Our sages taught: “Nowadays, when a stranger comes seeking to convert, they say to him: ‘What have you seen to make you want to convert? Don’t you know that in these times the people of Israel are afflicted, outcast, downtrodden, and wandering, and sufferings are visited upon them?’ If he says: ‘I know, and I’m not worthy,’ they accept him immediately.” (Babylonian Talmud, Yevamot 47a) At bedtime the other day, I received two pieces of news almost simultaneously. First, I learned that one of my children’s schools had been visited by the bomb squad earlier that day after an unattended, suspicious object was found, which the security guard believed could pose a threat to the children.
The police raced over and, acting exactly as they should, promptly detonated the unclaimed backpack, raining popcorn, ramen noodles, and homework all over the street. As I was struggling to wrap my head around this anecdote and mount an appropriate response as a parent, I was forwarded an email reporting that a car sporting a Palestinian flag had attempted to run down two visibly Jewish children in my former hometown in the . As far as I am aware, the driver remains at large.
The convergence of these two stories is important because it highlights that while it has become fashionable to write about rifts between American Jewry and Israel, there is an inextricable link between these two communities – my two communities. They are both facing a common threat, though I fear that the.
