Looking back can be terrifying. We are further protected by being a part of the covenantal community, thus we can look back safely, unflinchingly, to the very real horrors that have shaped our communities and our lives.
Let’s find courage together by sharing our stories about the world we wish to create; the world we want our children to inherit. As Herzl famously said about the State of Israel, “If you wish it, it is no myth.” It’s similar for crafting a world of peace: By telling our stories, they become no myth; our words become an act of redemptive creation.
Despite his reservations, [Moses] is able to see that God’s presence illuminates even the most unassuming, seemingly dark and thorny places. May we, with all our insecurities, do the same.
This is the work before us this Pesach. We must abandon our worship of the false idol of correctness. We have to start with what we know. We know that all people need peace to survive. We know the liberation of Israelis is bound up with the liberation of Palestinians and vice versa. We know being traumatized is not a way to live. We also know that clinging to the crumbs of winning an argument only takes us further away from peace.
Sarah Fort Sholklapper is a rabbinical student at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University. A native of the DC area, she graduated from George Mason University with a degree in Government and International Politics, concentrating in the Middle East and North Africa, with the intention of going into foreign service....
Madi (she/her) is a former local politics reporter from south Florida and a fierce advocate for multimedia storytelling as a tool for peace among young Jews and Arabs in the Middle East. She has been involved as a researcher and peace-builder of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict since her senior year of college. Following her graduation, she...
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