Leadership Messages

Friends, 

When I finish writing this bulletin article, I will begin preparing to take a group of our Kadima teens to Washington, DC, for the L’Taken Social Justice Seminar conducted by the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (RAC). For decades, the RAC has invited thousands of Reform Jewish teens from around the nation to DC each year to explore the intersection of Jewish values and social justice. L’taken is a hands-on program teaching teens how to employ their Jewish values to advocate for issues important to them.  The teens will be exposed to topics important to the Reform movement during the weekend, such as Israel, antisemitism, reproductive rights, economic justice, and more.  Then, they will home in on an issue they are passionate about. On Monday, our teens will visit Capitol Hill and discuss their issues with our Congress people. Rabbi Polly and I took groups to L’taken in 2017 and 2018. I am thrilled to return to L’taken this year with our Kadima teens with Rav Jeremy Schwartz and his teen group from Temple Bnai Israel.

This trip with our teens is about inspiration, aspiration, and hope. It is not simply cliché that our hope is embodied in our youth. At this very moment, the institutions and mechanisms of how our government fulfills its promises to its citizens are being dismantled, and the bulwarks of our constitutional system are being challenged and moved. Whether one views these changes as positive or negative, the generations coming of age now will be responsible for rebuilding what we allow to be torn down. We must give them the tools to do this thoughtfully. Our teens are my hope that the institutions they rebuild will exemplify core values derived from the Jewish and American experience such as respecting the dignity of all human beings, understanding that liberty is only guaranteed by acknowledgment that our freedom stands equally on the shoulders of those who came before us, and our willingness commit to ensuring the welfare of family, friends, fellow citizens, and strangers who live among us, and that the world and communities into which we are born are indeed a gifts that require our respect and vigilant daily caretaking.

Since I returned from sabbatical, I have been approached by many of you who are alarmed and distraught by sweeping changes we see in our Federal government. This is more than just a sea change in domestic and foreign policy for many of us. Many of our families and friends are directly affected by the callous onslaught of firings of government workers and the canceling of grants and loan programs that support the welfare of our communities. In a very short time, all of us will see and feel these changes. It is easy to become overwhelmed by these changes, develop a sense of hopelessness, and then disengage. Do not give up, and do not give in. Although it may seem there is little that we can do, now more than ever, it is essential to think deeply about our values, act on them, pull together as a community, and be present for one another. It is equally important to read and study. There is nothing unprecedented about our current situation. Reading and studying will help us understand what is happening, focus on our values, and inform our individual and collective response. We are up to this task.

Ezra Klien from the New York Times ends his podcasts by asking interviewees to offer three book recommendations. I’ll give you three books I am currently reading that are helping me to know our history more thoroughly, see our present more clearly, and understand that our future is not inevitable: The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America, Timothy Snyder, Penguin Random House (2018); Takeover: Hitler’s final rise to power, Timothy Ryback, Knopf (2024); The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt, Harcourt (1951). If there is interest, I will schedule discussions about these books. As always, my door is always open. Stop in and let me know what’s on your mind.

L’shalom,
Rabbi Marc