Kate Basch ............................ Sisterhood Co-President
Rebecca Fine Stallings ......... Sisterhood Co-President
Nancy Cohen ...................... Sisterhood Gift Shop Chair
October
AFTERNOON/EVENING SERVICES
Every Wednesday and Friday 5:30 p.m.
Each week, we gather to experience traditional daily prayer and establish a quiet space for those mourning a loved one or observing the anniversary of a loss (yahrtzeit). All use these opportunities to recite a communal Mourner’s Kaddish. Both gatherings take place in the Synagogue’s Davis-Goodall Chapel, with full participation available both in-person and through the Synagogue Zoom Room. We ask that in-person attendees register in advance on our website. Friday gatherings always occur in the Synagogue Zoom Room at 918 583 7121.
SHABBAT MORNING SERVICES
Every Saturday 9:30 a.m.
Each week, we convene on Saturday morning to sing the liturgy of the tradition, study the weekly Torah portion, and spend time amongst family and friends. All are welcome to participate in this experience in person or on Zoom. Members and friends can access the Synagogue Zoom Room at 918 583 7121.
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings good news. (Isaiah 52:7)
ON THE COVER: Ilit Azoulay’s practice explores the central role photography plays in archives and the idiosyncrasies of institutional systems created to preserve and produce knowledge. As an outgrowth of this practice, Azoulay created a new work, Unity Totem (2024), for the exhibition Ilit Azoulay: Mere Things on view at the Jewish Museum in New York City through January 5, 2025. To make Unity Totem, Azoulay sifted through the collections of the Jewish Museum and identified roughly 20 objects. Most were created by Jewish communities living throughout the Arab world, including in her ancestral homeland of Morocco. She then researched and incorporated these ritual items and amulets into this imagined composite. Suspended from a green hat that smokes like a cone of incense, they are seemingly flung outward by centrifugal force, as if spinning. The inscription at the top of the work was derived from Azoulay’s interactions with two master healers, Homaya Amar and Kida Noyman, who were each asked to meditate on the work and the objects it contains to activate its spiritual energy.
No tickets, just you. All you have to do is walk through the door. There are no admission requirements of any kind for High Holiday services at Congregation B’nai Emunah. Sit where you like and bring friends who might appreciate a spirited observance of this Jewish New Year. We’ll be waiting for you just inside. A variety of services and celebrations highlight the holiday. The daytime services begin at 9:30 a.m. Sermons will be delivered around 11:00 a.m. Music, big ideas, and spending time with community combine to create a powerful way to start the New Year. We hope to see you there. As is now always the case, all programs and services will be available on Zoom for hybrid participation. For a full calendar and detailed description of events visit: tulsagogue. com/high-holidays
4 BOLUSKY LUNCHEON
12:30 p.m. Join the community of young and youngat-heart individuals for lunch at the Bolusky home, just steps from the Synagogue front door following the second day of Rosh Ha-Shanah services. Please indicate your attendance by calling the Synagogue at (918) 583-7121 or visiting our website at tulsagogue.com/events.
7 YIKZOR MEMORIAL SERVICE
7:00 p.m.
Yizkor is a memorial practice rooted in the habits of Jewish tradition. It is the mechanism through which we always mark the memory of our loved ones. This year, as we approach the anniversary of October 7, The Synagogue will host an additional Yizkor service in memory of those lost as a result of the attacks one year ago. The service will begin at 7:00 p.m. and include readings, songs, music, and the recitation of names of those
we remember. As always, The Synagogue appreciates advance notice of your intention to participate through registration. All are welcome to attend.
11&12
YOM KIPPUR: SEEKING FORGIVENESS
Just like on Rosh Ha-Shanah, all you have to do is walk through the door. There are no admission requirements for High Holiday services at Congregation B’nai Emunah. Sit where you like and bring friends who might appreciate a spirited observance of this holiest day. We look forward to being together. Kol Nidray inaugurates the holiday at 6:30 p.m. on October 11. The following day, daytime services begin at 9:30 a.m. with a sermon and Yizkor taking place around 11:00 a.m. Programming will continue throughout the day culminating in the Neilah closing service at sundown. A community break-the-fast will follow. Come as you are and feel the strength of community. As is always the case, all programs and services will be available on Zoom for hybrid participation. For a complete calendar and detailed description of events, visit tulsagogue.com/high-holidays.
