Turn protest energy into action on racial justice
I was awakened early in the morning by my mom, an almost 100-year-old Holocaust survivor who lives in Israel. She was deeply concerned for America.
Amid a devastating and debilitating pandemic with more than 128,000 American lives lost and widespread economic hardships exposing dangerous social fissures and inequities, we are now also facing a massive civil eruption which resonates globally. It takes us back to the tumultuous 1960s and the civil rights struggle.
A prescription for a perfect storm for a nation with a burdensome legacy of persisting racism though strides have been made. However, it is also a challenging time of opportunity to right wrongs and create a more perfect union.
A most disturbing image of a white police officer brazenly pressing his knee on the neck of George Floyd, an African American begging in vain for his very life, will indelibly be etched in our nation’s aching memory, a searing symbol of black and universal oppression.
As a family member of the Holocaust’s surviving remnant of European Jewry, the horrifying way Floyd died has evoked strong memories about the treatment of helpless victims.
It became a trigger of much pent-up anxiety, pain and frustration for peaceful civil protests as well as disturbances in multiple American cities, including in Hampton Roads, with looting, burning and vandalizing. Four synagogues as well as kosher stores were damaged and defaced in Los Angeles. Such a troubling scene reminds us of the aftermath murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., at whose monument dedication in Norfolk on Jan. 17, 2000, I was privileged to offer a prayer.
How quickly can a peaceful protest march in a representative democracy turn into a perverted mob violating those very noble principles for whose sake it was aroused in the first place? I well remember walking the Virginia Beach Oceanfront as a volunteer police chaplain, the police officers’ harrowing challenge to prevent a large crowd from rioting.
It behooves all concerned to note that counter acts of violence only serve to postpone progress and provoke fear at large, providing an opening for overreaching authoritarian rule and the curtailment of freedoms in the guise of public safety demands. Some 2,000 years ago the rabbis taught us that “without basic respect for government people would swallow one another” and indeed the rule of law for equal protection of the weak and powerful is an absolute requirement and the veneer of civilized conduct is regrettably thin.
The rabbis also wisely counseled us “to seek peace and pursue it.” The Biblical stirring charge and admonition remains ever relevant, “Justice, justice shall you pursue that you may live.” This is high time to revisit the urgent need for criminal justice and police reform, having been made painfully aware again of the high stakes for America’s societal compact and the potential erosion of cherished values and ideals.
I support the relocation of Confederate statues to cemeteries and/or museums as a means of healing our fractured nation.
Following the 1989 Greekfest riots in Virginia Beach, a Virginia Beach Human Rights Commission, of which I am a proud member, was established operating closely with the city’s police department to the public’s benefit. I highly recommend that other cities do likewise. Sadly, a peaceful march in Virginia Beach turned violent with vandalized business stores at the Oceanfront.
America’s challenge is turning unleashed raw energy at this time of crossroads into a positive source for repairing brokenness and establishing mutual trust, so essential for moving us forward. Our dream remains one American family gloriously diverse and gratefully united, tapping our divine potential to be a blessing, collectively and individually. Together we shall turn pain into promise and violence into Shalom’s vision of peace.
Rabbi Israel Zoberman