OpEd: Under Trump, We Jews Will Have to Rely on Our Values, Traditions

By Cheryl Cook

BROOKLYN, New York –A few days ago, Donald Trump won the presidency by making promises to shape our world through racism, misogyny, homophobia, and attacks on immigrants, trans people, Jews, Muslims, and protestors, along with a continued denial of the climate crisis.

This is the dark vision the President-Elect has for the United States, and that darkness has, at times, felt all-encompassing.

But every week, we begin Shabbat by lighting candles, bringing light into the darkness and illuminating a world of possibilities beyond what is directly in front of us.

In just a few hours, I will light Shabbat candles with my family. I am heartened thinking about generations of our ancestors doing the same.

How many times did they light candles amid chaos, persecution, and autocratic rule? How many times did those candles offer a glimpse of a different, better world?

It is said that one purpose of Shabbat is to be a window to the world that could be amidst the world that is.

That is how I see our role in this moment—as individuals, as an organization, and as a wider Jewish justice movement. No matter what political conditions surround us, it is our sacred mission to continue to build Jewish communities and leaders who will work for true equity, justice, and democracy for all.

In short, we’re going to keep bringing light. We’re going to keep caring for the most vulnerable. We’re going to keep building connections across lines of difference. We’re going to keep teaching young American Jews how they can create a better world.

This is not the first time the politics of division and hate have cast a pall over our work, but we have our rituals, our courage, and each other to carry us through.

We are going to keep offering these glimpses of the world that could be, and work to kindle that world into being.

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Cheryl Cook is chief executive officer of Avodah, the Jewish Service Corps.