One element of my work that I find extremely meaningful is the outward engagement with the broader community. In a week that was full of relational moments with people in our community (including hospital visits, planning for a B’nai Mitzvah this Shabbat, and preparing for an unveiling and wedding on Sunday), I also was so privileged and grateful to attend two major events for organizations to which I feel deeply connected. On Tuesday, I attended the MIFA annual benefit, Our City, Our Story, and on Thursday, the annual benefit for Facing History and Ourselves. Each one was powerful in different ways, and I want to share some of what I learned from each.
As a member of MIFA’s Board of Directors, I am especially proud of the work that MIFA does to address issues of food insecurity and housing assistance to lower income Memphians. The program featured journalist Amanda Ripley, and she spoke about the different kinds of conflict we see in our world. High conflict, which usually doesn’t yield results of transformation, and good conflict, which creates options and connections and ends with new stories being told that reshape dynamics for the good. Her presentation made me realize that so many people want to avoid conflict altogether, yet it’s good conflict that actually brings us to a better place, a more developed place. When asked about ways to get to that place, Ripley reminded us to have courage. The conversations to get through good conflict aren’t ever easy and they aren’t fun. It was only a few hours earlier that I had recited the Psalm for this season, where the Psalmist reminds us to “be strong, have courage, and have hope in God” (Psalm 27:14). Reaching destinations through conflict requires us to have such tremendous courage and strength, and also a sense of hope that working through the conflict will help all of us emerge at a better place.
Last night at the Facing History event, especially as the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, I was moved - as I am every year - at the way the memory of the Holocaust lives on to educate youth across the broader Memphis community. The message that my ancestors didn’t get to hear, that full participation in civic life should be a right for all, not a privilege, was loud and clear. The energy in the room was one of shared commitment to growth, to learning, to internalizing history. It was a commitment to understanding that the choices that young leaders make will affect our future, and that a meaningful education helps shape those choices. I left inspired.
I saw many Beth Sholom friends at both of these events, and realized how special it is that so much of our community - our values, our commitments, our people - interact in beautiful and intentional ways with the broader community. While I was, of course, glad to support both organizations doing such incredible work, I’ve also realized it’s not disconnected from the values that underpin the work I do internally in the synagogue. They are values of bringing our relationships and communities to deeper and healthier places, they are values of ensuring that every human being is valued, included, and cherished.
Truly, I’m just left with gratitude. Gratitude for the privilege of the work that I get to do every day, and gratitude for others in this city that are making change, impacting people’s lives, and affecting our future.