13 ANCESTRY IN THE ANCIENT FOREST
10:00 a.m.
Gather your extended family and hike the Keystone Ancient Forest in Sand Springs in this unique Yizkor experience. We’ll stop along the journey to explore our natural surroundings and learn about our ancestral roots. We’ll create family tree art and share stories and memories in guided conversations of our shared family histories, uncovering the similarities and differences that bind our community together.
17&18 SUKKOT: THE FIRST DAYS
9:30a.m.
Sukkot occupies an unparalleled place on the Jewish calendar. It’s a great harvest festival; after weeks of introspection, we go outside to celebrate in our beautiful surroundings. Assuming beautiful weather, we will chant services in the sukkah. We’ll shake lulav and etrog and connect with the world beyond the confines of a permanent structure. In-person and on Zoom.
18 SHABBAT SHALOM MUSIC CIRCLE, SUKKOT DINNER AND SUKKAH SOUNDS CONCERT
Music Circle 5:30 p.m., Dinner 6:15 p.m., Concert 7:00 p.m. It’s the single most ginormous Sukkah celebration in Oklahoma. We’ll gather in the sukkah on the south lawn for an inclusive Sukkot Shabbat Music Circle, Dinner, and Concert. The experience will be supported as always by a gift from Harry and Carol Brouse Windland and Brian Brouse. A joyful Shabbat Sukkot presentation of musical compositions of the season will conclude the evening. No reservation is necessary for the celebration, which begins at 5:30 p.m. But please call the Synagogue Offices or visit our website to make reservations for the 6:15 p.m. dinner. The service will be broadcast live on Zoom at 918 583 7121.
Program Highlights
21 REFUGE IN THE SUKKAH
6:00 p.m.
Our sukkah is temporary because we connect ourselves to the experience of fragility and impermanence. These are notions well known to refugees throughout generations who have had to flee one home in search of another. This year on Sukkot, we’re highlighting the work of our Refugee Resettlement department with a dinner and program held inside our sukkah. Our meal will feature foods from the various populations we have worked with over the past year. From Ukraine to Afghanistan, Myanmar to Syria, and even the Democratic Republic of the Congo, our work and client base is diverse and represents the welcoming values we embody as a Synagogue. Join us in recognizing and honoring the work of our Refugee Resettlement program during this special international culinary dinner, as we are reminded that we are all descendants of refugees from somewhere. Reserve your spot at (918) 583-7121 or tulsagogue.com
24&25
SHEMINI ATZERET YOM TOV SERVICES
9:30 a.m.
The final days of the holiday season bring us back together for the two last mornings of Yom Tov services. Each morning will begin at 9:30 a.m. Yizkor will be chanted at 11:00 a.m. on October 24. On October 25, join us for the traditional finale to B’nai Emunah’s holiday celebrations as members and friends gather following services for the annual Simchat Torah Luncheon. The meal is complimentary; however reservations are appreciated. Weather permitting, we will eat for the last time in the sukkah. We thank the Zarrow Families for underwriting this final luncheon of the holiday season.
24 SIMCHAT TORAH DINNER AND DANCING 5:30
p.m.
We roll from one experience to the next as we celebrate the cycle of Torah learning and the new year with an evening of dinner and dancing. The evening begins with a dinner at 5:30 p.m., lovingly catered by Alin Avitan in the Synagogue Sukkah. No charge for this meal, but please signal your participation through a reservation. At 6:15 p.m. we move into the KaiserMiller Auditorium, where music will fill our hearts as we dance together. It’s an evening of toys and wonders at this intergenerational gathering.
