It’s a new year

It’s hard to get enthusiastic about the new year, because the old one has been disastrous in so many ways. I don’t want to count them now. I don’t want to list them. It’s far too grim.

So how do we pull a prancy bright-braided pony out of all this mess?

I’m struck by the hope in some of this week’s stories.

Yachad always is about hope. It assumes that, yes, people who are different from each other still can be part of the same community. Beyond that, they can genuinely be friends. They can really care for each other, not just abstractly but in specific.

A few weeks ago, we wrote about the Sinai Schools. This week, it’s Yachad. Both organizations work with people who are not neurotypical; they give them the honor of focusing on each one of them deeply and particularly, working from the understanding that no matter the diagnosis, each person is both valuable and unique.

Then there are Rabbi Daniel Cohen and his wife, Raina Goldberg, who are making aliyah not because they are running away from anything — they love it here, and they’re both leaving fulfilling, important careers — but because, as he says, they are running toward something.

They are making the point that you can be a Reform or a Conservative Jew and love Israel overwhelmingly; you can be a liberal and still be a deeply committed Zionist. They are making the point that stereotypes are not only dangerous but often wrong. But they’re not making aliyah to make a point. They’re making aliyah because they feel like they’re going home.

In other stories this week, Tracey Hoberman beats cancer, and in response her husband, Jason, runs a marathon, both as his own form of liberation and to raise money for the research that will save other people’s lives. The Jewish actress June Squibb talks about performing onstage at 96. These are all stories about hope and life.

We hope that all of our lives will be full of that very hope. Happy new year, everyone.

—JP