Finding Strength Through Community

By Julia Loeb, WLCJ International President

This week’s Torah portion, Chayyei Sarah, the life of Sarah, opens, ironically, with the death of our matriarch. We read that when Abraham learned the news of Sarah’s death, he “proceeded to mourn for Sarah and to bewail her.” The rabbis note that when one suffers the loss of a loved one, typically, one first cries in despair, and then later eulogizes and mourns the loss. The rabbis explain that for Abraham the loss was so profound that his grief long persisted even after formally mourning for her and eulogizing her to the community. 

These days, I think we are all also feeling a tremendous sense of loss. At first, it was the shocking news, on October 7, of Hamas brutally and inhumanely killing so many, and kidnapping hundreds more. This week marks the Shloshim of those killed in the attacks and even after the initial shock and mourning of those deaths, we, like Abraham, continue to cry, feeling utter despair at those being held hostage, at the inhumanity of this attack, and at those still dying in the conflict. When we see other nations, and even people in our own country, call the terrorists heroes, chant for the destruction of Israel, refer to October 7 as a tremendous victory, or worse, view the attacks as “fake news”, we feel like we are in some kind of a nightmare. And when we notice the burbling up of antisemitism around the world, we remember what was allowed to happen during World War II and fear that we again have deluded ourselves into complacency. 

Most of us have just changed the clocks, falling back one hour. But in some ways, it feels like we have fallen much further back to the dark times of 1938. 

My grandparents and my husband’s grandparents were proud Germans. They were respected members of society. Bob’s grandfather treasured a World War I medal he received for fighting for the Germans. They felt so much a part of that society that they could not imagine that they would become the targets of persecution and systematic murder. Have we fallen into that same trap of complacency and security here? We have assured ourselves that if there were problems where we live, we could always find refuge and safety in Israel. Now Israel is under attack and fighting for its future, and we feel less secure than in recent memory. Some are taking off their kippot or Magen David necklaces in public. Some are even removing mezuzot from their doors. In this week’s Torah portion, Abraham says that in Canaan he feels like a “resident alien.” Are we sometimes made to feel that way here?

These are fraught times. We need to stay strong, support Israel and each other. This is a time to pull together as a community. The community of Women’s League has been tremendous solace to me these past weeks, providing a place to pray together, to share, to hear concerns, to offer each other support, and to organize support for Israel and the Masorti community. Our members have donated generously to causes in Israel and have found other productive ways of showing support. Our recent Sichot Beyn Achayot, Conversations Between Sisters program, and our programs on dealing with trauma and grief could not have been more relevant. Women’s League has just signed on as a sponsor for the March for Israel on November 14th at 1:00 p.m. on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Come join us to show solidarity with the Israeli people, to demand the immediate release of the remaining hostages and to condemn the rise of antisemitism. We will be sending more details about this in the next few days.

In the margin notes of the Shabbat prayer book we use, Lev Shalem, there is a poem by Merle Feld which describes an idealized place where we feel safe and truly at home: a “place where we are respected and cherished, protected, acknowledged, encouraged, heard.” To me, and I hope to many of you, that is Women’s League. In good times and in bad, we offer a true community. 

May this war and this spate of antisemitism end soon, and may we, and all the world, learn to live in peace together. 

Shabbat Shalom,
Julia Loeb
WLCJ International President
jloeb@wlcj.org