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

This is a speech given by Hope Adelson at her bat mitzvah at the Congregation of Reform Judaism.

At school, before we start our lesson, my class usually talks and jokes a bit. It's a way of getting our brains prepared to do work. I only recently have gone back to school in person. One day, reality was still sinking in. Instead of just clicking a join-conference button, I had to actually walk from class to class, wake up earlier, and experience human contact. I was doing the same thing I always did: I sat down, got out my notebook, but ... that day ... I heard a new joke, one that wasn't funny: A joke about Hitler, followed by one about Nazis, followed by laughs. Actual laughs. I was trying to process what I was hearing, and how everyone was reacting. I knew people made disgusting jokes like this, but I personally had never heard one. I saw screenshots and comments virtually, but I had never experienced hearing one live.

Hearing that joke made me feel like a giant rock dropped in my stomach. No one did a thing. I was ready to leave the classroom and sit in a bathroom stall for the rest of the period because not one single person did anything. So, I did. I told that kid why the joke was so insanely inappropriate because no one did; no one had. Because the Holocaust is not taught enough, and it's not taught well.

If students knew how terrible and utterly evil the events of the Holocaust were, they wouldn't joke about it as much. Some kids don't even know what the Holocaust is.

A study surveyed Millennials and Gen Z on their Holocaust knowledge, and "sixty-three percent of survey respondents did not know six-million Jews were killed during the Holocaust," the Claims Conference says. "Thirty-six percent thought that 'two million or fewer Jews' were killed during the Holocaust, and 48 percent could not name a single camp or ghetto established during World War II, despite the fact that there were more than 40,000 of them." Florida had one of the lowest percentages of Holocaust knowlege. (Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/holocaust-lack-of-awareness-millennials-gen-z/)

I was telling my history teacher how I've never had a lesson on the Holocaust, and a kid in my class asked what the Holocaust was. I am almost done with seventh grade. The Holocaust isn't taught, and when it is, it's not taught to its full extent. Antisemitism is so looked-over and brushed off in the real world, and also on social media.

With all of the horrific recent events over the past year, people's eyes and minds are starting to open more, and become aware of all of the terrible things going on in the world. This includes people recognizing Neo-Nazis. So some people, mostly people in the punk subculture, thought it would be fun to start saying "punch Nazis, and "f all Nazis." They wrote it on their bodies, made shirts, accessories, and I even saw a teenager write on the bottom of their boot, "Nazi fallen here."

I'm sorry but my trauma, my families' trauma, and my ancestor's trauma are not yours to use to make yourself look cool. Make yourself seem like you care. Because you don't. You care more about our abusers, the people who have caused so many Jewish people, and non-Jews might I add, pain and suffering for years and years. If you really cared about "punching Nazis" then you would speak up when a Hebrew School's website got hacked by Nazis, and antisemitic slurs were all over the website along with Nazi imagery. The families who attended this school had their information leaked. You would've said something when Jewish people had antisemitic slurs yelled at them during a Menorah lighting, and someone tried to help the Jewish people, they got dragged around the block and had their leg run over. You would've said something when an Orthodox family was visiting New York from Germany and their faces got slashed with a knife. I've only seen about three creators that weren't Jewish speak up about antisemitsm, two of which I saw during Chanukah when Jewish people were "trending" on Social Media because it was one of our holidays. You only want to help when you can get views and likes.

It says in Chapter 19, Verse 18 of Leviticus, "Love your neighbor as yourself." We have all been hurting lately, but we need to turn that painful feeling into motivation. Motivation to do something. For four months, my dad and I, and a couple of lovely friends went to a food line near Disney. It was to help hospitality employees that had lost their jobs due to COVID-19. This also counted as my Bat Mitzvah Project, a community-service type of project that we are required to do for our bar or bat mitzvah. We handed out diapers and food to those who were struggling. A lot of us have been feeling helpless, since we can't go back to the so-called "normal," and we know that so many people are hurting. But if we turned that pain into passion, we can make such a big impact on the world. Even if it's just reminding someone in your life that you love them, you are making an impact, a humongous one.

Our voice is the most powerful vehicle we have. Our words can make people feel, make people think. If you think something is wrong, speak up. Use your power. Your words can have an influence on society, even if it's just one person. Individuals may not necessarily remember your exact wording, but they will remember how those words made them feel. At the same time, if you're reckless with your words, they will come back and hurt you. Once you squeeze out the toothpaste, it's never going back in the tube. So today I will challenge you. I will challenge you to use your words. If there's someone you've seen all year in school and you've been too scared to say "hello" or introduce yourself, say "hello," and be you while doing it. Remind someone in your life that you love them and how important they are to you, and make sure they know it. If you see something that is unjust, raise your voice and fight for justice. Stand up for you. Stand up for someone you know. Stand up for what's right. And when you do that, I want you to let me or someone who you care about know. Be proud of yourself, because you just changed the world.

So I am going to start the challenge. ... You are needed in this world. It may not seem like it, but it's true. I need you and the universe needs you. Someone you meet in 20 years will need you. We will make terrible decisions in life, but we will also make incredible ones. ... You control yourself. You are the only person who can write your story. So you need to go write that New York Times bestseller. Let the world know how much you've been through and how you've prevailed. You will receive the same energy you put out. And you're the only one deciding the energy you release.

If you release negative energy, it's only going to come back. But if you let out all of your positive energy, your passion, your love, it's going to rebound right back to you. And it may seem like there's no one to release your energy to, but you're releasing it to the world, into the atmosphere. And it will come back one day - maybe in a week, maybe in 30 years.

... So I want to take all of the positive energy from my childhood, and give it all to you, and lock all of the negative energy up in a special place in my brain where it can become motivation for my young adulthood, and for the rest of my life.

I'm starting a new chapter today; this is my coming of age, and I want to start it on a positive foot. So if there's one thing I want you to take away from Hope Adelson's bat mitzvah, it would be this: You are here for a reason. You have the power to change the world. Use that power. Use your voice. The world wants us to be quiet. So that's why we have to scream. If you have something to say, say it into the ocean, let it evaporate and circle the world in the water cycle so that the whole world knows. The world is built against us. So that's why we have to build against the world. Shabbat Shalom.