27 ANNUAL SISTERHOOD MEMBERSHIP BRUNCH 10:00 a.m.
Sisterhood invites women of The Synagogue to join together for its annual Brunch on Sunday, October 27th from 10:00–11:30 a.m. in Sanditen Hall. We will be hearing personal stories from the women in our Sisterhood and honoring their contributions to our community. All are welcome! Please RSVP by visiting the Synagogue’s website under events and join us for a morning of meaningful connection.
29 BLATT + BLUE: NORA’SWILL 7:00 p.m.
See Page 6 for full details.
Milestones
Births
Harrison Art born to Erica and Michael Berger in Chicago on September 10, 2024. Grandparents are Sheldon and Molly Berger of Tulsa and Michael and Laurie Nedelman of Farmington Hills, Michigan.
Judah Neil born to David and Roxanne Friedland, brother of Joseph on August 28, 2024. Grandparents are Madelyn Imeson of Oakland, CA; and Melissa and Robert Friedland of Rockville, Maryland.
Lena Gold and Libi Ann born to Leslie Sanditen and Frank Zigmond, sisters of Scott and Julius on September 10, 2024. Grandparents are Jolene Sanditen of Tulsa and Rosalyn Zigmond of Denver, Colorado.
Deaths
Steve Heimbach
Uncle of Tracy Hearst-Woods
Dean Mandlebaum Husband of Carol Mandlebaum
Edward Stanley Rader Father of Nancy Inhofe
Weddings
Shaina Cash and Josh Roubein were married in Tulsa in midSeptember. Shaina is the daughter of Jamie and Sharon Cash. Josh is the son of Leor and Hillary Roubein, all of Tulsa. The couple resides in New York City.
Evan Charney and Naomi Bareket were married in San Diego in mid-September. Evan is the son of David and Randee Charney of Tulsa. Naomi is the daughter of Riki Yakovi of Kiryat Shmona, Israel. The couple now resides in Tulsa.
Alex Brodsky and Nina Levine were married in Tulsa in late September. Alex is the son of Paul and Randi Brodsky of Tulsa. Nina is the daughter of Amy Chazin of Minneapolis, Minnesota and Howard Levine of Buffalo, New York. The couple resides in Tulsa.
Genevieve Jaber and Nizam Rahim were married in Tulsa in late September. Genevieve is The Synagogue’s Director of Refugee Resettlement. The ceremony was celebrated in Broken Arrow amongst family and friends, with the entire staff of the Refugee Resettlement department present.
Ian Fain and Chloe Jones will be married in Tulsa in early October. Ian is the son of Shawna and Curt Fair of Tulsa. Chloe is the daughter of Marion Jones and Brad and Heidi Chambers of Tulsa. The couple resides in Tulsa.
From Rabbi Daniel S. Kaiman
THE SEASON AHEAD
We’re about to enter the most intense period of the Jewish year. The rhythms of our calendar invite us into a series of experiences that serve as a platform for our diverse expressions of Jewish identity. As we all know, there’s no singular way to be Jewish. What we hope to accomplish in this season is a celebration of the variety of experiences that span the spectrum of our community’s identity, preference, and style. For some, the season will be about participating in the ritual life of The Synagogue. There is music and prayer, poetry and ritual, and time for introspection about ourselves and our relationships with each other.
For others, the season is about the social pleasures of being part of a community. It’s an opportunity to extend invitations to each other’s homes and deepen our relationships through shared commitments.
Whether this will be your first High Holiday experience or you’ve been every year of your life, we want everyone to know that we are committed to creating a comfortable place at The Synagogue for all.
Still, for another group, the season is about finding a way into the folds of Jewish life. Some are curious onlookers eager to understand their neighbors and friends. Others feel drawn to the messages of our tradition and the wisdom of those who came before us.
Whether this will be your first High Holiday experience or you’ve been every year of your life, we want everyone to know that we are committed to creating a comfortable place at The Synagogue for all. Welcome takes many forms, and it’s a communal task to imagine the experience of others and work to lower barriers and increase inclusion.
