May is Jewish American Heritage month. A topic I knew I wanted to highlight as the Jewish/Jewish American story is one that is close to my heart.
I happen to have quite a few Jewish friends living here in America, most of them having migrated from Israel. I also rented an apartment in a Jewish community for about 8 months when I lived in Queens, New York several years ago. I even know some Hebrew and have been to Israel twice and met some lovely Jewish people in the midst of those adventures.
All throughout history and all over the world the Jewish people have suffered varying degrees of persecution, the most horrific example of this being the Holocaust, which saw the murder of over 6 million Jews.
This came home to me even more with the massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood (where Mr. Rogers once lived) in Pittsburgh, PA on Oct. 27, 2018.
My daughter and her husband lived a block away at the time and had to hunker down as police were running through the neighborhood telling everyone to stay inside. Their community was heartbroken and yet came together to support each other and the families affected.
Eleven people lost their lives that day, some of whom were Holocaust survivors, simply because they were Jewish.
For those of us who aren’t part of a marginalized group, it’s harder for us to see life through the eyes of someone who has spent their life living as a member of one of them.
Having a month to focus on Jewish American heritage is a great opportunity for us to celebrate Jewish American culture and to acknowledge the multitude of ways Jewish people have enriched our nation and added depth and beauty to our collective American identity.
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