Adenaur Fellows are supposed to come home and share their experiences with their own communities. At another time, I’d have told you about my meeting with the president of the Bundestag in his office at the Reichstag, how the Holocaust memorials moved me, or how a cantor with one of the most beautiful voices I’ve ever heard led us in the singing of “Oseh Shalom” at Friday night services — and that in the comfort of that common prayer I felt at one not just with my group of American Jews, or with that synagogue of German Jews, but with Jews of all time.
But now, I want to make these two points to our Jewish community: First, I don’t want our Jewish institutions to be gated off. I don’t want to have to get my name put on a list and pass through an X-ray machine guarded by police before I can go to temple, as I had to do in Germany. Of course, we should be concerned with security, and we very much are; our community has a highly coordinated surveillance and security system, an extremely cooperative and vigilant local police, and support from the FBI and other law-enforcement agencies. We conduct preparedness programs each year at the city of Overland Park’s very impressive Command Center. But if we are to live in a free society, we cannot protect ourselves 100 percent from the acts of lunatics, as the tragic events of last week proved all too well.
I had an experience in Berlin that I see with different eyes now that I’m back in Overland Park. The day I arrived, I had a couple of hours of free time before my meetings started, and though I was tired from travel, I decided to explore the city. On my walk, I came across the Jewish Community Center. At the time, I thought it was a happy coincidence and took my picture in front of it; now, in light of recent events, I think it was beshert. Berlin’s JCC was surrounded by a high fence, and a police booth stood at the entrance. Although it was a Sunday morning (a busy time for our JCC), it looked empty, if not closed. Wow, I thought, that’s nothing like our JCC. Our Jewish Community Campus is vital and welcoming, a place where many come to meet, to learn, to exercise, to bond. I think I was meant to see that JCC in Berlin. It was a cautionary tale.
The other important take-away from my trip was that good really can come from evil. I was encouraged to learn how peaceful the Germans have become; they are very nearly anti-war as a reaction to the turmoil their country caused in the 20th century. They value democracy. They are a strong nation rebuilt from the ashes, and they have a promising future. That good can come from evil is a message that has been repeated this week in vigils, in services, in meetings; by government leaders, worship leaders and, most poignantly, by Mindy Corporon, who just lost two loved ones and yet is able to remind us that peace and love will triumph over evil.
Let’s just be careful about thinking that the evil is over: yes, the shootings at Jewish institutions were apparently the act of a lone wolf who was captured, but there are more people out there just like him. Just a few weeks ago I was attending a sporting event at a local high school and saw a swastika scrawled on the wall. I reported it to the JCRB|AJC, which discussed it with the school district, and it was removed. But while graffiti is easy to remove, hatred is not, and I ask you all to join with JCRB|AJC and our friends in civil rights, law enforcement and government in the fight against hatred and bigotry of all types. It really is the job of all of us to “See Something, Say Something.”™-
This has been just surreal. This senseless act of violence has shocked our community. We are not accustomed to hearing about our community on the national TV and radio news. We are not used to inquiries about our personal safety from across the city, the country and the world. But how wonderful to see our entire community come together in such marked solidarity. That should really bring us hope. I know I have been touched many times this week. I still have hope for a better world where light overcomes darkness, love overcomes hate and peace overcomes violence. A better world where we all live in a village called Shalom.
David T. Rudman, M.D., is chairman of the board of the Jewish Community Relations Bureau|American Jewish Committee.
