A Momentary Pause on these Worst of Times to Celebrate the Unprecedented Best of Them

Among the many things I am blessed to do in my job each fall, I take the opportunity to visit alumni on college campuses.

This past week, as I was traveling to make these visits, I certainly did my share of checking my phone, reading, and listening to the now all-too-familiar series of articles, videos, and podcasts telling all of us this is the end of the golden era, the worst of times for Jews in America and throughout the world. 

I know I am not alone when I say that it is hard to make it through a day, without feeling the heavy burden of these often depressing times. 

Yet, time and time again during these visits, it was the other half of Dickens’s famous introduction to A Tale of Two Cities that kept coming to my mind.

The truth is, in many ways, for our college students (and for us) these are also “the best of times,” the “age of wisdom,” and the “epoch of belief.”

The campuses, some that you would expect and many that would be less expected, have emerged as strong over the past 5-10 years, and are giving our Jewish students experiences that were unimaginable 20 or 30 years ago:

So, in that spirit, here are a few points of inspiration that I have seen this week and over my years of visiting many of our students on campuses. 

-Students are flocking to learn Torah, participating in chavrutas and showing up to daily minyan like never before in schools that were barely mentioned in the Jewish community 30 years ago. Through programs such as "Steak and Shiur" and "Coffee and Conversation" and with the backing of organizations ranging from Chabad and Hillel to Tikvah and Maor campus students now have unprecedented access to dedicated role models and teachers whose mission is the nurturing Jewish minds and neshamas. 

-One student had to leave our meeting because he had a Yeshiva Shiur on Zoom with alumni from his post-high school yeshiva and his Rebbe from Israel. We are all blessed to live in a world where learning and benefiting from Torat Eretz Yisrael is done at the swipe of a screen.

-Over this visit, 30 young men—obviously not all observant and some I am sure were not even Jewish—came to Chabad in the middle of the day to gather together for a Birkat HaGomel (the blessing for one who has survived danger) for a friend who survived a potentially fatal car crash.

-Five of the students I met are involved in and leading TAMID groups on campus, developing the professional skills of undergraduate students and fostering a lasting connection to Israel through hands-on interaction with the Israeli economy. There are 65 such groups worldwide.

-One of our students is involved in university sponsored dialogue groups. These are groups supported by the administrations to foster civic discourse and dialogue on campus.

-Students are being given stipends to travel to Israel on myriads of trips and missions. They are  also given funding and autonomy to create Israel programming on campus, along with professional support.

-As I met with an admissions officer who is Christian, I noticed that he was reading Rabbi Angela Buchdahl’s new book, Heart of a Stranger. When I asked him about it, he said, "I love listening to her. I learned about her during COVID, and now I listen to her Torah speeches weekly." We ended up spending a significant amount of the last part of our conversation learning pesukim from Mishlei. People are interested in who we are and the lessons that our people can teach the world.

-Former Jewish Day School varsity basketball players and others are preparing for their trip to the National Hillel Basketball Tournament, held at the University of Maryland, where 60 teams across 30+ universities participate in “Mensch Madness” bonding Jewish young college students each spring. (Not to mention the huge number of Jewish high school students participating in national tournaments and competitions in these best of times.)

-Students (and adults!) have access to kosher food—kosher American food, kosher Israeli food, kosher Asian food, and kosher Indian food not only available at many campus dining halls, Hillels and Chabads, but it can also be delivered right to their door.

Put simply, we do live in unprecedented best of times-times we could never have imagined.

And don’t get me wrong: yes, we equally live in the worst of times.

These are terrifying times for Jews everywhere. These are scary times for us and, yes, for some college students as well. These deep fears keep us all up at night and require vigilance, focus, and strategic thought. They present challenges we could never have foreseen.

And while those incredibly challenging strategic questions are critical and are, thankfully, being focussed on by the experts in our community, and while we are all obligated to tirelessly commit to acting to change the tide, I will offer one strategy that I know for sure will work: 

We need to commit ourselves to  doing our part to making the things that make these best of times even better.

We need to encourage our students to continue to participate in this flourishing of Jewish activity and Jewish pride. We need to share this good news with the world and support the organizations, the role models, and the dreamers who are making these best of times happen.

So as we usher in Kislev, let’s remember the last part of Dickens‘s introduction to A Tale of Two Cities—let’s remember that while, sadly, it is a “season of Darkness,” it is also a “season of Light,” hopefully leading to a “spring of hope.”