Religious School

March, 2009 Ma'aseem - Standing Together, Witnessing History

3/26/2009
There we stood, all together, eyes transfixed on the TV set up in the office with a makeshift antenna--a rather curious sight in an age of 500-channel cable. Somehow all of us drifted into the room as if called by a mysterious force telling us that noon was approaching and we needed to be with other people to witness history. At TBI all of our professional staff, office support staff and maintenance staff work smoothly together as a team. I think I speak for the others and say we genuinely like and respect each other for the jobs that we do daily.

But now we were all watching as Barack Obama took the oath of office as President. I imagine each of us had common feelings that were filtered through our own individual life experiences as we sat silently (and then stood as the National Anthem was played) trying to fix this moment in our memories to be recalled years later when someone asked, "What was it like?" Because, yes, this was truly a "where were you when?" moment.

For those of you younger than 50 this may not resonate as much as with my fellow Baby Boomers (or older), but my thoughts were focused on "community". And specifically, how this was the first occasion since 9/11 where the country was drawn together to the TV to share in a common event that touched everyone. But even more than September 11, I think back to the assassinations of the two Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King, and watching Walter Cronkite show us the first man on the moon.

Back in the 60's television sets gave us 3, 4, maybe 5 channels if we were lucky and a shared community was evident by this medium as we witnessed crushing tragedy and incredible success that affected every person in the United States. Common bonding via the electronic community that started with radio and continued in the 50's and 60's with television (black and white!) helped unite the diverse population of the country through both simple, family oriented programming and coverage of news events.

Think about how we receive information today. Television is only one of a dozen ways you can be aware of events that happen daily. Adding to the technological diversity is the fact that there rarely seems to be any event in our lives that cuts across all demographic and sociological groups in our country.

That is what struck me so intently as our group watched this incredible piece of history unfold in front of our eyes. In a New York Times article the day after the inauguration, the reporter Campbell Robertson said, "Across the country, at half-filled lunch counters and in Las Vegas showrooms, in break rooms and backrooms, Americans gathered to watch the rare sight of a dusty old cliché -- that anyone, even a little black child, could some day be president -- actually squaring up to reality. For many who continued to doubt up to the last minute that this was truly going to happen, the sight of a black man taking the oath of office seemed to be breaking news even if, technically, it was not."

I think this is highly relevant to us as Jews. Certainly our history ties us directly to the struggles of all minorities. It also connects us to the issue of community. Our religion is one of community, not individualism. We exist as a group, obligated to help our fellow Jews through tzedakah and other values. What we all witnessed on January 20 was a now-too-rare example of our country sharing a common bond via a historic event. Let this be our motivation to increase our sense of community both at TBI and in our families.

Donald Cohen
Education Director
eddirector@tbibluebell.org


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