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December 11, 2021
Author(s): Rabbi Michelle Robinson,
December 11, 2021 – 7 Tevet 5782
More Peace
with Rabbi Michelle Robinson
Temple Emanuel, Newton, MA
The classic comedy “Miss Congeniality” has a montage of beauty pageant contestants, one after the other, answering the question, “What is the one most important thing our society needs?” They all give the same answer: “World peace.” It is a long-running joke – that the notion young beauty queens can have anything to do with resolving long-standing geopolitical tensions is naïve, even slightly offensive. Enter this year’s Miss Universe.
If you have been following the news this week, you may have heard that Israel is hosting this year’s Miss Universe competition.
Of course, in the shadow of the unassailably ugly underbelly of antisemitism that Dara Horn captures so vividly in her book, “People Love Dead Jews,” greater than average controversy was expected – and delivered.
South Africa sought to recall, then renounce, its contestant when she defied their call to boycott and went ahead with competing. Malaysia and Indonesia did not send contestants. Even some American Jews were outraged when contestants from around the world were allowed into Israel at a time the country is locked down against Omicron and most of us cannot go. None of that is surprising.
But this year’s contest is surprising. Precisely for the way its competitors, in their own way, represent some small but significant steps toward, yes “world peace.” Not the full-blown “war is over, if we want it” type, but small glimmers of cooling tensions that leave room for possibility.
Amy Spiro writes in the Times of Israel, “For the first time ever, Bahrain — which normalized relations with Israel last year — is sending a contestant to the global competition. Morocco, which also relaunched diplomatic ties with Israel last year, is participating in the contest for the first time since 1978.”
Miss Morocco reflected on being “pleasantly surprised” by how many people she had met in Israel who shared with her that their parents and grandparents were Moroccan. Miss Turkey shared, “I didn’t think for a second that I would boycott Israel … I’m very happy to be here, the Israeli people are so kind and so amazing.”
What do we make of the tension between real and rising antisemitic and anti-Israel sentiment, and this picturesque glimpse of coexistence?
One approach is to discount it entirely as a manufactured montage unreflective of the world we actually live in. B’chol dor vador omdim aleinu – “In every generation they rise up against us” – is as true today as it ever was. No sweet soundbites can make a dent in that. Another approach is to breathlessly embrace these lovely sentiments as a sign that it is not that bad.
Of course, while tempting, neither of these approaches gets it right. Their certainty lacks complexity. And complexity is the currency of our hour.
Yes, antisemitism rages: We must be vigilant, and we must be wary. And yes, if we look, there are reasons to hope for more. Neither story is complete without the other.
That is the true power of Miss Universe today. An idea that Micah Goodman speaks to so powerfully is reflected in its real-life concrete example of what it looks like “not to end the conflict, not to solve the conflict, but to shrink the conflict.”
Obviously, Miss Universe does not end antisemitism; it does not solve antisemitism. But again and again, its contestants are using their platforms to shrink antisemitism.
Let me share with you one such moment that took my breath away. A few days ago, as so many who visit Israel do, the Miss Universe contestants visited Yad Vashem. Miss Puerto Rico, Michelle Colón, stepped forward and shared, “[M]y [great] grandfather actually escaped from the Holocaust, and all of his other family members – his sisters, his brothers, even their daughters – four daughters – were killed in the concentration camps, especially in Auschwitz.”
She later posted a photo of her and Miss Israel, Noa Cochva, holding hands beneath a wall covered with photos of Holocaust victims. “My great grandfather, Rodolfo Cohn,” she shared, “moved to the Caribbean and met Dorila Thomas, my great-grandmother; an empowered … woman – descendant of slaves … Together, they formed a solid family full of love, built upon empathy and resilience.”
In this moment of revelation, her story and Israel’s story became one of shared destiny. For countless Puerto Ricans and others around the globe, she opened a new window into Israel.
You may be thinking – okay, so beauty queens with global platforms can make a small difference in shrinking anti-Semitism. So what? What does it have to do with me? I would like to argue this morning that while none of us can solve antisemitism, all of us have the power these beauty queens have to shrink it – no makeup or ball gown required.
Two Shabbatot ago, I was profoundly moved when a gentleman who had been sitting alone toward the back of the room came up after services and introduced himself. “My name is Ed Gaskin,” he said to me. I told him I had read his powerful article titled, “After the Tree of Life Tragedy, I went to Shabbat Services and Never Stopped.” In it, he reflected how, after the shooting, he “felt a deep sense of wrongness.” He said, “I went to Temple … out of … a desire to be found on the right side of history.”
What happened then, though, surprised him. “As a conservative Christian…I realized I had not read, prayed, sung or heard anything with which I didn’t agree.” He amplified his message, “I am proposing … Christians in general, and African-American Christians in particular, attend Shabbat services in a show of solidarity and a small step toward understanding and transformation of our shared destiny.”
It is something that even at the height of the pandemic he himself continued to do, even when it meant he, like so many of us, had to do that via livestream and Zoom. He showed up.
And so it was that I was deeply moved when he showed up for us at Shabbat Alive two weeks ago. It was then that he shared that he had expanded his solidarity. As hate crimes against the Asian community had risen throughout this past year, he decided to bring eight boxes of food to eight different Buddhist temples. At first, he said he was uncomfortable with all the statues he saw. But, he said, “Visiting eight different Buddhist temples was important. Some Buddhists wore robes, while others wore suits and ties.” Time and proximity broke down his own barriers. And something else happened – the repeat visits enabled not only him to see them differently, but they him. Personal connection created possibility. He concluded his article on the experience, “Anyone can make a difference, and everyone can try.”
Obviously, antisemitism has rotted hearts for thousands of years, irrespective of anything we do. And yet, in the spirit of Micah Goodman’s Torah, just because all hearts cannot be swayed does not mean that none can. Relationships matter. Rabbi Chiel, alav hashalom, taught that to us a generation ago in his tireless work with the Catholic Church to break down age-old hatreds, turning them into partnership and respect.
If we want to shrink antisemitism, we have got to do what Rabbi Chiel did – what Ed Gaskin, what the beauty queens, do: open ourselves to connections, to relationships, beyond ourselves. Relationships that humanize “the other” and us. We can wish for more Ed Gaskins, or we can be like Ed Gaskin – bringing, if not world peace, more peace in our world.
Shabbat Shalom.