By Heidi Gantwerk
SAN DIEGO — Over the past 11 months in these Shabbat messages, I have come back again and again to the light and the dark, the Or v’Choshech. Over the past 329 days, when darkness has been a constant presence, I have made it a practice to search every day for light. It has not always been easy.
This week’s Torah portion, Re’eh, presents a related dichotomy: blessings and curses. In the parasha, Moses presents to the Israelites the ways in which they must live in order to receive God’s blessings, and to avoid God’s curses. “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore, choose life, so you and your children may live.” I have written about this portion before, and every year I am struck by the power of this statement. Moses, in the words of Lord Jonathan Sacks, is asking the people, “Who are we? Where are we? What are we trying to achieve and what kind of people do we aspire to be?” As great leaders do, he is framing reality and articulating the people’s choices with great clarity. It is a rare gift – one I can only aspire to and work toward in a time when so much seems uncertain and unclear.
We always have the power to choose, no matter the circumstances surrounding us. Today, so many of us are choosing to spend time and resources defending the Jewish people, making our community safer, and supporting Israel in her time of need. We are choosing to do this because it answers the questions of who we are and where we are, and what kind of people we want to be. We are choosing to do this because we see the reality of the situation and want to prevent a future where curses seem to win the day for the Jewish people. Instead, we want to realize the blessings available to us. We choose to this because we see being Jewish as a blessing worth fighting for.
But to fully realize that blessing also requires each of us actively choosing to find our own way to live a purposeful Jewish life. It requires choosing to see Jewish identity as a gift, and Jewish experience as filled with meaning. Even while the news and social media provide ample evidence of division, destruction and despair every day, we are living in a time and a place that is overflowing with blessings, with wildly varied ways to live an authentically Jewish life.
This week alone at Federation, we are working on our Honeymoon Israel program for young couples from every imaginable background (Jewish, interfaith, straight, LGBTQ, Jews of color, affiliated or “just Jewish”) to visit Israel and build lasting community. We are about to launch our fourth cohort of the Pauline Foster Women’s Leadership Institute, a powerful year-long program for women to develop their networks and their leadership capacity. We are recruiting for an incredible trip to Italy for young adults as part of our partnership with JDC Entwine. Children from throughout the region just had their first joyful experience at Jewish sleepaway camp thanks in part to grants from our One Happy Camper program. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. You can find so many other opportunities at jewishinsandiego.org.
Of course, Federation is part of an incredible local ecosystem of more than 100 Jewish organizations offering a dizzying array of opportunities for joyful, meaningful Jewish experiences. Vibrant synagogues of all denominations, robust day schools, a thriving JCC, a visionary Jewish community farm, a dynamic and engaging regional Hillel, BBYO and USY and other youth activities, countless volunteer opportunities, and so much more. A Jewish smorgasbord of blessings right here in San Diego. It is for all of this that we are fighting so hard.
I feel so fortunate to do this work, and to do it here in San Diego. Personally, one of the blessings I am thankful for is the cohort of leaders of all these wonderful organizations – colleagues who together every day help us collectively ask and answer: Who are we? Where are we? And what kind of people are we trying to be? It is this collective work, this multifaceted tapestry we are all weaving together that in the end, blesses us all with exceptional resilience and strength.
In just over a month, we will gather again as a community to mark one year since October 7th, that darkest of days. More than 60 Jewish organizations will come together to ensure that as one community, we acknowledge the grief, sadness and fear of that day and the days that have followed. But together we will also celebrate our collective strength and resilience, and all the ways we have met this moment. I hope you will choose to be there.
Only together can we make sure that, in the words of my friend Mayor Ofir Libstein, z’l, ha’or v’hatov nenatzeach – “The light and the good will win.”
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Shabbat Shalom, and wishing you a safe and restful holiday weekend.
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Heidi Gantwerk is president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of San Diego.