Wouldn’t It Be Great?

Wouldn’t it be great if there were a credible and honorable fresh way to tell our story? There now is. It’s Sarah Hurwitz’s essential new book, As A Jew: Reclaiming Our Story from Those who Blame, Shame, and Try to Erase Us. If you’re tired of being misrepresented, this book couldn’t arrive too soon (alas, you’ll have to wait for its September 9 release date). 

Daily, we’re portrayed as heartless. This book brilliantly reclaims our glowing humanity. Here’s an example from Sarah’s hospital chaplaincy training – a fascinating calling for her, after an accomplished career as a White House speech writer. 

A nurse had asked for a Chaplain to see a patient, a woman in her nineties, who was described as seeming lonely. When Sarah arrived at her room, she quickly realized that loneliness wasn’t her only issue. She was furious. She shouted, “Why do I have this IV in my arm? I’m stuck here..I can’t get up to go to the bathroom! I’m going to rip this thing out of my arm! That’s right, I’m going to rip in right out!” 

Sarah tried to sympathize, to listen, and to validate her feelings. For quite a while. But the woman was having none of it. Actually, she was growing even more agitated. On and on it went, until Sarah gently asked, “Would it help if I held your hand?” She stopped mid-sentence, looking almost startled, and in a small voice, she replied, “Oh….yes.” As Sarah softly took her hand, tears began sliding down her face. “I’m just going to stay with you for a while,” she reassuringly told her. 

Our portion of Torah this week reminds us that our people’s way is the opposite of Egypt. “You must not go back that way again” (Deut. 17:16). Why? Because Egypt’s associated with oppression, bitterness, and hardness of heart. While our story is about dignity and sweetness. Sarah’s book takes us by the hand and stays with us for a while. 

If you’re in Boston, I hope you’ll come meet her on September 17. 

“Being singled-out can mark the beginning of responsibility or the end of peoplehood. It can be a summons or a sentence, ” writes Kian, an Iranian-American writer, in the new issue of Sapir.

May you find it a summons that makes you a character witness for what’s most credible, most honorable, and most tenderly humane in Jewish life.