What Connects Us

by Karon Donahue

 

Believe it or not, Passover is just over a month away. Some people will spend many hours doing meticulous cleaning, and they might sort through and dispense with clothes that have been outgrown. Their kitchens will be getting stocked with all sorts of kosher for Passover canned goods, cereals, and novelty items as well. It can be a huge undertaking with weeks of planning and preparations, to make things just right.

 

For others, attending a Seder might be all that is planned. Work, school, kids, and life may be considered too overwhelming to take care of all of the details. Or they may consider it unnecessary altogether. Still, during Passover and other holidays, there is always something that seems to connect even the secular Jew to their roots in some small way.

 

While some Jewish people live in predominately Jewish communities, others live where there is scarcely another Jew around. When in an unfamiliar location and another Jewish person is seen, distance closes and if a question needs to be asked, there’s a good likelihood that the other Jewish person will be the one talked to. Although not seen every day, most people have experienced this type of phenomenon. For some reason there seems to be an inherent connection or kinship between us. 

 

The connection between Jewish people has been likened to people of the same country traveling abroad. If someone from the US runs into another person from the US, they’ll probably strike up a conversation and if not, they will at least generally have some inner feeling of connection to the other person because of their cultural connection. With Judaism though, there seems to be something more.

 

As an immigrant to Israel I work several jobs in order to make ends meet. One of the jobs I happened to stumble across is a private tutoring position for a high ranking military officer in the Israeli Defense Forces. This man decided to take English lessons in order to increase his vocabulary so he could interact with military officers from English speaking countries at a higher level. During one recent lesson, the officer seemed to grasp what it is between us as a people that seems to connect us.

 

The lesson I planned for the day involved being able to answer interview questions that could be asked by a reporter. Most of the questions I had prepared revolved around the topic of terrorism. The topic was chosen because of the Syrian conflict across the border, and because it was a topic I researched while I was in graduate school. As we spoke, he began to express his thoughts about the topic in ways that had never crossed my mind.

 

He said that in order to battle terrorism, military strength and security is not enough. I was perplexed by this statement because these are the things most people and governments believe are most important when trying to fight terrorism. Instead, he asserted that a strong society is most important. He said the biggest way terrorists can start to win is if they are able to first cause division between groups of people in society.

 

I paused to let what he said soak in a bit. The next question was on a different topic, but brought up the importance of the connections between our people. I asked the officer what types of strategies are used to boost morale when troops are facing a strong likelihood of being involved in a direct conflict with the enemy. He said, “A leader needs to give meaning to what they are doing. Each person that we search for when someone is missing or has been hurt by the enemy is our family. This is our brother. When they understand that, they are not afraid.”

 

That’s it! We have an inherent connection with each other because somehow inside we know we are family. While terrorism is striking people in many parts of the world, and antisemitism are on the rise, the greatest threat to us as a people is division between us. So, with Passover approaching, we become aware once again that we are one ancient nation of people living among many nations. We need to think about this more often, and be kinder to one another. Yes, we may not always get along, but may we never forget that we are family.