Next week I’m traveling to Omaha to visit family. I phoned my sister yesterday to make plans for our time together. She asked how I was doing and I told her that it had been a very trying few days given the frightening event that had happened a few nights ago right here in L.A. She didn’t know what I was talking about.
She didn’t know because outside of Los Angeles, the event wasn’t widely reported.
It sure should have been. It’s the kind of event that every American, every decent and good hearted person should hear about and decry.
The realization that while much of the world seems to have a great capacity for empathy for all sorts of suffering, its concern for the suffering of our people seems rather limited. Millions of our people have been terrorised over the past few weeks in Israel (and many hundreds were injured and more than a dozen killed) while much of the world heaped approbation on Israel’s government for doing only what it is obligated to do: protect its citizens, keep its schools and airport open, and enable people to sleep peacefully at night.
It makes one feel alone and forgotten, as if our pain, our trauma, our suffering is insignificant.
But it’s not. I’ve spoken to dozens of friends in Israel over the past few weeks who are frightened, traumatized, and just plain exhausted.
Much of the world—including many of our fellow Americans—doesn’t seem to care about the uptick in antisemitism and the terrible anti-Israel rhetoric on college campuses and even among some of our elected officials.
But here’s what gives me hope—many others do care. Very much.
Yesterday I reached out to a few ministers with whom I’ve become close to ask for their help. They’ve always been supportive of Israel and of our community and both have sent messages to their congregations expressing their support for Israel at this moment. In the midst of their many duties and obligations, each of them took the time to share messages with our community: one of which we will hear in this evening’s service and one which we will hear next week.
More than anything else, I long for a time when the type of violence and aggression we’ve seen in recent days is a distant memory—both in Israel and here in Los Angeles, too. Until violence is no more, I long simply for a time when events like the one that happened this week will inspire the type of universal outrage and condemnation they deserve. I long for a time that when, God forbid, an event like this happens again, my phone will ring off the hook with calls of concern and support from across our city, our nation, and our world.
— Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback
Watch Rabbi Yoshi speak with KCAL-9 about the current situation in Israel.