Invocation - Jewish Contributions to American Life event at
White Sands Missile Range - May 9, 2019
Eternal God,
Creator and Sustainer of us all,
We join together in this space,
To share a meal, to create community,
And to show appreciation for our freedom
That has allowed so many people
From so many places
And from so many cultural and religious backgrounds
To make significant contributions to American life.
The support offered and arranged by Haym Solomon
To enable the new United States to sustain a path to victory
In the Revolutionary War demonstrated his steadfast commitment to freedom.
With the timeless words of her poem, The New Colossus,
Which is intricately linked to the Statue of Liberty,
Emma Lazarus declared that the United States presented
A world-wide welcome to all who would come to our country
To add to our nation their wisdom, energy, abilities and courage.
Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, who came to live in the United States well after World War II and who won the Nobel Peace prize in 1986, reminded us of the essence of our constant quest for liberty when he said, “As long as one dissident is in prison, our freedom will not be true. As long as one child is hungry, our life will be filled with anguish and shame. What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone; that we are not forgetting them, that when their voices are stifled we shall lend them ours, that while their freedom depends on ours, the quality of our freedom depends on theirs.”
As we share this meal, with civilians, with members of the armed forces who defend our freedom, all of us who have come today,
May the words of this Jewish blessing for a meal remind us to be partners, as human beings are God’s partners, not only in making bread, but in providing bread and kindness to those in need:
Blessed are You, our Eternal God, Ruler of the Universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.
ברוך אתה יי אלוהינו מלך העולם המוציא לחם מן הארץ
Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech Ha-olam hamotzi lechem min ha-aretz.
REMARKS
During my years growing up in Kansas City, Missouri, my life was very similar to my neighbors and classmates. I did go to Temple instead of church, but, like most everyone else, I watched the Three Stooges, The Twilight Zone, and Star Trek, and the annual network television screening of “The Wizard of Oz.” My comic book of choice was Superman, which I did watch on television, along with the original Batman series. I listened to a “Top 40” radio station, where I heard songs like “Sweet Caroline,” “Soul and Inspiration,” “Pleasant Valley Sunday,” “Do Wah Diddy,” “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” And there was an ABC Monday night movie starring Dennis Weaver called “Duel” that was unnerving and even terrifying, as a man was pursued on isolated roads by an anonymous truck driver.
As the years went by, I began to discover more about who was responsible for those comics, movies, songs, and television shows.
Moses Horowitz, Samuel Horowitz, Louis Feinberg, and Jerome Horowitz were better known as Moe, Shemp, Larry and Curly - the Three Stooges, young Jewish men who started their act in 1922 and concluded in 1970
The Twilight Zone’s Jewish creator Rod Serling presented, in 1961, an early treatment of the Holocaust in the episode, “Death’s Head Revisited,” when a former SS officer visited the Dachau concentration camp, only to be haunted by the ghosts of those whom he had murdered there.
Leonard Nimoy, when asked what might make a suitable greeting for his Vulcan character in Star Trek, Mr. Spock, held up his hand to form the Hebrew letter SHIN, standing for Shaddai, meaning God almighty. It was a hand gesture which he saw as a boy in his Boston synagogue when men offered the ancient priestly blessing at a special point in worship.
Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, both Jewish, created Superman, the ultimate immigrant from a far away planet who had unimaginable powers because of his birth, and who sought to make the world a better place with his great strength and wisdom. Some say that Superman’s given name on his home planet Krypton, KAL-EL, might be based on a Hebrew phrase that means “Voice of God.” Robert Kahn, who became Robert Kane, partnered with Milton/Bill Finger to create Batman. Joe Simon and Jacob Kirtzberg/Jack Kirby created the beloved Captain America. Stanley Leiber, or Stan Lee, was a creative leader at Marvel Comics. Simon, Kirby and Lee were all World War II veterans. It is not surprising that Superman, Batman, Captain America and also Wonder Woman were all dedicated to fighting Nazis in the comics, some of them before the United States had officially entered the war.
