Welcome to the Mishpacha: Love Note To Non-Jews in Jewish & Israel Organizations

My Dear Non-Jewish Colleagues:

I know I’ve thanked you before over the years, but this time is different.

You’ve been the administrative assistants, the financial staff, the preschool teachers, day school teachers, sports and fitness pros at the JCC, executives, development professionals, marketing team members, security staff, and so much more. And you could work anywhere. You might be earning more money. You wouldn’t have to go through a security check or someone asking you if you have a weapon in the car on the way into the parking lot. You wouldn’t have to be trained by our security teams on what to watch out for.

And you certainly wouldn’t have to deal with your Jewish and Israeli colleagues, who are anxious and cranky because we have acquaintances who were victims of Hamas terrorist attacks, or relatives called up for active duty in Israel Defense Forces.

And yet, you’ve been here. Every day. Working hard. Alongside us. Caring deeply. Wanting, and working, like we all do, to have a safe and peaceful Israel, Middle East, World.

So, if I, or any of us forgot to tell you: Know this.

We see you.

We value you.

We appreciate you.

We love you.

You, my friends and colleagues, are mishpacha [you’re working here, so you probably know what that means].

Todah rabbah, thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

And Shalom.