On Wednesday evening, Beth Sholom was a community partner at a Facing History and Ourselves event featuring journalist Eli Saslow. He recently wrote a book called “Rising out of Hatred” about a young man, Derek Black, who grew up as the heir to the white nationalist movement. This was a young man who galvanized many thousands of people around extremely racist and anti-Semitic ideas. But he went to college and met a wide range of people, people who were different from him and people who had very different ideas about the value of multiculturalism in our country and the inherent value of every person. Through his relationships with these individuals and his many experiences and conversations with them, Derek went through a profound transformation. He began to understand that he was wrong; that it wasn’t a right way to live. Derek made the tremendously difficult decision to separate himself from his family’s movement and the ideology of his past.
As I sat in the theater listening to Eli Saslow, I was struck by one of his comments. He noted that, of course, the book is the story of Derek’s transformation. But it is also the story of all of these other people who were a part of his transformation. It’s the story of Allison, the friend who, originally quite skeptical, persisted in their conversations. It’s the story of Moshe and Matthew, Jewish students who invited Derek over for Shabbat dinners week after week so he could experience the lives of those he hated. And it’s the story of the many students on his college campus that grappled with what it meant to have someone like Derek in their midst. All of these characters that travelled alongside Derek were vital to his story. I am reminded of Yitro, the Midianite priest who was Moshe’s father-in-law. Our parashah this week describes Yitro seeing and acknowledging how the Israelites had been oppressed and how God heard their cries and brought them towards freedom. In the first ten verses of this parashah, we read in several different ways (at least 4) how Yitro understood the story of the Israelites and the oppression they endured. He became an ally, even if he wasn’t an Israelite. He became part of our story in an important way.
These two stories, of Yitro and of Derek, are two very different stories about two very different individuals. But what they have in common is the importance of seeing ourselves as a part of another’s journey, as connected to others. We can be those influencers in other people’s lives. We have the power to acknowledge another’s suffering and walk on their path towards healing. We have the power to help others achieve transformation simply by engaging with them, by not turning away.
What does it take for us to break out of a silo and see ourselves as connected to someone who is different from us? May we each be empowered to notice someone else and to choose to engage with their story, knowing that we, and they, can be transformed.
