The central saving act of God in the Hebrew Bible is the deliverance of Abraham’s children from slavery in Egypt—the Exodus. In scripture’s prelude to this mighty act is one of the tenderest, most assuring texts of the entire Bible: Then the LORD said, “I have seen the affliction of my people, and have heard their cry; I know their sufferings, and I have come…” (Exodus 3) I recently recognized a charity known as #Stand-UpToJewishHate. You may have seen their symbol on sites such as Instagram. It is a simple blue square. The website notes: “The Jewish population makes up only 2.4% of the U.S. population, yet Jews face 55% of all religious hate crimes, according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.” Is this something that should draw our attention?
Preparing for this article, I researched famous Jews. Actually, the list is almost endless, but just to name a few, past and present, you may be familiar with: NBA all-star Amar’e Stoudemire, writer and visionary Isaac Asimov, astronomer Carl Sagan, actor Maya Rudolph, actor and model Gal Gadot, Dustin Hoffman, Sammy Davis, Jr., Jamie Lee Curtis, singer Paula Abdul, from the bridge of the starship Enterprise Walter Koenig, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, American poet Shel Silverstein, folk/blues artist Ben Harper, singer/composer Paul Simon, and sitcom star Tracee Ellis Ross.
Our own town has precious ties to Judaism. The Rockdale Jewish Cemetery, a reminder of Rockdale’s diverse history, dates back to Nov. 11, 1878. There are twenty interments in the cemetery. One of those laid to rest in 1888 was Henry Goldsticker, a veteran of the Civil War (Lavaca Guards of Lavaca County, Texas, 24th Brigade, Texas State Troops). The earliest burial was that of Arthur Loewenstein, less than one year old. Arthur’s father, Benjamin, was a prominent merchant and businessman in the community. During the 1880s, the Rockdale Jewish School educated children until the expansion of the public schools in Milam County.
Monica Gebell, Director of Community Relations for the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester, New York has stated: “We have to remember that where Jews are hated, everybody will eventually be hated. All minorities, all marginalized people.” Gebell advises that we need to do a lot more in terms of educating our community about what Judaism essentially is.
Thomas Cahill, in The Gifts of the Jews, asks: “Where are the Sumerians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians today?” Then he asserts, “However miraculous Jewish survival may be, the greater miracle is surely that the Jews developed a whole new way of experiencing reality, the only alternative to all the ancient worldviews and all ancient religions.”
He then notes that most of our best words and concepts come from the Jews: new, adventure, surprise; unique, individual, person, vocation; time, history, future; freedom, progress, spirit; faith hope, justice. Cahill concludes by writing, “If one is ever to find the finger of God in human affairs, one must find it here.”
In his 1999 speech at the White House Millennium, Elie Wiesel, famous for his witness to the sufferings endured by the Jews in Nazi Germany, sadly confessed for us: “Of course, indifference can be tempting - more than that, seductive. It is so much easier to look away from victims. It is so much easier to avoid such rude interruptions to our work, our dreams, our hopes. It is, after all, awkward, troublesome, to be involved in another person’s pain and despair.”
But it can be salvation to cast our lot with a God who proclaims, “I have seen the affliction. I have heard the cry. I know the sufferings. And I have come to deliver.”
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