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No Easy Answers On Terrorism

J

une 12, 2016, is a day that will go
informed is the same internet that hate
down in history. It is a date that will
groups and terrorists use to spew their ugli-
be etched in our collective memories ness and to terrorize our world.
in the same ways that Dec. 7, 1941, Nov.
Creations that people purchase for the
22, 1963, and Sept. 11, 2001, have all been
purpose of self-defense can be used to mur-
burned into our collective core. I know
der and maim other people at an alarm-
there are many more dates that
ing rate with more precision and
could easily be added to this list
greater damage each day. What are
but these are the first that come to
people of faith and of conscience
mind.
to do? How do we navigate these
Terror has once again come to
troubling waters and these difficult
our shores and once again vic-
times?
timized innocent people simply
I would be lying if I told you
enjoying their lives. Terror has
that I have the answers. I would be
broken the peaceful summer night Rabbi Josh
lying if I told you I know what to
in Orlando in a way that we could Hearshen
do right now to make all of this go
never imagine. One man with a
away and make us all safer.
broken soul … One man with a
The reality is that all of us would
broken ideology … One man with hate and be lying as nobody has the power to make
not love … One man murdered 49 people
this all go away. What we are left with is
and injured 53 others.
the need to pick up the pieces and put our
What was the reason for this act of ter-
world back together. We will do so without
ror? Homosexuality? America? No, nei-
49 souls that could’ve been the key to world
ther is the reason that this happened. An
peace. We will do so without 49 people who
extremist form of Islam is the culprit. A
will never return home to their families and
broken viewpoint of the world that cannot
to their friends. We will do so with hearts
grasp pluralism and multiple viewpoints is
that are broken and courage that is some-
what brought this about.
what missing right now.
We live in scary times and we live in a
Terrorists thrive on hatred and on fear.
time period that has produced technology
They are scared of a world that is not their
that has the ability to do great good and
ideal world and so they force the world to
great harm all at once. The internet that is
live with fear as well. Terrorists hate all that
sending email to all of you and that each
we stand for because their ideas are com-
of us uses every day to connect and to be
pletely incompatible with American values

and Jewish values as well.
Terrorists cannot win because the stakes
are great, and we have to fight back to show
the world that love and optimism and plu-
ralism and values win every time. We have
to fight back and resist the temptation to
allow terror to alter who we are and allow
ourselves to become victims of the terror
that they promulgate.
This heinous crime took place on an
ordinary Saturday night for the non-Jewish
world. But for us, it happened on Shavuot.
During Shavuot, we celebrate the giving of
the Torah to the world by God. The Torah is
a document of love and of hope. The Torah
is a document of forward thinking and of
enlightenment. The Torah begins with the
core value of all of humankind being made
with equal inherent value as we are all
made in God’s image. That means that all of
us have the same common Divine spirit in
us and thus the same value.
It goes onto the very question of what our
responsibilities are to all people through
the story of Cain and Abel and Cain’s ques-
tion of “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The
response from God is not silence … It is
the Torah. It is in Leviticus 19:18: “ You shall
love your neighbor as yourself; I am the
Lord.” It is in the Talmud, and it is in our
way of seeing the world. Our document of
love that we celebrated is not the only way
of seeing the world. Other ways might differ
and other interpretations of them may be

letters continued from page 5

Merger Of Synagogues
Marked 18 Years Later

Clinton Needs To
Step Up For Israel

A glorious remembrance occurred at Adat
Shalom Synagogue on Friday, June 10,
when members of the Adat Shalom/Beth
Achim family celebrated the 18th year of
the merger.
We repeated “Let’s do something good
for the Jewish people.” Those initial words
from our first meeting guided us into an
incredibly successful union.
We did not negotiate. We did not need
to. We planned the creation of a new fam-
ily doing what we felt was God’s work
— doing something good for the Jewish
people.
Those of us partaking in this memo-
rable event 18 years ago had a supporting
cast of many that lent immeasurable help
to its success.
We never thought we would fail, and
we did not get deterred because we were
doing something good for the Jewish
people — and we did.

Two recent news stories really drive home
a point.
In one, the Congressional Black Caucus
expressed opposition to Bernie Sanders’
demand to abolish super-delegates and
open up Democratic primary voting to
non-Democrats.
The other article points to several anti-
Israel members on the Democratic Party
platform committee.
Note that the Black Caucus is unafraid
to challenge Bernie Sanders’ attempt to
remake the Democratic primary system.
They are a powerful voice protecting the
interests of their constituents. But where is
our Jewish Caucus?
Note also that the Democratic platform
committee has been stacked with Israel’s
enemies, and the Republicans are already
using it to drive Jewish voters away from
Hillary Clinton.
If there is a fight over Israel at the
Democratic Convention, and if Jewish vot-
ers smell any weakening in Mrs. Clinton’s
support for Israel, this strategy might well
work. Even worse, such a public fight car-

Neal Zalenko, Bloomfield Hills
Ed Kohl, West Bloomfield
Merger Team members

8 June 30 • 2016

ries the potential to undermine support of
Israel by other Americans.
Mrs. Clinton needs to repudiate the idea
of a convention fight over Israel, and to
forcefully restate her support for Israel,
and she needs to do it now, and frequently,
if she wants to keep Jewish voters in her
camp.
Who among us has the ability to convince
her of this? Where is our Jewish Caucus?

Robert Tell
Farmington Hills

CLARIFICATION
• The picture in “Project Pinstripe” (June
23, page 24) was taken by photographer
Michael S. Doré.

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the antitheses of our document of love. But
that does not change our core mission and
our core value system.
Forty-nine people are no longer with
their family and friends. That is beyond a
tragedy … it is desecration of God’s name
and all that we hold to be of value.
Forty-nine people were targeted not
because of who they were but because of
whom they loved. That is a moral outrage
and something we must come together to
combat.
Forty-nine people are gone because of
a warped and demented viewpoint of the
world. That is something we need to fight
against. May their memories be a blessing.
May the ways that they lived their lives
inspire us to live ours a whole lot better.
May their memories call out to us to exam-
ine our world and work every day to repair
it.
May their memories forever push us to
see the other not as foreign but as our family
and as sacred creatures who deserve all that
we deserve as well. May they rest in peace
and may their families be comforted by their
memories.

*

Rabbi Josh Hearshen, rabbi of Congregation Rodeph
Shalom in Tampa, sent this letter to the members of his
congregation. He graduated from Berkley High School
and Michigan State University before attending the
Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles.

Yiddish Limerick

FOURTH OF JULY
It’s tzvay hunderd fertzig,* ich glayb
nisht,** oy my!
It’s America’s geburstog,*** it’s the
Fourth of July.
So gay un ess**** di chazerhay*****
And then, my friend, look to the sky.
Just gay un zhay frailakh,****** and do
not be shy.

* tzvay hunderd fertzig — two hun
dred forty
** ich glayb nisht — I don’t believe
*** geburstog — birthday
**** gay un ess — go and eat
***** di chazerhay — junk food.
****** gay un zhay frailakh — go
and be happy.

— Rachel Kapen