I eventually discovered that a generation of Jewish songwriters wrote some of the memorable music I enjoyed on the radio: Neil Diamond, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, Gerry Goffin and Carole King, Bob Dylan and Paul Simon. And the featured song of “The Wizard of Oz,” “Over the Rainbow,” was written by Harold Arlen, a cantor’s son from Buffalo, and Yip Harburg, the son of Eastern European Jewish immigrants from the Lower East Side of New York City. Both of them were, perhaps giving their Jewish perspective on the type of place they hoped America and the world could be.
And that TV movie, “Duel,” that I watched in my dorm room on a 13 inch screen was directed by Steven Spielberg. In the early 1990s, Spielberg moved from his work on the blockbuster “Jurassic Park” directly to the poignant film about the rescue of Jews during the Holocaust, “Schindler’s List.” Spielberg later created a foundation to record the testimony of survivors of the Holocaust so that their stories could be told for generations to come.
The Three Stooges and the Marx Brothers created a foundation for the comedic work of Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Billy Crystal, Larry David, Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Sandler, and Sarah Silverman. Sandler and Silverman both grew up in, of all places, Manchester, New Hampshire, and Silverman’s sister Susan is one of my Reform rabbinic colleagues. Ed Asner, “Lou Grant” of the Mary Tyler Moore show, grew up in my hometown of Kansas City. There are many reasons for American Jews to be in comedy. It is probably due to our ability to laugh at ourselves and to discover humorous aspects of the world around us. Believe me, there is limitless material out there. Sometimes, comedy was, and still is, a way of outwitting those who hate us.
One more thing - you have probably heard of Hank Greenberg, who nearly broke Babe Ruth’s home run record in 1938 as a member of the Detroit Tigers. Or Sandy Koufax, who had an amazing career as a pitcher with the Dodgers. But have you heard of Alex Bregman of the Houston Astros, who was recently featured in a Sports Illustrated article that included a photo of him with his rabbi and cantor on the day he became Bar Mitzvah at age 13 at his Albuquerque, New Mexico congregation?
Packing so much information into six minutes is a challenge. I want to give the last word to author Thomas Cahill. In his book, THE GIFTS OF THE JEWS, he credited the Jewish people for providing humanity with a sense of obligation to improve ourselves and our world. Doing justice and loving mercy and compassion offer us a way to be humble, to walk with God, and to cooperate with one another. God's spirit could be in each of us, not just in great leaders and prophets. Cahill suggested that the message of the Bible is that in choosing to do what is right, we are never more alive. Most of our best words, Cahill concluded, are gifts of the Jews, words like new, unique, individual, person, vocation or calling; time, history, future; freedom, progress, spirit; faith, hope, and justice.
It all sounds like a job for Superman or Batman or Captain America, but, truly, WE have the power to reach all of those goals if we work together as partners to make a positive difference to preserve our precious and amazing world.
BENEDICTION
God of all people,
Author of Freedom,
Our companion and guide,
Be with us as we go out into the world today
To work for justice, to maintain our liberty,
To engender partnership, compassion and love.
Strengthen our resolve to preserve our sense of unity
And to discovered anew what binds us together:
We conclude with this prayer for our nation from
Reform Judaism’s MISHKAN T’FILAH
Prayerbook,
O GUARDIAN of life and liberty,
may our nation always merit Your protection.
Teach us to give thanks for what we have
by sharing it with those who are in need.
Keep our eyes open to the wonders of creation,
and alert to the care of the earth.
May we never be lazy in the work of peace;
may we honor those who have died in defense of our ideals.
Grant our leaders wisdom and forebearance.
May they govern with justice and compassion
Help us all to appreciate one another,
and to respect the many ways that we may serve You.
May our homes be safe from affliction and strife,
and our country be sound in body and spirit. Amen.
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