Shining A Light of Legacy and Hope

As we near the end of 2023, there is a group of Reform Jews gathering this weekend in Washington, DC, in part to celebrate and honor the 150^th anniversary of the founding of the Union for American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC), which has since become the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), that “provides the vision and voice” of our Reform Movement.  The tagline for this gathering is “reconnect, rejoice, and recommit” to our community, values, and purpose.  As our Movement gears up for this reinvigorating weekend, it is also in mourning for Rabbi Dr. David Ellenson.

Rabbi Ellenson served as president of HUC-JIR, our Movement’s only rabbinical seminary for 13 years, chancellor emeritus of HUC, was an outstanding professor of Jewish thought, and most of all, a mensch (really good person).  During my time at HUC, and amid serious academic scholars, the community (Rabbi Ellenson included) would lovingly tease, that there wasn’t a function that he spoke at where he did not cry (proof of this is in the opening of his 2013 Biennial D’var Torah).  It’s been said in the last week that his heart was as large as his mind.  He was so passionate about Judaism, cared so deeply for his colleagues and students, that it overflowed whenever he addressed groups.  I hope that as our Movement gathers in DC, in spirit or in person, we take to heart what Rabbi Ellenson role modeled: to have our hearts and minds open in equal measure.

I’ve seen since Oct 7^th, much passion in regard to the Israel-Hamas War.  There’s an article from the Wall Street Journal that has been floating around social media, “From Which River to Which Sea” in which the results of a survey of about 250 college students, 86% of which supported the chant/slogan, “from the river to the sea…” Surprisingly (or not), fewer than half of those students could name the river and sea the slogan refers to – some naming the Nile and the Atlantic Ocean.  Less than 25% knew who Yasser Arafat (Palestinian political leader of the PLO) was, with about 10% thinking he was the first Prime Minister of Israel.  Similarly with several other basic facts regarding geography and peace treaties, these students largely could not answer basic knowledge questions.  When given these basic facts, 68% changed their views.  The conclusion of the article is that political extremism relies on ignorance.  I would say, what I have seen is an overabundance of heart, without the head – people passionately getting behind slogans or appearances, all too often without the necessary knowledge or thinking critically about the facts for themselves.  It is all too easy to take a headline, an online post, a charismatic personality’s opinion as fact and run with it. 

I hope, in Ellenson’s honor and memory, that we, as a Movement are able to “reconnect, rejoice, and recommit” to each other, our values, and our purpose in ways that are equally driven by passion and intellect.  In the introduction to Rabbi Ellenson’s address to the 2013 Biennial (linked above), Rick Jacobs mentioned a teaching of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel: “When I was young, I used to admire smart people; as I grow older, I admire kind people.”  Jacobs went on to say that with Rabbi Ellenson we don’t have to choose.  May we too be people and surround ourselves with those who are endowed and live up to equal measures of both. 

Tonight, our Hanukkah menorahs will be full, representing our religious desire to bring light to banish the darkness.  May we continue to shine our lights, reinvigorated by one another and our tradition, to shine forth in the year ahead.