I am sure there will be ways we fail at this lofty goal. That’s an inevitable reality. But I want you to know that we take relationships seriously at The Synagogue and hope you’ll offer us your trust during this holiday season. Trust is especially necessary this year as world Jewry approaches the anniversary of 10/7 and navigates our polarized reality.
Whether you join us for a meal, a learning session, an outdoor service, or just to hear the sound of the shofar, we hope the season ahead brings meaning and fulfillment. May the year ahead bring more sweetness to us all. Shanah Tovah!
A LETTER OF LOSS
The following letter was shared with the community on September 2 following the news of six hostages being found executed in a Gaza tunnel.
Dear Friends,
I read the news of the murder of six hostages this past weekend with shock, grief, and pain. These individuals had endured months of captivity and had been used as pawns in negotiations. Hope remained that they would make it home. Yet instead, they were executed in a Gaza tunnel just a day or two before Israel could reach them.
Their names were Eden Yerushalmi, 24; Ori Danino, 25; Alex Lobanov, 32; Carmel Gat, 40; Almog Sarusi, 27; and Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen. Like many of you, I’ve followed Hersh’s story closely for many months. His parents, Rachel and Jon, became powerful voices for all the hostages’ families, advocating tirelessly for their release and reminding the world of their humanity.
I also shared a personal connection to the Goldberg-Polin family, so their lives never felt very far away. Today, they buried their son, and I grieve with them for the horrors they have endured.
A Jewish mourning practice teaches us not to greet one another during the most intensive periods of loss. Mourners are not hosts and do not need to be responsible for the grief of those around them. The doors of a shiva house remain open, and we are supposed to walk in quietly, sit near those who may be closer to the loss, and let the conversation come to us. If spoken to, we respond. If there is only quiet, then we sit in silence. The message is straightforward: we can never truly know the depth of another’s grief, and the best we can do is ensure we show up for one another.
As the Goldberg-Polin family enters shiva for their son, let us hold them, along with all those who grieve as a result of the horrors of this conflict, in our thoughts and prayers. In the face of such evil actions, it takes immense moral courage to stand up for what is right and uphold the values that make us who we are. The Goldberg-Polin family has demonstrated this courage in their relentless advocacy, in their refusal to let the cruelty of his captors erase their son’s humanity. As we mourn with them and the families of all these hostages, let us also draw strength from their example, recommitting ourselves to the pursuit of justice, peace, and the dignity of human life. May Hersh’s memory, and the memory of those lives taken unjustly through this conflict, be an everlasting blessing.
Sincerely,
Daniel S. Kaiman Rabbi
MEMORY & 10/7
Usually, the celebration of Simchat Torah marks the completion of the High Holiday experience. It’s a moment of relief, exhale, and joy as Jewish communities prepare to enter the more regular rhythms of life. Of course, the end of the High Holiday season was different this past year. There was no letdown, no relief, no exhale. The final day of our last High Holiday season was October 7, 2024.
On that day, we witnessed brutality with our own eyes. No day in Israel’s history has seen such bloodshed. No day since the Holocaust has our collective Jewishness been under such assault. Young people were dancing at a music festival. Kibbutznik peace activist grandmothers were hosting their grandchildren for the weekend. Young families were waking up to holiday celebrations with their kids. On a day that was supposed to mark the completion of a season of celebration, evil actors brutalized others for their Jewishness. We witnessed murder and hostage-taking at a scale and scope many of us could not have imagined. In the months that have ensued, the layers of how others saw this moment have led to complex, uncomfortable, and scary realities for Jewish people all over the world. On college campuses, in our workplaces, and in our neighborhoods, Jewishness itself, alongside Zionism and Israel, has felt challenged, under threat, and shaken. We have prayed for the safety of soldiers, begged for the release of hostages, and advocated for political solutions that would bring an end to the conflict and distress in Israel and Gaza.
As we approach the first anniversary of this horrific day, many have important ideas about how to mark the moment. Locally and globally, we will all have choices to make. There is a place for political responses, documentary screenings, and listening to the testimony of our survivors. Several of these options will be available right here in Tulsa.
