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Goodbye 5780 – It Wasn’t All So Bad
A 

friend recently sent me 
a picture of a cartoon 
book, titled How to Deal 
with the Upcoming Recession, 
Inflation, Ice Age, Population 
Explosion and the Complete End of 
the World in the Year 2020.
I think we can 
all agree that 2020 
will not go down 
as a banner year. 
Between econom-
ic collapse, an 
exhausting polit-
ical race, racial 
injustice and the 
world’
s worst global pandemic 
in 100 years, it’
s been a year that 
America and the world would 
like to forget.
The Jewish world will soon say 
goodbye to the corresponding 
year in the Hebrew calendar, 
5780. The gloom of the insidi-
ous coronavirus will hang over 
everything. Most of us will be 
observing the High Holidays 
from home, and every aspect 
of our community life — work, 
school, worshipping, socializing 
— has been upended, just like 
everyone else. In Israel, the virus 
has ravaged that small country, 
with more than 80,000 cases and 

600 deaths. 
But let’
s not lose sight of a few 
things as we look ahead to 5781. 
Jews have seen our share of dark 
years before, and yet we always 
manage to find reasons for hope 
and inspiration. For a people 
who have miraculously survived 
for over five millennia — which 
included persecution, exile, 
extermination and terrorism — 
we have learned to not get too 
up or too down over a particular 
year. We have wisely learned to 
play the long game.
For all the misery of the past 
year, the fact is that many pos-
itive things happened in the 
Jewish world in 5780, and some 
of them were truly incredible. We 
should not overlook them. Golda 
Meir once said, “Pessimism is a 
luxury that a Jew can never allow 
themselves.
” 
We can choose to take Golda’
s 
advice, reject the urge to wallow 
in gloom and doom, and instead 
feel optimistic about all the good 
things of 5780, for there is much 
to be proud of. Our Kiddush cup 
is indeed half-full. 
Here’
s a short list of some 
things that happened this past 
year that can uplift our Jewish 

souls: 
• The United Arab Emirates 
and Israel entered into an historic 
peace deal calling for “full nor-
malization of relations.
” The UAE 
is now the third Arab country to 
have formal relations with Israel, 
after Egypt and Jordan. 
• Two Russian cosmonauts, 
during a spacewalk on Holocaust 
Remembrance Day, displayed 
an Israeli flag along a sign 
they constructed reading “We 
Remember.
”
• At the 75th anniversary of 
the liberation of Auschwitz-
Birkenau in January, a senior del-
egation from the Muslim World 
League and the American Jewish 
Committee came together and 
locked arms in solidarity.
• Israeli athletes competed in 
the judo international champion-
ship in the UAE. The Israeli team 
won, and the Israeli flag was 
hoisted as “Hatikvah” was played, 
a first in the UAE. Israel also 
competed in the Tour de France 
for the first time.
• Trade between Israel and the 
Gulf States hit $1 billion. 
• Israel’
s Minister of Culture 
was invited to and visited Dubai 
for the first time.

• The Arab Council for 
Regional Integration was formed, 
a “pan-Arab initiative devoted to 
bringing security and prosperity 
to the Middle East,
” and partic-
ularly focused on overcoming 
hatred against Israel and Jews 
and “growing coexistence and 
cooperation.
”
• The FDA approved an Israeli 
company’
s early warning testing 
procedure for treating COVID-
19 patients. Many Israeli start-up 
companies continued to thrive, 
particularly in the area of track-
ing, tracing, diagnosing and 
monitoring COVID-19 patients.
• The U.S. House 
Appropriations Committee 
approved $3.3 billion in security 
assistance to Israel.
• Thirty-one U.S states passed 
legislation condemning antisem-
itism and formally opposing 
the Boycott, Divestment and 
Sanctions movement. The legis-
lation directs state entities not to 
contract with any business that 
supports BDS.
• The Michigan Legislature 
created its very first Black and 
Jewish Unity Caucus, which will 
be working with the Coalition for 
Black and Jewish Unity, of which 

Mark Jacobs

continued on page 10

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