Our stories are important

I’ve just finished Jeffrey Goldberg’s book, Prisoners: A Story of Friendship and Terror. Goldberg, who currently lives in D.C. and writes for the Atlantic Monthly, lived in Israel for several years and served in the IDF. Prisoners is an account of his term of duty at Ketziot, a military prison in the Negev where Palestinians were incarcerated during the first and second Intifada.

Goldberg came back to the U.S. – not because of his work at Ketziot – with very mixed feelings. He wrote this about his cultural adjustment: “… most American Jews were happy and at ease. But they tended to be Jews without a sense of responsibility to the past… they didn’t think of themselves in history and they didn’t think about history’s lessons for the Jews.”

I worry about this too. I worry that it is too easy for us to forget that our current acceptance and freedom is a razor-thin slice of Jewish history. For the vast majority of our history we were outsiders who had to beg or bribe our way to any rights at all.

All rabbis have recurring themes. One of mine is that people must tell their stories to younger generations. We must tell children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews about our Jewish childhood and our commitment. We don’t do this expecting our children to follow in our footsteps, doing things exactly as we did them. We tell our stories so they will have a grounding in a history and, hopefully, a sense of responsibility to that history.

I think the Jewish world is changing quickly. The freedom and acceptance we now have, at least in North America, makes the experience of each generation very different from the one that came before it. (I’ll never forget how shocked I was when my son wore a kippah to his public high school and was voted Prince of Homecoming for the Junior class – kippah and all.) This freedom and acceptance are, of course, good. American Jewish life is vibrant and creative.

But I think we all know the challenges. We must teach that it was not always this way, and not all Jews share in our comfort. To maintain our “peoplehood” we must always tell our stories. Children may roll their eyes but they will learn that they are part of something much bigger, and they have a responsibility to honor the past as they create a Jewish future.

The Rabbinically Speaking column is provided as a public service by the Jewish Press in cooperation with the Tampa Rabbinical Association. Columns are assigned, on a rotating basis by the board.