VOICES OF RELIGIONS MUST CALL FOR UNITY.Byline: STEVEN WINDMUELLER Local View SUNDOWN this evening marks the start of Rosh Hashanah Rosh Hashanah Jewish New Year. Sometimes called the Day of Judgment, Rosh Hashanah falls on Tishri 1 (in September or October) and ushers in a 10-day period of self-examination and penitence that ends with Yom Kippur. , and with it the Jewish new year, 5767. As we embark on this new year, it is important to point out the similarities between the period surrounding the Second World War and the time frame in which we are living. In the late 1930s, our nation experienced an enemy bent on Adj. 1. bent on - fixed in your purpose; "bent on going to the theater"; "dead set against intervening"; "out to win every event" bent, dead set, out to reconfiguring the world order. The striking reality for Jews involved the Nazis' call for ``the final solution,'' not dissimilar to the words we hear from Iranian leaders today. An uncertainty existed then as to how the world would contend with this threat, and what might be the fate of European Jewry. Now Western society is challenged to confront the threat of terrorism and the potential for nuclear blackmail Nuclear blackmail is a form of nuclear strategy in which an aggressor uses the threat of use of nuclear weapons to force an adversary to perform some action or make some concessions. It is a type of extortion, related to brinkmanship. . Israel must contend with new threats to its security as well as an assault on its legitimacy as a state. Reaching back into history, we can discover from an extraordinary set of religious leaders lessons for our own times. Their ideas about celebrating core religious values, creating effective political organizations and building coalitions of faith provide to us a specific course of action. In 1939, Rabbi Harry Stern Harry Stern. was the mayor of Cumberland, Maryland from 1990 to 1992. External Links
Preceded by George M. Wychoff, Jr. Mayor of Cumberland 1990-1992 Succeeded by Edward C. described the mind-set of his generation when he offered these words: ``This New Year 5700 marks the turn of a century and what a tragic hour it is in the turn of world events! ... We are like children afraid of the night, the night that has overtaken humankind.'' Just as fear defined this earlier moment in time, so it touches our society now. The Christian theologian and historian John McMurray writing in the 1930s suggested, ``The character of the Jewish mind is what Hitler fears.... It is the Jewish consciousness which is the enemy. The thought and triumph of the Jewish consciousness fills me with joyous exhilaration while it casts Hitler into depths of despair.'' The essence of a people, its history and its ethics, represent its greatest strength in periods of crisis. Now as before, the Jewish voice must be heard. The values and teachings of this tradition must no longer remain silent. The stirring words spoken by Rabbi Solomon Freehof Solomon Bennett Freehof (August 8, 1892 - 1990) was a prominent Reform rabbi, posek, and scholar. Rabbi Freehof served as president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis ) and the World Union for Progressive Judaism ). in April of 1942 offered a response that also has particular relevance: ``There is no other peace, there is no compromise permitted to us by our enemies.They mean to destroy us or to enslave en·slave tr.v. en·slaved, en·slav·ing, en·slaves To make into or as if into a slave. en·slave  ment n. ; they have shown it scores of times in
every land they have overrun 1. overrun - A frequent consequence of data arriving faster than it can be consumed, especially in serial line communications. For example, at 9600 baud there is almost exactly one character per millisecond, so if a silo can hold only two characters and the machine takes . Peace is possible only through
victory.''
As in our time and place, there simply can be no appeasement appeasement Foreign policy of pacifying an aggrieved nation through negotiation in order to prevent war. The prime example is Britain's policy toward Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany in the 1930s. to the enemies of democracy and freedom. During those dark days of war, Rabbi Stephen Wise insisted that division and discord Discord See also Confusion. Andras demon of discord. [Occultism: Jobes, 93] discord, apple of caused conflict among goddesses; Trojan War ultimate result. [Gk. Myth. had no place at a time when Jews needed to unite to fight the Nazis and advocate for the creation of a Jewish national homeland. Wise was credited with creating an infrastructure for political action, while also understanding the value of interreligious coalitions. Similarly, Freehof, Wise and their colleagues saw the crisis of their times as an opportunity to re-engage Christianity with Judaism. What was striking about these calls for unity was the shared engagement of religious leaders acting as one in the effort to defeat the Nazis. In today's climate, religious leaders must set aside their differences to address the challenges of terrorism by forging new bonds of cooperation among Islam, Christianity and Judaism Judaism and Christianity while related some ways are distinctly different. Judaism being an Abrahamic religion fundamentally diverges in theology and practice. While Judaism places the emphasis for holiness on the concepts of clean and unclean, Christianity places the emphasis for . This is a moment for our society to engage the world, drawing upon the insights of a previous time in history. |
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