We are family

Most of you know me from the work I’ve been doing for the last 33 years at Aleph Institute, helping incarcerated Jewish men and women. Others may be familiar with what I’ve been fortunate to do for the last five years or so, standing outside the Squirrel Hill Farmers Market on Beacon Street on Sundays, interacting with fellow Jews.

It pains me to write this, but being present at the farmers market has been very difficult for me over the last 12 months or so. The overt antisemitism has made the Sunday effort a very challenging one.

Over the last year, standing on the street trying to meet other Jews, I have had an untold number of negative interactions. There is one lady who accosts me weekly, shouting wildly at me to stop killing babies in Gaza. There is a fellow, who claims to be Palestinian, who approaches me as often as he can to tell me that I must make peace with his brothers, after which he unleashes a barrage of choice words about Israel, etc.

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I do my best to ignore the hate and continue my holy work. However, for the last five weeks, an older man with a banner announcing, “Children are not Hamas,” confronts me, verbally attacking me, getting in my face and getting more aggravated each week.

Last Sunday, when this older man began to approach, he was stopped by a wonderful Jewish lady who, by the grace of G-d, happened to be there. This angel took on the man, throwing his vile attacks back at him and defending me and what I was doing.

Realizing that his antics would not be the usual fun, the man left, after which this lady approached me. She was so hurt, so pained, so distressed at the disrespect shown to me.

I thanked her profusely for what she did, we comforted each other, and she brought her husband over so that he could lay tefillin.

When I left the farmers market that day, I was walking on clouds. I kept thinking, “Mi k’amcha Yisroel!” How great is our Jewish family! I didn’t know that amazing woman, and she didn’t know me. We may not practice our Judaism the same way, and she may not even agree with the practice of stopping people on the street to ask about their Judaism. But when she saw someone harassing a fellow Jew — accosting her brother — she couldn’t keep quiet and she stepped in.

My friends, you are all amazing. The events worldwide are painful and confusing, but what we can do is keep on being amazing. As the Chosen People of G-d, we should continue to bring light to the world, keep doing all the good that we are doing and keep taking care of our extended family.

Our brothers and sisters may be at a Nova music festival near Gaza, they may be protesting or counterprotesting in Tel Aviv, and they may be in Pittsburgh, standing outside the farmers market on Beacon Street. Wherever we are, we are family.

I take this opportunity to bless my family — all of you — with a healthy, prosperous, blessed New Year.

And by the way, have you put on tefillin today? PJC

Rabbi Moishe Mayir Vogel is the executive director of The Aleph Institute – North East Region.