The Red Snow of America… A Reflection from Rabbi Gewirtz

I sit here at my dining room table watching the beauty of the Northeast winter. The flakes blur a bit because of jet lag weariness; I just landed yesterday at 3am from a week in Israel. I spent several days at the Foreign Ministry. I have a whole post ready to share, which I will now postpone a bit. You see; I can’t help but remember flying down the winter hills of my childhood stacked on top of my siblings sledding into a snowy bliss. Only to come home to hot chocolate and a huddle around the living room fireplace.

I yearn for the same at an older age, freedom from the pressures of life, a snow day. And yet through the falling flakes, I can’t stop imagining the blood-soaked snow of Minneapolis. I turn away, as to pretend this is not the country I am living in, only to be addictively drawn back to any new video shown, a better angle, a different perspective. And no matter what, each one ends with shots fired, an ICU Nurse killed, a country, our country feeling like it is a tinder box, ready to blow.

I care about the politics. I always have. But I care more about the underlying values that are supposed to bolster our American fabric. As you know, I am a political independent, steadfastly committed to radical centrism; devoted to an American unity of open and civil dialogue; of evolution of mind and heart. And because I love our country so, the freedoms she has afforded me to be me, to be freely Jewish, to raise my children with conviction, to follow my calling and proudly lead our congregation, I am simply communally nauseous. I am sickened by where we have arrived.

I understand the issue clearly. Jewish Tradition itself teaches both the importance of secure borders, while simultaneously treating neighbors and strangers alike with a depth of compassion; the same kind that was afforded to my grandparents when they fled European oppression. The law has been good to American Jews. Through periods of deep antisemitism (including the virulent increase today), we have survived and thrived because of the American legal system. And so, yes, the problem of illegal immigration must be mitigated. The past administration allowed our borders to be porous. Their reaction to what came before them was a typical swing of the political pendulum. Something needed to be done.

Yet the current administration has swung all the way to the other side. A criminal is a criminal and anyone who causes violence or pain should be arrested and put in jail. But I am not sure how it helps to lock up those who are already here, those who get up each day, clean our homes, cut our grass, tend to our children and cook our breakfast in town. I am not sure how it helps to take away those who are applying for citizenship according to the legal process. I am not sure why our precious children are brought into the adult problems of the world, causing fear and distress to the youngest and most innocent of us. And no good can be done by the immense worry and trauma that ordinary Americans feel when their streets break out into violence and schools and stores are closed for their safety.

I am not sure why this problem has to be solved with the installation of fear, of law enforcement hiding behind the masks that so many of us abhor when they are worn by protestors who hide themselves. Fear is only going to cause flight and fight mentality; and people have and will continue to end up dead. Worse, all of this, the approach, the incidents of violence, all of it is immediately responded to with spin from all sides. I was taught about being innocent until proven otherwise. I was taught as early as I could to understand Due Process. I was taught about not pre-painting a picture with bias. We teach our children about taking a breath before they react; and our leaders are not modeling the same.

I still don’t know the whole truth about Renee Good and Alex Pretti. But I know they are dead. They will never walk through the doors to their families again. I know that law enforcement must be respected and adhered to; and I know they must do everything in their power to dimmish a conflictual situation, not be quick to augment the same.

Whomever the president it, is his job to calm the country. I call upon President Trump and all our leaders to bring us together. No side can win when we live in fear. In fact, I thought the point is that after an election is won, we are on one side, the American side. Perhaps, naive, but one to which we all should be drawn to aspire. There has to be a better way. The road we are on now will lead to a fissure that may break this union of which we are so lucky to be a part.

Jews have only thrived in healthy democracies. No matter our political affiliation, we should all strive for the same. I am not speaking against but standing for humanity.

May the snow that drops from the sky not be marred by blood.

May God Bless us all. I pray for the United States of America.

Please stay safe and I pray you sit by your fireplace and hug your loved ones.

With the deepest love of my heart,

Matthew