THE BOOK OF LIFE - A High, A Low, A Call to Action

1:48AM May 28, 2025

Speakers:

Heidi Rabinowitz

Keywords:

Antisemitism

Yaron Lashinsky

Sarah Milgram

Jewish community

hateful rhetoric

Tikkun Olam

Pirkei Avot

Jewish events

H Res 447

Jonathan Greenblatt

ADL

moral clarity

action items

Book of Life podcast

E Train interview.

Hi friends. It's Heidi. I am squeezing in this interim episode because I need to share a high and a low with you, and also to ask for your help. I'm going to start with the low.

As you've probably heard, on May 21, 2025 a murderer fueled by hateful rhetoric shot and killed two young people who, incidentally, were about to get engaged: Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, as they were coming out of an event at the Capitol Jewish Museum in Washington, DC. And apparently he shouted "Free Palestine" as he was taken away by police, as if killing Jews would do anything to help Palestinians.

I want to talk to you about this because you are my friends. Some of you are my friends in real life. Some of you are my friends on social media. And for those of you I've never met, I hope you consider me a friend, because you have my voice in your ears and you've gotten to know me through The Book of Life Podcast. And as your friend, I want to share a personal and terrifying thought with you about that shooting.

That could have been me. I work at a Jewish organization. I'm coming and going from a Jewishly labeled building five days a week, and so are several hundred staff and several hundred young children, including the smart, goofy, adorable preschoolers who just had their graduation ceremony in their little, tiny caps and gowns. It could have been any of them.

And I often attend Jewish conferences and events, and so do many of you, including all of my Association of Jewish Libraries friends who I see at conferences. If you are a listener of this podcast, there's a good chance you are also a person who sometimes attends Jewish events. So it could have been you.

This stochastic terrorism, this random violence towards Jews, or even anyone attending a Jewish event, whether they are Jewish or not, this violence stoked by hostile rhetoric... next time it could be me or it could be you or it could be our friends or it could be our families.

You know that I have a Tikkun Olam Time segment on The Book of Life, so now it's my Tikkun Olam Time. Whether you are a fellow Jew or a friendly ally, please make a plan to take action. Now, obviously I don't expect you to solve antisemitism, but as it says in the Pirkei Avot, The Ethics of the Fathers, "you are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it." In other words, please pitch in.

I've posted before about bookish ways to fight antisemitism, and I'll put links in the show notes. You can watch the video recording of my session from last Jewish Book Month called Cheering On Jewish Books, about ways to support the literature, or you can use my Jewish Kidlit Action Checklist. Both of these resources give you ways to promote Jewish books, which chips away at antisemitism by helping people get to know us, especially young readers, whose prejudices haven't yet been hardened.

And for more general ways to push back, please click on the Justice tab at BookOfLifePodcast.com along the top menu. It's got so many different ways to fight antisemitism listed there. And please use your own platform to spread this message, whether you are a blogger, a podcaster, a bookstagrammer, a user of social media, just talking with your friends.

Also, to respond directly to this shooting, call your Congress member in the House of Representatives and urge them to support and to cosponsor H Res 447 "Condemning Antisemitism and Remembering Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim." And again, there's a link in the show notes.

Speaking of contacting congress, on May 21 ,the evening the shooting happened, I was giving a talk for Indivisible about how and why to call Congress, because it's more important than ever, as fascism grows and democracy struggles. So I'm going to put the recording of that talk in the show notes for you too, even though it's nothing to do with Jewish children's literature... but it's everything to do with that, because it's about saving our society. I try to call my elected reps almost every day. Take a look at that, and that'll help you see how and why to do that.

So there was a very moving op ed at Time.com from Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL, the Anti Defamation League, which you should really read in full. And I'm going to link to that in the show notes too, but I want to read you an excerpt now, because reading this is what inspired me to want to talk to you about this in the first place. He wrote:

"In times like these, we need allies to stand with the Jewish community. Where are the voices of those who claim to fight hatred in all its forms? Where are those who speak out against us? Bigotries, but remain silent when Jews are targeted, this silence is deafening. Stop excusing it. Stop looking the other way.

"This attack must serve as a wake up call for our nation to deal once and for all with this rising tide of hate.

"This moment demands moral clarity. It requires all Americans, regardless of political affiliation to condemn antisemitism without qualification or deflection. It requires leaders in government, academia, business and civic life, to take concrete action against hate. It requires each of us to speak out when we witness antisemitism in any form.

"Every antisemitic statement left unchallenged, every double standard applied to Jews and the Jewish state, every instance of minimizing Jewish pain, all of it contributes to this environment where such violence is possible.

"Yaron and Sarah deserved better. They deserved to live. They deserved to celebrate their impending engagement. They deserved a future. Instead, they became victims of the oldest hatred. We owe it to their memory to ensure no more lives are lost to antisemitism. We owe it to every Jew to create a society where attending a Jewish event doesn't make you a target.

"The time for action is now. The stakes couldn't be higher."

I just found that so moving. Friends, thank you for listening, and thanks in advance for taking action, everybody. Whichever action works for you, large or small, it helps, and I applaud you.

Now that was really heavy, and I promised you a high to go with this low. So I am very glad to tell you that in honor of The Book of Life's 20th anniversary, I was interviewed by the amazing teen podcaster E Train, and of course, I will put a link to that in the show notes. This is a high not just because it was a great conversation and E Train is the cat's meow, but also because: 20 years, you guys! Antisemitism comes and goes, but we are still here. I am still here. You are still here. This podcast is still here. Jews are still here, and we will continue to outlive the haters.

I'll be back on June 1 with a Pride Month special for you with wonderful guest Lee Wind, the author of The Gender Binary is a Big Lie to learn about the six genders of classical Judaism. In the meantime, as I keep saying, look at the show notes. There are tons of helpful links for you. And if you'd like to share about what actions you are taking to fight antisemitism, I would love to hear about it. So please leave me a comment, a voicemail at 561-206-2473, or email me at bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com. Thank you so much, my friends.