I can’t agree as a Jew with Arthur Brooks’ statement at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday (see link below) that we should now turn our contempt for the “other” into love. I don’t think this way as a Jew, especially as I ruminate about the cowardice of the Republicans to hold the President to account and about the President’s hubris, lack of empathy, and contempt for the constitutional constraints placed on the Executive branch.
Arthur Brooks’ argument as stated in The Washington Post, admittedly, is high-minded. As a Jew, however, I have a different approach. Rather than my staying angry, which is self-destructive, I’m striving to surmount my anger and contempt first with sadness at the situation in which our country finds itself, and then with resolve to help win back the Presidency and the Senate in November’s election.
“Don’t get mad – Get even!” doesn’t feel right to me either because this attitude presumes that the world must operate on the basis of a zero-sum game.
For Jews, the unity principle as articulated in the Sh’ma is the greater goal – bringing the nation together out of our common humanity, treating each person as a reflection of the image of the divine, and building an ethical society in which justice, fairness, compassion, empathy, repentance, forgiveness, love, and peace reign as guiding moral, ethical, and religious principles.
See Arthur Brooks’ “America’s crisis of contempt – What I said in my address to the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday”
John L. Rosove is Senior Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Israel of Hollywood in Los Angeles. He is a former national co-Chair of the Rabbinic and Cantorial Cabinet of J Street and a former National Chairman of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA). He serves as a member of the Advisory Council of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism.
John was the 2002 Recipient of the World Union for Progressive Judaism International Humanitarian Award and has received special commendation from the State of Israel Bonds. In 2013 he was honored by J Street at its Fifth Anniversary Celebration in Los Angeles.
John is the author of 4 published books - "Finding Your Moral Compass - Jewish Values for the 21st Century" (2026), "From the West to the East - A Memoir of a Liberal American Rabbi" (2024), "Why Israel Matters - Letters of a Liberal Rabbi to the Next Generation with an Afterword by Daniel and David Rosove" (Revised edition after 7 October, 2023), and “Why Judaism Matters – Letters of a Liberal Rabbi to his Children and the Millennial Generation with an Afterword by Daniel and David Rosove” (2017). All are available at Amazon.com.
John is a co-editor of "Deepening the Dialogue - Jewish-Americans and Israelis Envisioning the Jewish-Democratic State" (Hebrew & English, publ. 2020).
John translated and edited the Hebrew biography of his Great Granduncle – "Avraham Shapira – Veteran of the Haganah and Hebrew Guard" by Getzel Kressel (publ. by the Municipality of Petach Tikvah, 1955). The translation was privately published (2021).
John is married to Barbara. They are the parents of two sons - Daniel (married to Marina) and David. He has two grandchildren and he lives in Los Angeles.
