My family recently traveled to northern\nVirginia for a bar mitzvah. We did it in a long weekend. We left Thursday\nafternoon and returned on Tuesday. It was the farthest we\u2019ve ever gone in a\nweekend with kids. Afterward, I felt bleary and fuzzy around the edges.\nHowever, wandering through three airports in each direction and attending five\nor six big family events and meals exposes you to things you might not have\nnoticed before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My nephew became a bar mitzvah at my childhood\ncongregation. Each weekend, they print a bulletin or program with information\nabout services and upcoming activities. When services ended, my husband tucked\nhis program into his tallis bag as a memento. I also took one for safekeeping,\nbut I saw it as primary source material. Proof that, indeed, all these\nactivities could happen at a healthy congregation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Awhile back, I wrote a column describing a\nslate of weekend Jewish events, for every age group, at North American\ncongregations. As one template, I used Temple Rodef Shalom, in Falls Church,\nVa. I\u2019ll never forget some of the feedback I got. The loudest responses were\nfrom older men. One told me I must be making this up. Why would any\ncongregation cater to special interests (children, teenagers, those with\ndisabilities, women, Jews of colour, the needy, Jews by choice, and others) the\nway these ones did? This man stopped just shy of telling me I was writing fake\nnews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t consider myself a journalist. I wasn\u2019t\ntrained as one. I usually write clearly marked opinion pieces, how-to articles\nand features. I don\u2019t go to war zones, report on famine or natural disasters,\nbut, apparently, that didn\u2019t matter either. In a reply, I linked to two\ncongregations\u2019 calendars, including ones that had served as my template. The\nsomewhat virulent response from this man targeted Reform Judaism, liberals and\n\u2026 no need to go on, you get the picture. No amount of valid information would\nlikely sway him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While going through the Winnipeg, Minneapolis\nand Washington National airports, I glimpsed newsstand magazine covers. Time<\/em>\nmagazine\u2019s Person of the Year was not Trump. No, the 2018 people of the year\nwere journalists killed or imprisoned for doing their job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Journalists and, more generally, writers, have\na job that requires them to observe, hear and listen to what\u2019s going on around\nthem. In a fast-moving world, a well-written piece can help readers absorb\ninformation or perceive a different point of view \u2013 ideally to help us\nunderstand a bigger worldview than we can find on our own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I thought about this \u201cfake news\u201d response while\nI read the synagogue bulletin from the bar mitzvah. The congregation\u2019s name,\nchosen in the 1960s \u2013 Rodef Shalom<\/em>, Pursuer of Peace, referencing Psalm\n34:15 \u2013 was carefully selected: \u201cDepart from evil and do good. Seek peace and\npursue it.\u201d And, indeed, the congregation was doing many good activities in\nDecember. They examined issues concerning gun violence, Torah, politics and the\nlife of the synagogue. On Dec. 25, they had a Mitzvah Day scheduled, working on\ncreating \u201ccare kits\u201d for the homeless, cooking and delivering hot meals and\nsandwiches to homeless shelters, and collecting, sorting and distributing\nwinter clothing for those who needed it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are many Jewish angles to being a good\njournalist, writer or observer. Jews are People of the Book. We\u2019re also primed,\nin the Sh\u2019ma, to \u201chear these words, to speak them, to write them and to teach\nand listen to them.\u201d In our efforts to understand who we are as Jews, we also\nmust learn to hear, listen and communicate with others. We should know what it\nmeans to be a witness to events, whether we are journalists or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If one wants to, you can really shelter\nyourself these days into consuming (watching, hearing and reading) just the\n\u201cfeed\u201d that caters to your sensibilities. That is, you can believe there is a\nborder wall already being built between the United States and Mexico to keep\nout dangerous criminals instead of refugees. You can provide yourself a fake\nnews narrative that somehow allows you to think that the white person who shot\nat synagogue-goers in Pittsburgh, or the one who killed so many in Las Vegas,\nis not as threatening as Al Sharpton or American Muslims. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I choose a different approach. In the airport,\nwe smiled at others \u2013 no matter their skin colour or religious beliefs. We\nchatted with a young woman who attends Howard University (an historic and\nrespected African-American institution) and I told her how great the campus was\nwhen I once took a teacher licensing exam there. One of my kids pulled a book\nout of a backpack for me to read them while we waited: a Scholastic book on\nViola Desmond (who\u2019s on Canada\u2019s new $10 bill, by the way).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Time<\/em> said they chose\nthese journalists \u201cfor taking great risks in pursuit of greater truths, for the\nimperfect but essential quest for facts, for speaking up and for speaking out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Part of being Jewish is taking the time to hear\nand listen to what is around us, and to take risks to pursue truth and peace.\nWe\u2019re known as people who speak out for those who need compassion (Joseph\nhelped the Jews in Egypt in time of famine) and justice (Moses spoke out\nagainst slavery). In that tradition, we have had modern leaders like Abraham\nJoshua Heschel, who spoke out on civil rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I take this one step further when I write it\ndown and it gets sent to you in the newspaper. We\u2019re lucky \u2013 as we start 2019,\nwe have the power to choose to read, listen, learn and treat each other with\nlove and an open heart and discern what is real. I have an actual printed\nbulletin to prove that synagogues can and do provide programming for many\nconstituencies. I do fear hatred,\nlies, violence and fake news, but I don\u2019t spread a blanket of fear where it\ndoesn\u2019t belong \u2013 not on top of people of colour (Jews or non-Jews) or others\nwith predominantly moderate religious traditions like Islam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Christians may talk about witnessing but, every\nday, Jews recite in the Sh\u2019ma an obligation to hear and to listen, to read and\ncommunicate our values. When we truly pursue peace, we don\u2019t accuse each other\nof making up the news. Instead, we make news for doing good things and being\nupright and honest with one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s lift a glass to tolerance and good\ncommunication, too. Here\u2019s to a loving, peaceful, civil and truthful 2019.\nL\u2019chaim. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Joanne Seiff<\/strong> has written regularly for CBC Manitoba and various Jewish publications. She is the author of three books, including <\/em>From the Outside In: Jewish Post Columns 2015-2016, a collection of essays available for digital download or as a paperback from Amazon. See more about her at joanneseiff.blogspot.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My family recently traveled to northern Virginia for a bar mitzvah. We did it in a long weekend. We left Thursday afternoon and returned on Tuesday. It was the farthest we\u2019ve ever gone in a weekend with kids. Afterward, I felt bleary and fuzzy around the edges. However, wandering through three airports in each direction […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[6531,218,8302,6048],"class_list":["post-31668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-op-ed","tag-journalism","tag-judaism","tag-lifestyle","tag-synagogue"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31668\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}