Friends,
What a week it’s been, as we’ve witnessed what appears to be the start of a massive shift in American politics. Regardless of how you feel about individual candidates, or whether the results were exactly as you hoped or not, one major takeaway for me is that moderate and progressive religious voices won big. The message of “love thy neighbor” propelled candidates like James Talarico and Adam Hamilton to previously unimaginable victories in places long seen as bulwarks of evangelical Christian nationalism.
I have worried for a long time about the lack of a progressive religious voice in our country—that we as Reform Jews, along with other mainline religious groups, had ceded the “religious voice” in the American public square to conservative religious hegemony. I actually preached about this on Yom Kippur back on 2022. In that sermon, I quoted an excellent article by journalist Sara Robinson. I re-read her article this week, and was reminded of Robinson’s powerful statement that “[progressive] faith communities…are the strongest remaining cultural forces left with the moral authority to insist that we have a duty to the poor, that democracy cannot survive without a commitment to justice, and that compassion is always a better survival strategy than competition.” Fourteen years after she first published those words, Robinson’s message resounds as loudly as ever.
While the progressive Christian voices that won their races this election do not speak with exactly the same voice that we do as Reform Jews, the overlap of many of our values is significant. While I’m personally still waiting for a rabbi or cantor to join the ranks of the numerous progressive pastors and ministers who will soon walk the halls of congress (hey, a girl can dream!), this week’s electoral results offer a clear statement about Americans’ broad desire for hope, for less division and enmity, for more compassion and generosity, and for kindness and empathy to help us rebuild our frayed social fabric.
Now that is a politics I can get excited about.
With wishes for a peaceful Shabbat –
With love from my family to yours –
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Klein
PS: Before Halloween is too far in the rear-view, and while it’s still pumpkin season, I have to share this piece of delightfully quirky news I discovered recently: the annual Damariscotta, Maine Pumpkin Fest and Regatta. Local elementary school students grow enormous pumpkins, which participants carve into boats for a regatta, cars for a road race, pumpkin sculptures, desserts, and more. If this isn’t joyful community at its best, I don’t know what is. I wish we could do something like this at TSTI – if only matzah or latkes were more durable building materials! (But if you have an idea, seriously – let me know…)