I Don't Wear My Kippah at WalMart

Several years ago I was sitting in a cafe with someone who suggested I take off my kippah.  The neighborhood we were in was a predominantly Catholic and so she thought it might make people uncomfortable and could result in a response.  I normally wear my kippah when I am doing something related to my work so I tend to have it on a lot.  Her request seemed odd but I realized I do take it off in some places, so I wrote an essay that I don't wear my kippah at WalMart.  I am not a frequent WalMart shopper but at the time it was a place I went for certain items.  I found wearing my kippah that was not something that put me in a form of danger, quite the opposite.  What it did was create a chance for people to talk to me about Judaism.  Total strangers would either ask me questions, tell me they loved the Jewish people or worse ask try to preach to me.  While I am always up for a good theological discussion, that was not the place.  It seemed that it was the only place that this happened here in Indianapolis.  When I lived in the south however, a kippah was like Lucy's psychology stand in Peanuts.  I didn't wear it nearly as much as I do now but when I did I could expect a conversation.  Only once did I feel threatened wearing it.  One day I came back to town from shul and forgot I had my kippah on, I went to the post office in downtown Milledgeville.  As I crossed the street I heard someone yell from a pick-up "Christ Killer".  It reminded me that there are people who still feel that they can shout out hateful things.  That was 20 years ago, now there is a feeling in the air that simply yelling isn't going to be enough for some.  The recent attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh is the worst of what has become a significant increase in antisemitic attacks in the US.  White Nationalist groups are coming out into the daylight and seem to feel they have a friend in power.  Some have even run and received the nomination of a major political party.  So today public Jewish expression can be an act of bravery and defiance. 

A recent Facebook post from a friend, a young woman living in a major US city, a city with a large Jewish population and a high level diversity, put today's world into perspective.  Since Pittsburgh she has stopped wearing her Hebrew name necklace.  She, like many Jews, feel that it is important to be careful when in public.  The rise of comfort with antisemitic voices scares many people and the results of that are clear.  So recently in Philadelphia the Proud Boys, a white supremacist group, rallied near the center of town, the cradle of freedom and near the American Museum of Jewish History.  I was planning to walk there as I was in Philly for a convention.  Several friends were nervous about me walking down there and I had to promise not to wear anything that identified me as a Jew.  Again, in an large American city being Jewish in public is seen as dangerous.  We should not have to live like this.  Nor should Muslims, Sheikhs. or any other group whose appearance identifies them to a particular group.  Our country was founded in diversity and has struggled for decades to make more room at the table, we must push back at those wanting to take away the chairs.  I am not sure the answer.  Around the world nationalists and authoritarian leaders are gaining power and influence.  As one of the world's strongest liberal democracies the people must stand up for what American values are and fight to keep us at least where we have grown to today.  Wearing religious or cultural clothing or symbols should never have to be an act of bravery in a country that has valued equality, even if it took some groups decades of fighting to achieve a taste of that.  Let's all call out hate where we see it.  Be it in a small group of men and women who are angered that the world is changing too fast for them, or if your political party nominates someone who feels that humanity has a pecking order based solely on genetics.  We don't and should agree on everything.  Diversity of thought is a value and strength.  But one thing we can all agree on is that hate and fear have no place in our society and kippah, a hijab, a turban or mere Hebrew letters can be worn proudly in public.  

Did You Buy a Monkey's Paw

A story by W W Jacobs called the Monkey's Paw tells the story of a couple who are in need of money and come into possession of a monkey's paw, brought to England from India.  Told there is a curse on the paw though it will grant three wishes. After thinking about the curse and fretting over what might happen they wish for money to pay off his mortgage.  That afternoon their son is killed in a horrible accident and to compensate the family they are given the exact amount they wished for earlier.  Later, the boys mother wishes their son to return and as there is a knock at the door, but before the door could be opened, the father, knowing that destruction the body had suffered and the decay the week since his death would have on body makes a final wish and when the door is opened there is no one there.  Another version of the story known as Button Button  has a couple who are in difficult financial straits visited by a stranger who gives them a box with a button on top and says "If you push the button you will receive enough wealth to live comfortably but someone you don't know will die"  After a similar discussion of the morality they push the button.  The stranger returns the next day to get the box and gives them a briefcase of money that will solve all their problems.  When he is asked by the couple what will happen to the box, he assures them he will now give it to someone that they don't know. 

For many I feel like they were handed a monkey's paw or the button box in 2016 and they gleefully pushed the button for President Trump.  A President who has given then a very conservative Federal judiciary, deregulation of industry, tax cuts that seem to be helping many in the upper middle class and of course has kept the economy growing, evidenced by recent jobs and wage numbers.  But in the end the consequences:  giving voice to white nationalism, openly racist activity including from elected officials, the collapse of the United States as the moral standard bearer worldwide, and the most incompetent and corrupt cabinet of my lifetime.  Future consequences on the horizon seems to be the destruction of health care and financial safety nets for many of Trump voters (so much so Republicans are lying about their history on health care) and a ballooning national debt. 

