So much has happened since we gathered a month ago for the Restoring Our Faith Summit. How blessed we were to be together in the hours following the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. To hear from Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, Rabbi Ari Lamm and other faith leaders and scholars as they discussed how our strength, as people of Jewish and Christian heritage, is to pray together for those in the midst of this terrible struggle and to live out what we believe.
Little did we know of the vicious antisemitism that has since invaded our cities and is particularly prevalent on college campuses. In our last letter, we encouraged everyone to sign petitions that support the dismissal of college professors who have used social media to foment hatred toward the Jewish people. Now we see Jewish students threatened and even barricaded in buildings with protestors outside calling for their death.
It is a scary time in America. We are all deeply troubled by the violence and hate we are seeing filling our streets and feel helpless to stop it.
As we learned at the summit, amid these vicious attacks and violent antisemitism in our midst we must continue to work together to restore faith in God. The one true God, who is love and not hate, life and not death. As Meir Soloveichik wrote in a recent opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal, “Israel’s culture cherishes life while Hamas and its allies worship death.”
Many of our ROF speakers have written about the situation in the Middle East and the repercussions here in the United States. We thought you may wish to read what they wrote. Please see their important articles below.
Mary Eberstadt
Catholics Against Anti-Semitism
Rabbi Soloveichik
Simchat Torah and the Jewish Love of Life
Antisemitism and the Jewish Identity
Liel Lebovitz
I once fell for the Columbia prof who celebrated Hamas’ massacre – he has the power to infect
Rabbi Lamm
Unorthodox Podcast: Moving Forward, Together
Gerald McDermott
Christians Have a Duty to Hate the Evil of Hamas
It is in this moment that we must come together in prayer and commitment to the truths of the Bible and reinforce these truths in a culture that seems upside down.
P.S.
We would also like to call your attention to the ‘March for Israel’ taking place in DC next Tuesday, November 14 hosted by Jewish Federations of North America. Read more about it here.
