By Liz Freedman
At a time when some in our community may be feeling inundated by the holiday traditions of “the majority,” I wanted to share an anecdote about how we can influence that majority. There is a lawyer at a firm in Toronto with whom I work several times a year. We have become friendly, in a work-colleague sort of way. When she was in Montreal this past summer, we met up for a socially distanced coffee on a bench in some downtown greenspace (it does exist) and discovered many shared values and concerns, both personal and global. While I assume that she knows that I am Jewish, I don’t remember ever overtly telling her that, nor have I ever questioned whether her middle eastern ancestry is Muslim or Christian. During a recent email exchange about the very glamorous topic of year-end accruals for work her firm did for us in 2020, we fell into the usual banter about the holiday season and the pandemic. I ventured into the more personal realm and told her how we had held a Zoom Chanukkah party the previous Saturday night: my sister-in-law and I had cooked up our usual fare and then delivered care packages to all the Montreal households; we had then lit candles virtually with all of our extended family and "eaten together." I concluded with something to the effect of “Not the same, but fortunate that we can do so.” Her immediate response made me smile. “That’s lovely” she wrote, “I guess zoom candle lighting is better than no candle lighting.” Followed by “That makes me think my family should organize something similar for Christmas eve, to perhaps toast or do Christmas crackers (and those silly crowns) with those we can’t be with this year.” This served as a reminder that the creativity and resilience that have now become a part of pandemic life for many of us at Dorshei Emet – from Zoom Shabbat and Holiday services, to delivering Shabbat meals, to Shofar in the park, to sitting shiva online, to finding new ways of giving classes and listening to speakers – are not obvious to everyone. It was also a great reminder that our core Jewish values and the importance of our traditions can be inspirational to others. We should be proud of how we’ve carried on and we should set an example. The lights of Chanukkah can indeed shine beyond our midst and provide light to those around us.
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