SURVEY
SURVEY What do you think? Since Sept. 11, has your outlook on Judaism changed? If sor how? Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, chaplain for the New York City Fire Department, New York City On Sept. 10...
...student president at University of Pennsylvania, Highland Park, III...
...That hellish inferno ablaze in the Twin Towers could not discern who was religious and who was secular, who was Ashkenazi and who was Sephardi, or who was Hasidic and who was not...
...It is better to roll up our sleeves and do something, than to ponder the inscrutable and waste time on the why...
...We learn that the best response to a tragedy of this magnitude is one of action...
...asked the man...
...With regard to the support so much of the Arab world has given and continues to give to atrocities and acts of terror such as those committed on 9/11, the prophet Isaiah (5:20) states: "Woe to those who speak of evil as good and of good as evil...
...The world sentiment has turned against Israel...
...The primary change is my increased appreciation of the importance of the value of mitzvah observance in experiencing the totality of life...
...For every Israeli there are about 50 Americans...
...11, Americans blamed Jews, even before they blamed Arabs...
...These questions are not unique to Judaism...
...Perhaps Joseph was saying, "I have heard people talking about honesty, but I want to see those who are honest...
...Aaron Parry, education director of Jews for Judaism, Los Angeles The events of Sept...
...11 taught us what it means to be a religious person...
...I joined Catholic priests, Protestant triinisters, a Buddhist teacher, and a secular humanist chaplain to help families file police reports...
...10,1 thought I knew what " r p l i t r i n n c " m p a n r b u t n n Sept...
...Quickly, we legitimate clergy huddled together, appointed a priest as our spokesman, and confronted the Scientologists...
...What are you searching for here...
...The pain and anxiety of Sept...
...10 Father Michael Judge, Catholic chaplain for the New York City Fire Department, said to me, "Joe, I have come to learn in life that we must hold each other as long as we have each other...
...That is the daily life of an Israeli citizen...
...11 will be the first yahrzeit for so many lost, but I hope that this date will symbolize the beginning of our resolve and action to make our world a better, more peaceful place...
...I tend not to take things for granted, counting the mner, as it were, in the small things...
...As a result, I am grateful to the generations before me who helped bring Judaism into the inner circle of American religious life...
...For the past two years it has become usual to read about another suicide bombing in Israel and the loss of 10 lives...
...Although community is a traditional Jewish value, it has been ignored in recent years...
...Daniel Brenner, senior teaching fellow, CLAL—The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, New York City On Sept...
...My response is to stand up proudly as a Jew and to redouble my commitment to strengthening the state of Israel and Clal Yisrael, the Jewish people Rabbi Marc Kline, Florence, S.C...
...I am concerned, however, and this past year has made me rethink both issues...
...Indeed, our enemies taught us a painful lesson—" We are like one...
...They packed up their books and took off...
...Since that Tuesday, I have wondered a bit longer about the brevity of life, its uncertainty mingled with beauty, and about the art of remembering...
...11, my eyes were opened to the world in which Israelis must live every day...
...Jerome Epstein, executive vice president of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, New York City I am a different person today than I was when I awoke on the morning of Sept...
...11 was tolerable because there was a community with which to bond...
...We declare, "Thou shalt not stand idly by as your brother's blood is being shed...
...And this is the part of Judaism I have grown to cherish all the more...
...11 was a day on which sinat chinam (baseless hatred) showed its face again in our world—a day much like so many others on which acts of hatred and senseless violence were committed...
...11 as an "absence" of God, I now appreciate the manifestation of God in the behavior of the many good people who performed mitzvot and acts of kindness to help ameliorate the pain and destruction of terrorism...
...11 have strengthened my gratefulness for the wisdom of Jewish thought...
...Finally, I am more sensitive to the importance of living Judaism through community...
...We are in trouble, and if Jews don't start standing up, we will suffer worse...
...I find it comforting that one of the central tenets of Judaism is that those who are evil will be punished, be it in this world or in the next...
...Imagine how we would feel if a bomber walked into Philadelphia or Chicago or Los Angeles...
...I am searching for my brothers," Joseph answered...
...While America is no longer simply a Judeo-Christian nation, times of crises test just how far those boundaries should go...
...11 teach the Jewish people that hate does not discriminate...
...The next day, shortly after the terrorist attacks, he was no longer there to hold anymore...
...What changed is my connection to Israel...
...While guilt is a horrible motivator, I find myself thinking in terms of needing to tell people, "After Sept...
...I have heard about morality, but where are the moralists...
...Judaism provides answers to such issues...
...Thus when 26 Israelis were killed in Jerusalem and Haifa within 20 hours, that is the same as 1,300 Americans innocently dying, or roughly half of those killed on Sept...
...It exposed the vitriolic hatred of Jews and Israel which is so much a part of militant Islam and, equally unnerving, the sense that the rest of the world, especially Europe, was able to fall so easily into its old patterns of anti-Semitism...
...It was a grueling process, made even more so by an influx of college-age Scientologists who showed up in yellow "Crisis Counselor" Tshirts and handed out literature on Dianetics...
...As a rabbi I have met many people who "love their neighbor," but as a Jewish fire chaplain, I have seen those who are so committed to that commandment that they are ready to die for that love...
...11 has heightened my sense of Jewish peoplehood and deepened my connection with Israel...
...11 and my perspective on Judaism has changed accordingly...
...Still, how many people do we know who are ready to rush inside a burning building as everyone else is running outside...
...Because of the great benefit that I derived from bonding with others, I am now more aware of my responsibility to help forge those bonds with others by building community...
...If anything, the events of Sept...
...Each day in our world, horrifying murders and absolute destruction take place...
...11,1 saw who the religious were in this world...
...Michael Braitman, yeshiva student, Jerusalem Judaism provides answers for how mass evil like that committed on Sept...
...Many of them approached distraught families only to confuse them even more...
...But our willingness to leave the questions open-ended without a final exclamation point defines our oudook...
...Hanna Sachs, writer, Phoenixville, Pa...
...The same applies to bolts, nails, and other projectiles unleashed by the maniacal act of a bomber in a crowd of Israelis...
...There is a new sense of urgency as to how I approach my Judaism, and how I ask others to approach it alongside me...
...A person needs to have a philosophical oudook that deals with the problem of evil before tragedies or terror affect them...
...Sara Shapiro-Plevan, educator, New York City My oudook on Judaism has not changed...
...11 and 12,1 was volunteering as a chaplain in the makeshift triage set up at Chelsea Piers...
...Although many people saw Sept...
...Lisa Eisen, program director of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, Washington, D.C...
...The bracbot that I recite now help me to appreciate gifts from God that I previously took for granted...
...It is our responsibility as Jews and as citizens of the world to recognize these hateful acts for exacriy what they are, and work to prevent each and every one...
...Bad things happen to good people, and our responsibility begins in pursuing justice and mercy...
...11 can take place: God gives the human being free will to commit tremendous evil...
...The Torah tells us that Joseph, while wandering in the field, was confronted by an elderly man...
...As a rabbi, I have never tried to be an alarmist or use guilt as a motivator...
...Since then I have attended rallies and vigils to support Israel...
...This may not be fair nor rabbinic, but the truth is, even the most assimilated Jew is a Jew in the eyes of the rest of the world...
...In that moment I saw Judaism in a way I never did before—as an "insider" in American religious life...
Vol. 27 • August 2002 • No. 4
