This week Jews around the world mark the Holocaust Remembrance Day. For me, this day is a swirl of sadness and disbelief that such an atrocity could ever occur.
There are roughly 20 million Jews in the world, about one in 3,500 of the people living today. And that relatively small number of Jews is radically divided into groups from Ultra Orthodox to atheists and a thousand variations in between.
One group that stands out for me among all of them, especially this week, is Jews by Choice: the people who decide to become Jews, to become part of a community that is, has been, and will be hated, despised and slandered everywhere.
As I write this Jews are fleeing Ukraine knowing how Russia has dealt with Jews for the past millennia. The Jewish homeland of Israel is getting hit by rockets by terrorists. The past five years has seen more violence against Jews in America than at any time in our nation's history. The treasonous cult of Qanon is digging up the worst anti-Semitic stereotypes of the past centuries and dreaming up news ones: Jewish Space Lasers start California wild fires!
Jews by Choice join a community that will always be the target of hate. They join willingly knowing the dangers: the Rabbi who leads them into their new faith commitment makes clear what they will face.
And they become Jews anyway.
On this very sad week, I salute the courage and love of everyone who became a Jew by Choice.
