This should not be something you read for fun, but rather you read to be understand. This is not journalism nor is it entertainment, but my reality. In the past week there were over 60 bomb threats in Jewish community centers across the country in 27 states. I think that to fully understand the impact this has on a community you need to think about it in simpler terms. If you had 50 close friends and someone made threats against 27, over half of them, you would be so distraught. That is how all the members of the Jewish community feel.
Why is this so important to me? In University City, Missouri Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery was vandalized leaving hundreds of tombstones toppled over and desecrated. I have been a University City resident for 19 years. I have Jewish family. I love my country, I love my city, and I love my family. This can all be summed up in one phrase: I love my community.
How can a community be a community when members of the community will desecrate the resting place of the dead? In the Jewish tradition there is a saying: “Tikkun olam” which translates to “repair the world.” By taking action we can repair the world and that is what I and so many other did on Wednesday, February 22. Repairing the world cannot be done by one alone, but with many others we can. More than $80,000 was raised through 700 individual donations for restoration of the cemetery. While this is certainly impressive, the monetary amount is but a small step compared to the crowd of people that flocked to clean up the cemetery.
The Governor of Missouri, Eric Greitens, put out a call for volunteers to come to the Cemetery on Wednesday and help him clean up the vandalism. So many people came out to stand up against the vile act and stand together in solidarity. I have no official number but it looked like at least somewhere around 500 people were there to help in any way possible. Most of the work being done was trivial tasks like raking a few leaves from next to headstones; but trivial as it was, it was not meaningless. I’ve passed by Chesed Shel Emeth so many times I could not possibly keep count, but this time was different. It had a certain shine to it. I could clearly see all the work that had been done. Headstones were bright, some people still lingered behind at loved ones graves, and a light seemed to shine through the clouds directly on the cemetery as if God were saying, “This is what my kingdom looks like on earth.”
Why is this so important to me? Right when I found out a cemetery in my community had been vandalized, I was heartbroken. The next day when I found out that the governor of my state cared enough to stop everything and come stand with my community, I felt hope. And the next day when I went to the cemetery, I stood with not just my community but what I called our community, and I felt love. So many people came from outside of just University City that a humble resident like myself felt so blessed to know the support we have. To quote Ethel Percy Andrus, “It is only in the giving of oneself for others that we truly live.” These people gave to me, personally, so much. Words cannot describe how I felt to have outsiders join with my community in our time of need. A man thanked me for helping out, but I had to stop him and thank him for helping me.
How often do we fail to realize the community we have? What I have seen in my 19 years of life is that tragedy has a way of bringing communities together. But it is in these times we see the power of “kindness and truth” in Hebrew “Chesed Shel Emeth.”
