“Because I remember, I despair.
Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair.”
~ Elie Wiesel
Hello Lab/Shul,
What helps you face the continued heartbreak of this cruel conflict in Israel and Palestine? It’s been another tough week, with no end in sight.
Are you able to reject despair as our domestic politics continue to sow divides and so much is unknown? The news from New Hampshire is troubling, to say the least.
I’m trying, like many of us, to keep my heart open, to reject despair and focus on repair – short and long term, inspired by brave voices that insist on finding common ground and some sort of hopeful path forward. Invited to join two prominent ESPN personalities on the SALA Series Podcast, I had the opportunity to share in deep discussion about these struggles and the complex and heartbreaking moment we are struggling to live through. Listen to our conversation here.
Tonight, I’ll be joining our ritual team and friends at the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care for our seasonal Zen Shabbat, fueling our souls with a fusion of meditation and prayer, silence and song. These soul-fuel stations help. Please join us in person or online. Scroll down for info.
This coming Sunday, I am looking forward to two events that help raise awareness, activism, and hopes ahead. At 11am EST, I plan to attend an online panel with the founders of Standing Together, a grassroots movement in Israel/Palestine organizing Jewish and Palestinian citizens towards peace, equality and social justice. At 1pm EST, I will honor another important moral voice that has called on us to never turn away from our human responsibility towards one another by participating in a Community Reading of Elie Wiesel’s Night. at The Museum of Jewish Heritage.
This moment is personal to me and so many of us. For me, it conjures a very special and specific memory from back in 1983: When I was 14 years old, I made some extra cash as a babysitter, which is how I ended up at Elie and Marion Wiesel’s Manhattan home, taking care of their son Elisha, a child just a few years younger than me. At the time I didn’t know that Wiesel was such an important author. He was a friend of my father – they shared a second birthday: Both were liberated from Buchenwald, the notorious German Concentration Camp, on April 11, 1945. They were teen skeletons, determined to live. They built families and became leaders, and lifelong friends.
On one of those nights, when Elisha went to sleep, I wandered over to the bookshelves, and discovered an entire section with multiple translations and editions of Wiesel’s first and famous book Night. I started reading this haunting memoir that night, and have returned to it several times over the years, finding new meanings and enduring messages that tackle Jewish theological questions and offer critical challenges for our humanitarian responsibilities towards each other’s survival.
During these difficult days, as so many traumas resurface and ancient terrors ripple into our daily news, Wiesel’s legacy endures as an important reminder to remain committed to each other’s sacred humanity, guiding us, as individuals and as a community, towards moral clarity, courage and care.
This coming Sunday, to mark International Day of Holocaust Remembrance, I am honored to lift up Wiesel’s legacy, joining a remarkable community of readers at The Museum of Jewish Heritage for a Community Reading of Elie Wiesel’s Night. My reading will take place around 3:30pm – I invite you to join us, in person or online, for as much as you can, standing in solidarity with the pains of our past, as we are present to today’s troubles, and commit to a kinder future – for all.
Please join us on Sunday, January 28th at 1:00 PM ET
Details and registration
What can help us face what’s now and next, and be more helpful to each other?
Next week we will publish our 2024 calendar of programming, offering helpful ways to gather, listen, show up for each other’s needs, refuse despair and commit to repair in all the ways we can.
Please continue to let us know what helps you.
May hope and healing help us each and every day and night,
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie
Co-Founder, Senior Clergy & Spiritual Leader
