Whenever I'm meeting a new group of native English speakers, aware that they will be thinking about my accent, I break the ice when I introduce myself and share that my accent is actually from the deep south. Usually I get some laughs, and then I tell them that it is true! I'm from the real deep south called Brazil.
I moved to Los Angeles more than 5 years ago. I had my first US presidential election experience right away. Since Bolsonaro, Brazil's current president, was not even thought of as a candidate, all the more so, president, watching Donald Trump becoming the nominee for the GOP sounded like a joke to me. I couldn't believe that it was happening and didn't think he had a chance.
While I love politics, I didn't know yet much about US politics. I come from a moral perspective. How could it be that someone with a serious lack of ethics and compassion be running for president in a major ticket?
I really meant it then. And I still do.
Years passed, I moved to the greater DC area over the summer. I can see the Capitol from my new balcony.
As a congregational rabbi, I cannot endorse any candidate, but I'm free to teach morals and values that will guide my congregants' behavior, not just when they vote, but in all aspects of life.
I would go beyond and say that I feel a commanded to actually do that. A religion that only practices rituals without any discussion or connection to the society we live in is doomed to become irrelevant.
I understand as beneficial, for Jews and for the broader society, to have a separation between institutionalized religion and institutionalized power or government structure. This separation granted many minorities the right to become equal citizens in western civilization since the European enlightenment. Although its ideals of equality and freedom are yet to be extended to all, we stand at a way better place than we were 300 years ago.
While I am a firm believer of the separation of religion and state, in the sense of not having an official religion that creates categories of citizens, I believe that politics is a modern tool to help individuals, religious or not, express themselves in the public arena. In that sense, religion is a core element of politics, teaching values and practices that shape human behavior.
In this process, certain areas that were limited to the religious realm, became elements of the civil society, such as business relationships, civil marriage, and even punishment for certain crimes. While a positive development for our society, we as Jews still have opinions regarding these topics and our voice needs to be part of the conversation, as members of our modern society. The transference of power from religious leaders and monarchs to a public office democratically elected makes our voice even more important in our society. Our responsibility for social justice as a religious duty makes Judaism and Politics inseparable.
How could I not speak up for freedom of religion? How could I remain silent regarding abortion, when there are times when my religion not only allows it, but requires it, to protect the mother's life?
No chance I will refrain from advocating against racism, anti-semitism, or any kind of discrimination.
I believe that all humans are created in the image of God and this belief creates in me a responsibility from a religious standpoint to speak up whenever someone is targeted for who they are.
As an immigrant, I don't vote (yet?) in the US. As a rabbi, I miss the ritual of voting, the action that transforms the value of democracy into action. Sometimes, it feels like I'm literally just watching the Capitol from my balcony. So close, and so far at the same time.
Rabbi Moshe Feinstein Z'L, famous immigrant Rabbi for his work on Jewish Law wrote: “It is incumbent upon each Jewish citizen to participate in the democratic system which affords us the freedom we enjoy.”
Religion has played many roles in our lives and the history of the world. Today, I believe that religion is a force in the world to inspire the potential for good that we all possess, creating communities, advocating and taking care of the most vulnerable among us.
So what's my role as an immigrant Rabbi? Preach. Teach. Take care of my congregants'spiritual needs during this moral crisis. It's my duty to inspire hope to a better future, while being vigilant of the paths that will take us there. It's my call to speak up against injustice and bigotry.
לֹא עָלֶיךָ הַמְּלָאכָה לִגְמֹר וְלֹא אַתָּה בֶן חוֹרִין לְהִבָּטֵל מִמֶּנָּה.
It is not your duty to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.
(Pirkei Avot 2:16)
These past few months were difficult. Watching American society more and more divisive every day, empowered by their president to be even more divisive, with a serious lack of moral behavior, spreading lies, targeting minorities and a dangerous disregard of science and reality.
Former political opponents have a tradition to come together after the election and bring the country together under the leadership of the president elect. It hurts to see a sitting president targeting democracy by questing the results of the elections without delivering any reasonable claim or proof.
As an immigrant Rabbi, I join my people and my neighbors in their revolt against the current administration. It's a moral religious duty to fight for citizens' and immigrants' rights to be upheld. Among those rights, it's the right of a free and fair election.
I hope that what I've experienced recently was just a sad and short chapter of American democracy.
I pray for the health of this country and its democracy.
May God be with us in the pursuit of Justice, liberty and equality.