But I want to suggest one more action which roots itself in the traditions of our people. Yizkor, the act of remembrance, is a ritual moment to mark the passing of those closest to us. Four times a year, we gather to call to mind most readily the names, experiences, and lives of those no longer with us. This year, we will add a fifth moment for Yizkor, communal mourning, and it will take place on 10/7 at 7:00 p.m. at The Synagogue. In this moment of gathering, we will turn to the practices of those who came before us in reciting words, poetry, and music, which evoke the feelings that swirl around us. We will read the names of those lost to us on 10/7, marking the date of significance Jewishly.
Indeed, there has been no letdown since the horrors which unfolded a year ago. We remain swimming in a new reality. However, by turning to the actions of our tradition, one hope is that we can, like those before us, figure out a way to keep moving forward. Let us hope for peace, let us hope for release, let us hope for safety for all.
Blatt + Blue: Nora’s Will
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29
Before committing suicide on the eve of Passover, an ailing Mexican Jewish woman sets in motion a carefully calculated plan to reunite her estranged family. Let the familial manipulations begin! Described as a comedic
Marianna Chenillo’s film racked up impressive result on the international film circuit and scored 89+ percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
tearjerker (two things we love), Nora’s Will is also an opportunity to see another Jewish culture in the world Jewish community. Marianna Chenillo’s film racked up impressive result on the international film circuit and scored 89+ percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
Our conversation about Nora’s Will will take place on Thursday, October 10 at 7:00 p.m. The film can be seen on Netflix on your home screen. Please let us know if you have any difficulty locating the program.
Now in its fifth year, the series expresses the Synagogue’s commitment to an inclusive and pluralistic vision. Difficult films deserve thoughtful conversation. Film and television enthusiasts David Blatt and Alice Blue begin each session with a summary of the featured material, which means that you’ll be able to follow the conversation even if you have to delay your viewing of the material itself. After that, it’s questions and comments from the Zoom Room audience. Join the moderated discussion in the Synagogue Zoom Room. The Zoom meeting ID is 918 583 7121, and the session will conclude at 8:00 p.m. If there is a film or broadcast you would like to screen, please call Richie Bolusky, Synagogue Program Director, at (918) 583-7121 with your suggestions.
Contributions to The Synagogue
Ann Beerman Flower and Garden Fund
Teresa and Paul Finer
Genny Seletsky
Brouse Family Shabbat and Holiday Fund
Genny Seletsky
Chevra Kadisha
Sheldon and Molly Berger
Dave Sylvan Joyful
Music Fund
Janet Dundee and Jeff Darby
Karen Neuwald
Eva Unterman
Environmental Education Fund
Betty and Keith Lehman
Joe Kantor Hebrew School Fund
Jonathan Kantor
Lenny Seigel Playground Fund
Richard, Jay and Linda Brown
Janet Dundee and Jeff Darby
Morris and Toby Fell
Landscaping Fund
Racham McNeir
Rabbi Arthur D. Kahn DD Culture Fund
Vellie Bloch
Richard, Jay and Linda Brown
Cheryl Wallace
Rabbi Daniel S. Kaiman
Discretionary Fund
Randi and Paul Brodsky
Audie Fridstein
Andrew Gottehrer
Dave Lebow and Nikki Young
Racham McNeir
Refugee Resettlement Fund
Steve Aberson and Brent Ortolani
Karen Tilkin
Religious School
Scott and Claire Legler
Rose Borg Sukah Fund
David Biespiel and Wendy Willis
Matthew Biespiel and Family
Rubin Fund for Children and the Visual Arts
Sandi Tilkin
Schlanger-Blend Kitchen
Furnishings Fund
Bette and Wynn Wozobski
Security Fund
Janet Dundee and Jeff Darby
Synagogue General Fund
Marcel Binstock
Mary Cantrell and Jason Brimer
Morgan Creekmore and Stan Khrapak
Rachel Elwell
Joan Green
Andrew Gottehrer
Phil Hammond
Cheryl and Sidney Levine
Eric Scholl
Jerry and Susan Sokol
Judith Ungerman
In Memory of
Celia Adler
Herbert L Berger
Louis Blend
Joe Borg
