Reach Out To All Jews

The house is quiet, the grandchildren are asleep and so is Makedah.  I wonder at times how much we can depend on other Jews.  We live in a small Midwestern community that is about 90 per cent white Christians.  The other 10 percent is made up of Hispanic Christians, Arabs, Asians and Somalis.  In the seven, going on eight years, we have no contact with other Jews.  Occasionally we get letters and other mail requesting money to support one Jewish Day School or other causes.  So far none of them have ever invited us to their houses of worship.  How can we depend on them coming to our aid if we need them?  When we sought them out for conversion, none open wide their doors to welcome us.  Makedah and I have yet to be invited into their temples or synagogues.  Sometimes, I feel like screaming.  We are disabled, we are of two races, we live seventy miles away from your temples and synagogues.  We are Jews and we need the Jewish People to reach out and embrace us. 

 

Each day we leave our home, we aware, we are ambassadors of the Jewish People.  Very few people here know anything about Judaism or the Jewish People.  However, their anti-Semiticism simmers just beneath the surface.  Where are the Jews when the holidays come around? Every Shabbat we spend alone.  Even other holiday are no different.  It is the two of us trying hard to adhere to rituals.  We would never give up our faith in G*d or Judaism.  But, we both feel cut off from other Jews.  Makedah and I are like the leafs on a tree.  We grows and mature.  But, neither she nor I can survive without the tree and it roots.  Individually,each Jew make up the leaves of the tree, while Judaism is the truck of the tree and its roots is the Jewish people. Each of us need one another if the tree is to live to its fullest.  It does not matter if we are Reform, Conservative, Orthodox or Reconstuctionist Jews.  It does not matter if we are converts from another religion or born Jewish.  What matters is can we count on one another. 

 

G*d made a covenant with Abraham and his descendents to be the ones who are to carry the torch.

There are many who want to extinguish this flame.  Some are the children of Amalak and others are the descendents of Mohammed.  However, our own indifference, apathy, racism and elitism will also smother out the light that we are entrusted to carry to the world.  How can we show the way back to belief in G*d, if we are blind to the suffering of our own people?  Makedah and I know the day of systemic punishment for Jews will come in our time.  We know the importance of gathering all our people together.  Whether we live in small communities or huge urban communities, the punishment will be the same.  If we are to overcome this terrible time of tribulation, we must forget denominations and reach out to any and all Jews, not matter their location, race or other factors.