Dear Friends,
Congregation Ahavath Torah is Marching on Martin Luther King Day Monday January 20th, 2020 co-sponsored by East Hill Synagogue,
We will be marching from our Synagogue to City Hall to express our solidarity and friendship with our Englewood neighbors. When we arrive at City Hall we will join up with the annual MLK March from City Hall.
Schedule: 8:45am - Meet at shul for short Dvar Torah and depart for March to City Hall Hot coffee and snacks will be provided (Approximately 25-minute walk from Ahavath Torah to City Hall) (Rides arranged to shuttle marchers back to shul from outside Ebenezer)
Make sure to bundle up. Forecast for Monday is Sunny Skies, breezy, and 38°.
Let's be frank. There are tensions and divisions within our beloved city of Englewood. And some of them exist along cultural and geographic lines. And this unfortunate situation is playing out against the backdrop of a rise in Anti-Semitism and a more polarized social and political atmosphere.
There is no one thing we can do to address this state of affairs. It will take a long process. But we can take advantage of this moment to show baseless love for the humanity around us. One of Rav Avraham Yitzchak haCohen Kook's most quoted insights is “if we were destroyed, and the world with us, due to baseless hatred, then we shall rebuild ourselves, and the world with us, with baseless love — ahavat chinam" (Orot HaKodesh vol. III, p. 324).
This is why we are marching on Martin Luther King Day. This is why we aren't simply showing up to the Annual MLK March at City Hall, but rather we are marching from our Synagogue to City Hall. We are making a public demonstration of our desire to connect, convey our solidarity, and continue to get to know our Englewood neighbors better. Unfortunately, MLK Day falls during Yeshiva Break. So many of our members will be away on vacation. I urge anyone who is having a stay-cation and can weather the cold to join us Monday morning for our Ahavath Torah MLK March. We hope to be on Facebook Live for those who want to join virtually at facebook.com/chaim.poupko. So, who's with us? If you're planning to join, drop us a line at rpoupko@ahavathtorah.org.
Rabbi Poupko |