many hopes for the future of the United States, and many hopes for the Jewish people as part of the United States as well.
You can read the whole letter at your convenience, but I would like to focus my reflection on two passages. The first passage I would like to share reads, “For happily the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should conduct themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.”
It is clear to me that George Washington’s focus here, and, more broadly, a founding pillar of America, was religious toleration and inclusion. It seems that his hope was that if the Jewish people were allowed to grow and thrive without fear of bigotry and persecution, we would be good citizens and support our government. Looking ahead to this upcoming year and beyond, my hope is that no Jew whether in the US or outside of the US, is subjected to bigotry, persecution, or hatred of any kind. I also hope that we will continue to be exemplary US citizens and support our government, including the committee on antisemitism and policies that support Israel.
The second passage I would like to share, which you may also recognize if you’ve seen the play, Hamilton, reads, “May you, the children of the stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the inhabitants, while everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.”
It seems to me that here, George Washington was hoping that the Jewish people would feel safe and secure in our homes and out in public, and that no one would make us feel afraid. Thinking of these principles in terms of the future, I have many hopes. For our Israeli family and friends, I hope that they may feel safe from bombs, invasions, kidnappings, and other types of attacks from Israel’s neighbors, although that may not seem possible right now. I also hope that all of the hostages are safely returned. Here in the US, I hope that none of us have to wake up to antisemitic symbols on our houses, synagogues, or other special places. I hope that none of us have to endure rude comments at work, judgmental stares on the street, or news of shootings, threats or desecration to our community spaces. And for me, personally, I hope that am not afraid to wear my Star of David necklace out to dinner or my Sababa shirt while out walking my dog.
All in all, I have a lot of hopes for the future for myself, for our Sinai community, for our broader Jewish community in America, and for the state of Israel.
I will carry these hopes with me into the new year, and I hope that you will as well. I believe that with each other’s support, both within this sanctuary and outside of it, we will be able to work together to fulfill at least some of these hopes and celebrate our achievements together.