The old adage that all politics is local has seen people voting for their own personal interests but what the last election cycle showed some of that personal interest was purely emotional.  We see it in the midterms as ads are not about accomplishments of the last two years but trying to gin up fear of immigrants.  When you go to the polls in this election cycle remember that you have been given a box to push a button.  Think about the consequences of what you may get short term.  Educate yourself as to what you want this country to be, for yourself, for your neighbors and for all Americans.  Ignore the ads and look to the reality that is out there.  Because someone else has a box and they don't know you. 

Jews for Jesus and the Struggle of Multi-Faith Work

A liberal Jew and an Evangelical Christian walk into a Franciscan bar in Bethlehem.   That is not the start of a joke but a decade long friendship.  Some people think this is an unusual friendship but in fact I believe there are many such friendships in the world.  How is it possible?  We both respect each others vision of the Divine and how we practice that vision.  Do we clash at times?  Sure, but we work through them and acknowledge our own shortcomings.  This is what living in a multi-faith world.  My friend has reached into the interfaith community of Indianapolis, bringing a much needed evangelical voice to the diversity of faiths seeking a better world.  So when confronted with someone who mocks true multi-faith expressions things become difficult.

Earlier this week a Michigan rally for a House Election invited the Vice-President to speak.  In the wake of the anti-semitic attack in a Pittsburgh synagogue that left 11 dead they wanted a Jewish voice to share prayer.  They sought a man who calls himself Rabbi but is a Christian.  A Jewish man who converted to a form of Christianity called Messianic Judaism.  When Noah was little he asked about a congregation of messianic Jews we would drive by daily, I said they are Christians who pretend to be Jewish.  That is how I feel about them.  They are clearly Christian, celebrating Jesus as not only the messiah of the Jewish people but as part of the trilogy of the Christian God.  But their practice uses Jewish ritual and language in services.  Which wouldn't bother me so much if they didn't also include in their approach a rejection of classic Jewish understanding of text, call traditional Jews incomplete and wrong minded, and pretend to be a Jewish congregation to young people and in many reports tricking them into their sphere of influence with the idea of converting them.  They look at people like me in a negative fashion and as less than them.  So when trying to dialogue with people who see me as second-class it is difficult.

I have worked in multicultural and multi-faith communities my entire adult life.  I have had people put me on prayer lists at churches for my very soul.  I had a friend tell me that her preacher preached that Jews were going to hell and it hurt her so much that I am going to hell that she couldn't be my friend anymore.  I understand that people look at the world differently, but when it comes to their worldview including looking down on me inviting them to the table means there is someone there who wants me or what makes me me gone.

The reason that the man who gave the prayer and spoke along side Vice-President Pence is a problem also goes beyond just what group he associates himself with in his religious faith.  In fact he was defrocked by the messianic movement over some libel and apparently theological issues.  He didn't really pray to the healing of the survivors and the souls of the dead, he prayed the Republicans win in the midterms.  He appeared more a costumed prop than a man of faith.  The candidate and the Vice-President could have easily found a thoughtful Rabbi to do a prayer and a moment of ministry for those reeling from horror.  They didn't and the criticism is warranted.  I would have also been critical if they had brought in the Orthodox Rabbi who didn't see Tree of Life as a synagogue or the one who said  the shooter was God's retribution for the fact a brit milah was happening for the child of a same-sex couple. This is not about being anti-Christian or anti-messianic.  It is about how you act for people who are in pain.

And thus the series of questions that always come up when you reach across faiths, cultures and nations.  How to you sit down with someone so different?  So here is what I say.  Meet people, not their faith tradition.  Just because someone comes from a particular branch of a particular faith doesn't mean you know anything more about them than where they go to get fed spiritually.  On any given day of the week, rooms in houses of worship are filled with people, all singing from the same hymnal but hearing the words differently.  Don't let the stereotypes block you from adding someone wonderful to your life.  Simply having a meal with someone might change the way you see them.  Might change you whole world view.

But in the same token, if you do encounter someone who is hurtful to what and who you are, it is okay to reject them.  I am always struck by people who question my tolerance when I speak out against bigotry, lies and hate.  The goal in life is not to tolerate differences, I tolerate the fact that I can't get buy decent kosher meat in Indianapolis, that doesn't mean I like it nor do I order from St. Louis.  I embrace who, even if they are different, find God in places I can't and read the poetry of scripture with a different tune can acknowledge that their view is theirs and my view is mine and neither is better or worse.  That is how you be a human being.  That is how you approach the vast and wonderful diversity that is our nation, one of the highest and most important values that we share.

Tonight, synagogues across the country will be filled with people coming from a variety of faith traditions to stand in solidarity with Jewish communities.  As they hear the words of psalms we sing as we invite Shabbat into our homes they may see God differently in the words or not at all there.  But that is not the point.  The point is, they share a human connection to their neighbors, and that is Godly in any language.