Rosalyn Borg
Arthur Brimer and Eleanor Brimer
Jack I Brown
Eugene Cohen
David Isaac Contente
Robert Darby
Shaine Rochel Donde
Morris Dubin
Ruth Dubin
Theodore Gluck
Myra Gock
Dudley Gottehrer
Sam Kantor
Helen Kirsch
Dean Mandlebaum
Fanny Neuwald
Renee Neuwald
Toni Neuwald
Andy Seigel
Benjamin Schlanger
Jack Schlanger
Rose Schlanger
Burton Seletsky
William Tilkin
Nathan Tugenberg
Walter Joseph Tyburczy
Hanna Ungerman
Maynard Ungerman
Harry Weiner
Gertrude Weisman
Louis Weiss
Morris Weissbord
Regina West
Eva Spector Wittels
In Honor of
Terry Marcum
The Bar Mitzvah of Tyger Jacobs
Rabbi Reuel Karpov
From Morah Sara Levitt
PERMISSION TO SKIP SCHOOL
Elul is the Jewish month dedicated to the spiritual preparation to end one year and start the next. In practical terms, Elul is the month of the year’s most extensive to-do list. On my list, you’d find an assortment of tasks: rehearsals to ordering honey sticks, lesson planning for an all school sukkot program, and preparing ingredients for cooking club. This year, I added a new bullet point to my usual task list: reach out to my kid’s public school about the High Holidays. I’ve connected with parents for years about the deep push and pull around this time of year. We’ve lamented a school’s choice to have a homecoming on Kol Nidray or a speech competition on Rosh Ha-Shanah. I’ve coached parents and kids on talking with their teachers this special time of year and reminded them that for years our Jewish community has communicated on all our behalf to the school districts about the High Holidays.
This year, I sat down as Mom to craft my own note for our school principal to explain the flow of the holidays, what they meant to our family, and the logistics of missed days. While crafting the note, I felt a new feeling growing in my belly. It was not just the push and pull of the holidays, but the joy and challenge of being a Jewish American was now alive and well in a new way on my keyboard. I wrote and deleted several sentences, struggling to capture Jewish identity and practice in just one email. How could I explain the nuance of American Jewish identity in Tulsa, Oklahoma, without telling the whole story of the Jewish people? I acknowledge that my professional work might have influenced some of this anxiety. Still, I wondered if underneath parents’ decisions around this issue are rooted in a question about Jewish identity in our world today.
From a practical standpoint, I think it’s essential to separate the logistical challenges of missing school from the values we’re living out when we make decisions about the High Holidays. Perhaps even more critical in deciding on missing school is our conversation with our children about missing these days. What do these discussions look like? It might be making apple cake and sharing memories from the parent’s childhood about this time of year. It could be reading a book together and talking about why it’s important to you to celebrate these holidays together. We can validate for that it’s hard to take off from school and brainstorm ways to celebrate the meaningful holiday for them. Creating memories and rituals for this time of year, such as special foods and decorations, sending cards, and listening to certain music, makes this time of year simply irresistible. These moments do more than ease a nervous child about talking with their teacher or friends about missing school for the High Holidays. They build skills for them to navigate these questions in college, a career, and their future adult lives. Perhaps even more importantly, they strengthen our children’s Jewish identity and instill a sense of pride and love for being Jewish.
Todah Rabah:
Many thanks to our volunteers who cooked, baked and deliver to our members and friends in need this month:
Jackie Lasky
Terry Marcum
Hillary Roubein
Kathy Sandler
Pat Snitz
Refuge in the Sukkah
October 21, 6 p.m.
This year on Sukkot, we’re highlighting the work of our Refugee Resettlement department with a dinner and program held inside our sukkah. Our meal will feature foods from the various populations we have worked with over the past year. It’s a night not to be missed!
