By Rabbi Alexandra Wright
Co-Chair of Liberal Judaism’s Rabbinic Conference
This week is a week of sombre anniversaries: Kristallnacht – the Pogrom of 9 November 1938 when Nazi hoards across cities and towns in Germany and Austria desecrated, looted and burned over 1,200 synagogues, Jewish shops, businesses and homes, when countless individuals were abused, victimised and beaten and over 90 people were killed; over 25,000 men were arrested, deported and detained in the concentration camps of Buchenwald, Dachau and Sachsenhausen.
On Shabbat, our communities will observe Armistice Day in a moment of silence towards the end of our services, recalling all those who died in active service in the First and Second World Wars, in the wars of Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq and Northern Ireland and elsewhere. On Sunday, many of those who served in some of those wars will stand at the Cenotaph in Whitehall and pay their tribute to the fallen.
On November 13th is yet another tragic anniversary. One year ago in Paris, 130 people were killed in a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks and shootings – 89 alone inside the Bataclan Theatre, while many hundreds were seriously injured.
In the midst of these solemn anniversaries, a new president has been elected in the United States of America. Whatever our reactions to the presidential campaign or Donald Trump’s victory, let us abandon neither our liberalism nor our Judaism.
It is our liberalism that allows us – that requires us – to be open and inclusive, to value democracy, equality and freedom, to embrace moderation, reconciliation and peace. And it is our Judaism that demands that we embody the prophetic ideals of faithfulness, justice, compassion and truth, not for the sake of themselves, but for the sake of all God’s creatures.
This is our worldview; let us not give in to pessimism and despair but retain the vision of a world in which it is our task as Jews to strengthen the social covenant and trust we have with each other and with all humanity.
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