Heritage Florida Jewish News - Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

Jews and Blacks or Jews and African-Americans or Jews and voting. Plenty of causes. And Jews have been there. Time and time again. Are we ready for another rally to another cause? This one is right down our alley — but … are we up for it?

This past summer the United States and the world for that matter became aware of the Black Lives Matter movement. It had been around for a while, but it took this year’s Black death count and the “Death by Cop” phenomenon to make all the headlines, the marches, yet another call to action.

George Floyd, 13-year-old Adam Toledo, more. After a full year of killings and protests, looks like we are just about where we were last year at this time. How does this affect Jews and the Jewish community?

The “Righteous Jew” knows that prejudice, tragedy and unlawful activity will come to be a problem for Jews. Eventually if not now.

In Germany after World War I, the economy was on its back. We are slowly recovering from a similar problem here — from the pandemic, which threw our economy into a tailspin. We are slowly recovering. BUT there are literally thousands still unable to touch the levels of income they had before.

While it was so much worse in Germany in the 1920s, but if you are out of work or lost your home you really don’t care about comparisons, you care about you. And here it is again: While it is probably true that you have nothing to do with the circumstances that caused you to lose your job, you gotta blame somebody.

That’s where it can get dangerous for the Jews. No, the danger of the far-right loonies like those who invaded the government in January is not probable and the possibility of that happening is not strong enough to worry about right now — there is still, unfortunately, a sizeable share of the U.S. population that is nervous, uncertain, looking for leadership — strong leadership.

George Washington faced a divided country with no organized government, no money and a war that at that time pretty well devastated our economy. He prevailed. The citizenry prevailed.

Abraham Lincoln faced a divided country that over the argument “can a man OWN another human being?” went to war. He won — we won. The inequalities thrust upon us that made that necessary still exist today.

The Jewish voice is missing from discussions about George Floyd and other unjustified killings. Jews have had no voice as Jews in the killing of Blacks by police over the past few years.

If there is a leadership in the Jewish community it has not shown itself in this national crisis. George Floyd has been vindicated. Derek Chauvin has been found guilty. Where was our voice?

Jewish leadership used to be involved in every racial crisis in the United States. We marched with Martin Luther King. Our youth was heavily involved in Black voter participation in the South in the 1960s. So were our rabbis. Where are we in the protests and issues of 2021?

What directions or advice is Jewish leadership giving to the next generation of Jewish leadership? Is there a generation of Jewish leadership emerging? Where does this generation stand on Israel? In the past few years young Jews have waffled on the Jewish Nation.

The uncertainty in Israeli politics is almost comical. But, what does that mean to this generation of Jews here in America? As Israel moves to become more immersed in the economy of the Middle East there is a clear chance for the Jewish State to take a leadership role in its future.

Can we interest this generation with all it already has on its plate in the future of the Jewish State? There should be an outreach from the organized leadership of the Jewish Community in the U.S. (question: is there such a thing?). It should find out where this generation stands on the subject of the Jewish State and how they see it playing any role in their future.

Look, it is not so easy with a pandemic, an economic emergency, political turmoil and all the rest that young Jews have to deal with today to get any group or even individuals to answer questions about the Jewish State.

And what about Israel itself? Does that government or any organization today reach out to see how the Jewish youth of America feels about the Jewish homeland. Do they care? The truth is that immigration to Israel from the United States has held steady in spite of the pandemic — or maybe because of it for the past few years.

It is encouraging that so much of that influx has been young people. I personally think this will continue as long as a heart beats in young Jews. It’s in our genes.