In my months of retirement, I have been reviewing files that I accumulated during my rabbinate. I am keeping special mementos of important events in which I participated.
One item which I retained was from the local newspaper in Topeka, Kansas. It was a full page ad responding to a planned Neo-Nazi rally on the steps of the Kansas State Capitol on August 24, 2002. On one side was a colorful poster that read, “Hate is not a Topeka value.”
In a statement on the opposite side, two city council members called on local citizens to support a proposed anti-discrimination ordinance which would extend legal protections to members of the LGBTQ community. They explained, “We sent a million of our finest sons and daughters in harm’s way in Europe and Asia to combat the evil of hate because of one’s appearance, religion, or personal beliefs.” They urged local leaders to take a stand for equality for all.
My congregation held a service for the greater community to communicate a message of mutual respect and understanding on August 23, 2002. Two weeks later, at the September 10 city council meeting, I spoke in favor of the ordinance (which passed to some extent).
Nineteen years later, I can say that communities in our country have made some progress towards combating prejudice and promoting equality.
However, it is clear that we have much work to do. Hatred persists. The Anti-Defamation League recently held a press conference to release its report on the many incidents of antisemitism in 2020. Presenters lamented recent attacks on members of the Asian American Pacific Islander community and examples of racist behavior against people of color in our society.
Concerned members of the Las Cruces community have joined together to combat prejudice and discrimination. During my decade here, people gathered to stand up for DACA recipients and to call for immigration reform. Memorials were held after the violent attack at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida in 2016, the shootings at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018, and the attack at the El Paso Walmart in 2019. Religious leaders and community members came together in 2017 to oppose proposed immigration standards that targeted members of the Muslim community.
We know, deep down, that it is always time to come forward in order to pursue equality and justice, and to act with fairness and compassion.
In April, I attended Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorations, held virtually, in nearby states. In Kansas, this year’s event featured, as speakers, Megan Felt and Norm Conard of the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes in Fort Scott, Kansas.
While she was a student in high school in Uniontown, Kansas, Megan and two of her classmates created a history day project that highlighted the courageous acts of Irena Sendler, who saved over 2500 Jewish children from certain death in Warsaw, Poland, during World War II.
The project participants had several opportunities to meet with Irena Sendler in person in Poland. She told the students: “You honor me because I am one of the few remaining to bear witness. But I tell you, I only did what any decent person would do in such horrible times. I do not consider myself a hero. A hero is someone doing extraordinary things. What I did was not extraordinary. It was a normal thing to do. I was just being decent.”
So may we have the courage to be decent, which is, truly, extraordinary and heroic.
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