Other items in today’s column include:
*Arnold Schwarzenegger Compares Attack on Capitol to Kristallnacht
*American Jewish Congress catalogues Nazi imagery among Capitol rioters
*Jewish Federation supports, extols five local Jewish day schools
SAN DIEGO — Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) and his wife Sarah Bloom, disclosed in a moving essay that their son Tommy, who was eulogized during the opening day of Congress by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, had committed suicide while in the throes of severe depression.
After essaying about the remarkable life of their son, a Harvard Law School student who was a dedicated vegan and the champion of people who were bullied or ostracized, the couple wrote the following:
We have barely been able to scratch the surface here, but you have a sense of our son. Tommy Raskin had a perfect heart, a perfect soul, a riotously outrageous and relentless sense of humor, and a dazzling radiant mind. He began to be tortured later in his 20s by a blindingly painful and merciless ‘disease called depression,’ as Tabitha put it on Facebook over the weekend, a kind of relentless torture in the brain for him, and despite very fine doctors and a loving family and friendship network of hundreds who adored him beyond words and whom he adored too, the pain became overwhelming and unyielding and unbearable at last for our dear boy, this young man of surpassing promise to our broken world.
On the last hellish brutal day of that godawful miserable year of 2020, when hundreds of thousands of Americans and millions of people all over the world died alone in bed in the darkness from an invisible killer disease ravaging their bodies and minds, we also lost our dear, dear, beloved son, Hannah and Tabitha’s beloved irreplaceable brother, a radiant light in this broken world.
He left us this farewell note on New Year’s Eve day: ‘Please forgive me. My illness won today. Please look after each other, the animals, and the global poor for me. All my love, Tommy.
Tommy Raskin‘s death is, of course, a tragedy for his family, and for a world that he might have made better. I believe the Raskins chose to publicize their son’s death not only to pay him tribute, but to enable his memory to do one more service for humankind: helping to remove the stigma of mental illness by discussing it openly, without shame.
I had a college roommate at UCLA, Howard Bronstein, who at about the same age as Tommy Raskin began to fall deeper and deeper into depression and schizophrenia. We learned newspapering together on the UCLA Daily Bruin, and he was best man at Nancy‘s and my wedding back in 1968, but he never had the good fortune to marry. Howard had a promising career in journalism, eventually migrating from Los Angeles to San Diego County, where he worked as a reporter for the Oceanside Blade-Tribune prior to the time he had to be hospitalized. My heart broke whenever I saw him after that; to witness him cut down in his prime, by this unseen enemy, was more than I could bear. Howard never recovered from his mental illness, and died so very, very young. Our lives had seemed so parallel; why did this misfortune fall upon him and not on me?
I’m certain that many of the Harvard Law School students who were classmates with Tommy Raskin may be asking themselves the same thing.
In the Jewish community, mental illness often is only whispered about. Suicide is considered by some religious authorities as a moral sin that transgresses God’s will. Others take a more enlightened viewpoint, saying mental illness is not really different from a physical illness; both overtake us against our will. It’s clear that whatever our religious viewpoint, or where we pray, or don’t pray at all, mental illness is a topic that we as a community must continue to address publicly, and understand, so that we can resist its dangerous embrace, even as we resist cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and other killers. Tommy Raskin, Howard Bronstein, and all the others, may your memories always be for a blessing!
Arnold Schwarzenegger Compares Attack on Capitol to Kristallnacht
Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in the video above tells about growing up the son of a Nazi who had participated in Kristallnacht and lived a guilty, drunken life after the war. He said President Trump soon will be as irrelevant as an old Tweet, but Americans should be concerned about the Republican lawmakers and officials who enabled the President and his conspiracy theories. “We need to hold accountable the people who brought us to this unforgivable point,” he said. My thanks to Dorothea Shefer-Vanson of Mevasseret Zion, Israel, and Ben Dishman of San Diego for calling it to our attention.
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American Jewish Congress catalogues Nazi imagery among Capitol rioters
“Capitol Storming, Neo-Nazi, QAnon and Antisemitic Online Chatter” is a report just compiled by the American Jewish Congress. Jack Rosen, the organization’s president, notes “The storming of the Capitol on January 6 th by militant supporters of President Donald Trump featured several instances of Antisemitic agitation, from an extremist Holocaust denier who helped ransack House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) office to various individuals who displayed far-right and neoNazi slogans and symbols. In the aftermath of the attack on the Capitol, chatter in unmoderated open-source online channels has spiked, publishing alarming Antisemitic and anti-Israel content, including death threats, calls for Jews to leave America, and depictions of Jewish symbols and Holocaust-related references.”
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Jewish Federation supports, extols five local Jewish day schools
Darren Schwartz, chief planning and strategy officer for the Jewish Federation of San Diego County, has announced emergency fund grants of unspecified amounts are being made to the five Jewish day schools serving our county, specifically Chabad Hebrew Academy, San Diego Jewish Academy Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School, Southern California Yeshiva High School and Torah High School.
” In the fall of 2020, all five Day Schools reopened to in-person education,” Schwartz commented in an email blast. “Our Day Schools have demonstrated their resilience and adaptability during the most challenging times. We have immense admiration for the professional and lay leadership that was able to accomplish this seemingly insurmountable obstacle.
“The continuity of Jewish education is a hallmark of a Jewish community. Today, at a time when this matters more than ever, our Day School teachers have become the heroes of the moment. There are over 200 teachers at our five Day Schools. These teachers were asked to reimagine their classrooms and curriculum while balancing their personal responsibilities to their own families. Our teachers flexed their muscles and created a safe space for Jewish children to learn and grow. We join school administration, parents, and students in applauding these dedicated professionals.”
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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com