Let’s face it — it’d be foolish to sum up the year 5784 with sentimentality. Many positive things occurred since last Rosh Hashanah, and it’s important not to dwell in pessimism, but I assume if we all condensed 5784 into one word, I wouldn’t be allowed to print it in this paper.
This past year has been excruciating for us Jews. We all lost hundreds of family members on and since Oct. 7, and we’re still missing more than a hundred of them. Then, to pour salt on our wound, Israel’s self-defense was used as an excuse for antisemitism to seemingly become socially acceptable… again.
Kansas City has not been immune to antisemitism. There have been about 70 front page stories in The Chronicle since last Rosh Hashanah, and nearly half of them had to do with the war in Israel and/or antisemitism — I did the math. Those were in addition to dozens of stories not on the front pages.
Many of these stories, though somber and upsetting, were offset by how this community has responded to the Israel-Hamas War and rising antisemitism. For example, hundreds of people gathered just days after Oct. 7 to stand in solidarity; the Jewish Federation’s Israel Emergency Fund reached more than $3.6 million; more than 50 Kansas Citians went to Washington, D.C., for the March for Israel; and Jewish KU students responded with Jewish pride to a Students for Justice in Palestine encampment.
Of course, this is far from the first time we’ve had a bad year. Upon looking through The Chronicle’s archives, I found a Rosh Hashanah message from Rabbi Maurice D. Solomon (z”l) of Kehilath Israel Synagogue in 1964. The Hebrew year 5724 was ending, and it had brought the assassination of President Kennedy, escalations in Vietnam, nuclear threats and the further oppression of Jews in the Soviet Union.
“The old year 5724 was not a happy one for the world, for Jewry, or for America,” Rabbi Solomon wrote. “...However, in the course of human events, there is no experience whose impact endures forever with the same degree of emotional reaction as the first moment of shock... We bounce back resiliently, we regain our balance and we continue with new vigor as rehabilitated creatures of God to solve new problems as they arise.”
So, as we wrap up a year of terror attacks, ongoing war, raging antisemitism and political unrest, we must trust that we will bounce back. We must be optimistic about the new year, even if things look bleak, because we’re going to make it through — it’s the story of our people.
G-d willing, The Chronicle will only need to cover happy news in 5785.
Wishing you a safe, happy, healthy and mazel-filled new year,
-Sam Kricsfeld, editor