See the calendar of page 3 for details
SU-COAT DRIVE
MORE THAN 90 REFUGEES WHO ARRIVED THIS YEAR ARE IN NEED OF WINTERWEAR ITEMS FOR THEIR FIRST OKLAHOMA WINTER
ACCEPTABLE ITEMS:
OCTOBER 16–31 , 2024
WINTER HATS
JACKETS/COATS
(new or gently used)
FUZZY SOCKS
(new or gently used)
SIZES NEEDED: 2T–ADULT LARGE DROP OFF LOCATION: SYNAGOGUE LIBRARY (BLUE BINS) SCAN TO SHOP
New coats are preferred but gently used coats are warmly accepted. You can visit our Amazon page by using the QR code, or by typing in “CBE Refugee Resettlement Winterwear Drive 2024” to the Amazon search bar
GLOVES
From Rabbi Fitzerman
THE YEAR OF SURVIVING MIRACULOUSLY
Rabbi Fitzerman’s article recently appeared in the Tulsa World. In case you missed it, we offer it again in the pages of the Messenger.
Anniversaries come and go, but before September recedes forever, I hope that you’ll make a mental note. At the risk of sounding an ethnocentric note, this year was the threehundred-seventieth anniversary of Jewish settlement in North America. On September 7, 1654, twenty-three Jews landed in New Amsterdam after being expelled from Recife, Brazil. They were probably heading back to Europe, but their ship was blown off course as it headed north. Trouble enough, not to mention the pirates of the Caribbean. According to the record, they were a Sephardic community, “big and small,” meaning that there were children among them. They were met by three Ashkenazic Jewish men who had preceded them in the New World by a matter of weeks. Sixteen-fifty-four was a very good year for the Jews. But not so good that their settlement was uneventful. They were, after all, refugees from the Inquisition, which had been established in South America for over a century. Brazil was a New World Portuguese colony, right behind Spain in the ferocity of its Jew-hatred. It was reconquered by Portugal in 1654. To compound their difficulties, they were met in New Amsterdam by Governor Peter Stuyvesant, who seems to have been infected by a strain of ethno-nationalism. Please forgive me if he is one of your heroes, but from my perspective he was a twitchy jerk. Determined to maintain the purity of the Dutch colony, he impounded the belongings of the Recife 23 and wrote to the Mother Ship in Amsterdam for instructions.
There is a huge historical literature on this exchange and voluminous scholarship on precisely what happened. If you need a potted history of Stuyvesant and the Jews, many accounts are easily available. But the key thing is that the Mother Ship was the Dutch West India Company, one of the great engines of New World colonization, with a number of influential Jewish investors. The verdict they handed down was that the Recife 23 should stay.
You could take this story and spin it many different ways. A plucky band survives and thrives. Ethno-nationalists (almost) always meet their comeuppance. I prefer to see it in a different light. We are now almost four hundred years into an experience that has been very good for the Jews and others, especially religious and cultural minorities. For all the savagery of human history, America has been a fortunate final destination marked
It cannot be said often enough that, darker undercurrents aside, America has lived up to the promise of its covenant.
by abundance, opportunity, and uninterrupted settlement. No Inquisition was ever established in this country. No mass deportation was ever undertaken by its rulers. It cannot be said often enough that, darker undercurrents aside, America has lived up to the promise of its covenant. And that, in turn, is a function of its origins. In the many millennia before First Contact, North America was a multiplex. Great Native American nations lived singly and in confederation without any attempt to impose ethnic purity. There was no one ring to rule them all.
In that sense 1654 was a chapter, another step in the development of a civilization that has been marked by its diversity, its multidimensional differentness. We are a cosmopolitan society of members, joined in loyalty to ideas like liberty, the rule of law, and mutual deference. There is no tribal sameness about us, but a respect for the strength that comes of our origins as a society of immigrants, pilgrims, and refugees. My family has been in North America for a century. My people arrived in 1654. I bless this country as it has blessed me, with a promise of freedom and opportunity my European ancestors could only have imagined.
