Monday, July 21, 2014

What are you doing for the war?

What are you doing for the war?

This isn't a question about the personal extras like davening or learning or charity that you may have taken on but about your communities, and what they have officially orgamized. And it isn't a question couched in rebuke or criticism but a real attempt to understand, document and collect the various activities diaspora communities have undertaken to help the war effort. I'll even go first.

In my community, the rabbis have used the war to encourage us to learn more and to pray with extra fervor. They have also used the war to encourage our women to wear longer skirts and sleeves. We've been promised that this will "help". Additionally, there have been collections for that fund that plans to give every soldier a pair of tzitizis.

We have not been saying tehillin. We have not been asked to do anything special to help civilians or to demonstrate support. Many of us have not canceled or changed plans to vacation in Israel this summer.

In the next post, I'll perhaps attempt to work out "what this means" or "what this says about us" but for now I just want to compare and contrast and document the various types of diaspora community responses. So please jump in and ask your friends: what are you doing for the war?

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