The yearning to return home is something we all share. Maya Angelou wrote, “The ache for home lives in all of us." This Thanksgiving, let's aim to make all people feel secure in their own homes.
There is real anti-semitism in the U.S., there always has been. More recently, the occupant of our White House has turned over the stone and let the slime slime out in the open, and blah, blah, blah, and it’s disgusting and hateful. I hate it. You hate it. That’s a good thing. Over this past year, and not just beginning with October 7, 2024, the hate is boiling. But I do see a glimmer of light on the horizon. Here, in this f-up U.S. where everything is upside down, I feel a shift. At last! New York City is big, and it’s important, but the whole U.S. is bigger. And I do see the haters loosing their grip. I shouldn’t have to tell you to be strong, you’re the professional leader. I’m an old lady, and you are the Rabbi! Be watchful now, but don’t be fearful. Please. My message to you from yesterday still holds. And welcome home. 🏡
Dear Rabbi Hammerman, yesterday, late afternoon, I finally read your post from Sunday morning. I intentionally put off reading it till I was ready to take on your message. The post left me pretty shaken, especially after you mentioned that some of your friends and acquaintances were contemplating leaving New York. You didn’t say the word City that I recall. I know you live on the Island. These ponderings were written after you digested the weird ass meeting Mamdani had in the Oval Office on Friday. I’ve thought about all the angles of that meeting myself. It’s IMPOSSIBLE for me, a non practicing Jew, and not living in the Northeast, to fully understand where the hell you’re coming from? I know where you come from, all the way back to Abraham, but just last week, pre Oval Office visit, you were counseling patience, yesterday, your counsel hadn’t just worn thin, it was thread bare. So I’m troubled. Do you really see danger for the Jews who live in New York City or did I infer too much fear into what you wrote?
I don’t see any immediate danger beyond the isolated incidents we are seeing. But I do sense a deep insecurity. Admittedly, I now spend very little time in NYC so this is all anecdotal. I don’t actually know people who have left. But it’s actions such as the response to the synagogue protest that are so troubling. It demonstrates an innate, instinctive, from-the-gut hatred that can’t be covered over. My plea is genuine. I just want Mamdani to recognize that bias, to see the connection between responses like that one and an upsurge of antisemitism and insecurity, and to attempt to filter it. Otherwise I do see the danger of a much more significant incident in the near future.
Thank you.
Have a blessed and happy Thanksgiving, to you all all those you love.
There is real anti-semitism in the U.S., there always has been. More recently, the occupant of our White House has turned over the stone and let the slime slime out in the open, and blah, blah, blah, and it’s disgusting and hateful. I hate it. You hate it. That’s a good thing. Over this past year, and not just beginning with October 7, 2024, the hate is boiling. But I do see a glimmer of light on the horizon. Here, in this f-up U.S. where everything is upside down, I feel a shift. At last! New York City is big, and it’s important, but the whole U.S. is bigger. And I do see the haters loosing their grip. I shouldn’t have to tell you to be strong, you’re the professional leader. I’m an old lady, and you are the Rabbi! Be watchful now, but don’t be fearful. Please. My message to you from yesterday still holds. And welcome home. 🏡
Dear Rabbi Hammerman, yesterday, late afternoon, I finally read your post from Sunday morning. I intentionally put off reading it till I was ready to take on your message. The post left me pretty shaken, especially after you mentioned that some of your friends and acquaintances were contemplating leaving New York. You didn’t say the word City that I recall. I know you live on the Island. These ponderings were written after you digested the weird ass meeting Mamdani had in the Oval Office on Friday. I’ve thought about all the angles of that meeting myself. It’s IMPOSSIBLE for me, a non practicing Jew, and not living in the Northeast, to fully understand where the hell you’re coming from? I know where you come from, all the way back to Abraham, but just last week, pre Oval Office visit, you were counseling patience, yesterday, your counsel hadn’t just worn thin, it was thread bare. So I’m troubled. Do you really see danger for the Jews who live in New York City or did I infer too much fear into what you wrote?
I don’t see any immediate danger beyond the isolated incidents we are seeing. But I do sense a deep insecurity. Admittedly, I now spend very little time in NYC so this is all anecdotal. I don’t actually know people who have left. But it’s actions such as the response to the synagogue protest that are so troubling. It demonstrates an innate, instinctive, from-the-gut hatred that can’t be covered over. My plea is genuine. I just want Mamdani to recognize that bias, to see the connection between responses like that one and an upsurge of antisemitism and insecurity, and to attempt to filter it. Otherwise I do see the danger of a much more significant incident in the near future.