Endurance Test

IT HAS BEEN SAID BEFORE. And sadly, it will no doubt be said again. But I feel the need to say it anyway:

A friend of mine told me the other day that, after Poway, she’ll be afraid when I go to synagogue.

“I’m not,” I replied. And meant it.

What I’m also not afraid of, is wearing my yarmulke in public.

Am I a target? Yes. But then we all are — whether we wear yarmulkes or visible stars-of-David or no. As we have been for centuries, even millennia, by haters and cowards and fools.

Does this mean we should change who we are?

Not on your life. Or mine.

We are the Jews. We have brought learning and culture and medicine to countless societies. We have also been attacked and marginalized and killed. But we endure.

We endure because of an unshakable faith in the goodness of humanity; a curious mind that can’t stop asking questions; and an optimism that, despite all odds and evidence to the contrary, continues to light our path and that of those around us.

It’s an absurd situation. But then, we are an absurd people. Only an absurd people could survive what we have survived and not give up — or give in.