A year ago, JGO ditched our expensive office lease and joined a coworking space. It’s great, except for some reason they play medium volume music 24/7. A lot of Top 100, electronic music, sometimes 80s pop, the occasional Celine Dion. I guess it contributes to the festive atmosphere but for me it’s super distracting. Hard to have a serious rabbinical conversation with the late 90s hit “I’m a Barbie Girl” blasting in the background. But eventually, I got used to it and don’t really hear it anymore. I'm there to work with a purpose and I've learned to ignore the noise.
One of the major challenges since October 7th has been managing the constant flow of news about antisemitism around the world. For our students on campus, it's been handling the direct or indirect incidents of outright Jew hatred directed towards them. It's a lot for anyone to take, but especially when you’re trying to do well on finals. Whether we’re aware of it or not, this background noise really affects us and our perception of the world and ourselves.
Many students and executives alike have been asking me, from all that we’re seeing and experiencing, there are just so many people against us. What are we supposed to do? I think the question itself is revealing: many of us are so unaccustomed to seeing overt antisemitism that we expected a kind of validation, whether from the media or from school administrators, that unfortunately in a lot of ways just didn’t come. And it may never come.
Historically, we Jews have always learned to ignore the noise and move forward with strength. Our People has 3,300 years of experience dealing with antisemitism and we’ve accomplished some pretty amazing things in the meantime. Had we internalized the hatred of others we would have been finished a long time ago. Yes, it’s important to know what’s going on and respond where you have to, but if you religiously track every antisemitic incident you will drive yourself mad.
At the same time, we need to reinforce the Jewish foundation within ourselves. JGO’s key objective is providing the content and support that will make our students feel deeply secure and connected with their Judaism, to be better equipped to drown out all the negative noise and hate out there. If we can do that, we will come out of this situation as stronger Jews with a stronger community.
The same applies to giving thanks. It’s hard to feel gratitude with so much negativity blasting 24/7. So for the next few days I encourage you to turn off the news, stop worrying about how everyone hates us, and just focus on the people you love and the many blessings we have in our lives.
I know what I’m thankful for: an amazing family, a meaningful job that I love, our awesome staff, students and supporters, and our incredible, resilient Jewish community.
And I'm particularly thankful that I've learned to ignore the noise and stand tall against it when needed.
This is our challenge this Thanksgiving, but we are up to it. Happy Thanksgiving!
