Od Lo Avdah Tikvatenu

Our Hope is not Lost

Photo Credit: Commonwealth Media Services

The photo above is from the charred remains of a Passover Haggadah. An aggrieved citizen in Pennsylvania set fire to the Governor’s Mansion hours after the seder. On it, you can clearly read the words “od lo avdah tikvatenu”, our hope is not lost, from the Israeli National Anthem.

The suspect, Cody Balmer, told police that he brought a hammer specifically to beat Governor Josh Shapiro, if he had found him.

“When we were in the state dining room last night, we told the story of Passover” and the exodus of the Jews from slavery in Egypt to freedom, Shapiro said. “I refuse to be trapped by the bondage that someone attempts to put on me by attacking us as they did here last night. I refuse to let anyone who had evil intentions like that stop me from doing the work that I love.” — AP

Luckily, no person was injured, but that is good luck and not because Balmer didn’t intend anyone to be harmed. It’s not clear if the suspect knew that the family would be hosting a seder that night, or even what a seder is. It’s tempting to link the crime and the holiday—particularly given its historical resonance with other burnings of Jewish homes and businesses—but at the time of this writing, we don’t yet know Balmer’s motive.

I, probably like you, am shaken by this crime. Even if the motive had nothing to do with antisemitism, it speaks to the way antigovernment terrorists are emboldened in this moment by, as odd as this is, the government itself.

I have friends on the right who are telling me that liberal democracy is over, but that it’s okay, because this time the nationalism that seeks to replace it is on the side of the Jews.

I do not believe the only good that comes from liberal democracy is the freedom and equality it allows those of us who are Jewish. I believe it is a good unto itself, and that its loss would be so great that the idea I shouldn’t mourn it because, at this moment, it appears to include me is absurd. Nor do I have any faith that it would continue to include me; nationalist projects require a steady diet of “others” to vilify to feed them. If history hasn’t taught you that, you aren’t paying attention.

But my hope is not yet lost. I spend quite a lot of time in Austria, where liberal democracy is alive and well, in spite of both its history and current movements to revive the nationalist project that was ended with the fall of the Third Reich. History tells me that most people live through horrible times, ruled by governments that do not center their best interests. That we have been infinitely lucky to be born into the post-WWII world order, in a country that was imperfect but at least democratic. And like Governor Shapiro, I’m holding on to the hope that we can return to those times, that the system will not break, as much as it is being bent right now. If my research into our family’s history has taught me anything, it is that the dream of America—this country in which my great-grandparents’ generation could find freedom and equality—is the only reason I have a good life today; the only reason our generations continue.

So I invite you, friends, to join me and Governor Josh Shapiro in not losing hope. If we surrender that, we surrender everything.