Ich Bin Ein New Yorker*

Eleven Years After Nine-Eleven:Why 9-11 Did Not Move Our Manhattan, New York Congregation To Manhattan, Kansasby Rabbi Bruce CohenSeptember 11, 2012"If, in anything, you differ from God's will, God is able to make that clear to you. Absent such a change, the standard to which we have already attained, let us walk by that standard, let us be of that same mind." (Philippians 3:15b-16)––––––––––––––––––– • ––––––––––––––––––On a beautiful Tuesday morning, as I was preparing to leave my home in Manhattan's Upper East Side to go to my office in the Empire State Building, my phone rang. My wife, Debi, answered it, and after listening for a few moments, she said, "It's Randy (our synagogue's gabbai) - he says don't go to the office - and turn on the news."My wife and I sat down on the edge of our bed and watched on the television in horror as the second plane flew into the second tower. Debi asked me what I thought was going on. I answered, "We're under attack." A few moments later, the television stated the same opinion. We were only a few miles north of the attack, on the same small plank of land called, "Manhattan." It was our home. It was where we worked. It was where our children played baseball in Central Park and rode their bikes on the weekends.If the wind had been blowing north that Tuesday, we all would most likely have died on that Tuesday by smoke and debris inhalation; or later, across time, from respiratory diseases like the ones now afflicting the heroic "first responders" to the disaster. My son who went to school in Manhattan was sent home; my other son was kept overnight at his school in northern New Jersey, just over the George Washington Bridge, because the bridge was closed as a likely terror target.We could smell the seared humanity in the northerly winds for weeks. My seven and nine year old sons sat on our laps on our balcony facing the East River in the fall evenings, and asked of the planes passing overhead to LaGuardia and Kennedy airports, "How do we know that one won't hit us?"As the leader of a faith community in Manhattan, I started getting expectable phone calls.- congregants asking for prayer because of the impact of fear on them.- congregants wanting to know what I thought "this means."- congregants wanting to know "are we staying or leaving?"And - there were the heroes.- An ex-Navy Seal in our synagogue, who ran downtown into the disaster and offered his expertise in demolition and rescue without hesitation.- New Yorkers from every borough who ran to give blood, to give financial assistance, to bring food and supplies; seemingly endlessly generous, only asking who needed what and where it could be given, being turned away because too many heroic and generous people showed up too quickly, offering too much physical and material help, some being sent away after waiting ten hours to give blood, because there were too many people ahead of them, already waiting to give.As the ugliest of circumstances so often do, the deep darkness showed in more bold relief the best of humanity's traits also.Inevitably, there also came blighters on my profession, making me cringe:- "ministries" from outside New York blowing into town for a day or two, getting photos of themselves near Ground Zero "ministering," and then rushing back to their hometowns to fund-raise with their pictures.- "ministries" in New York, grotesquely phoning me with excitement, asking for help to "exploit this great opportunity for The Gospel" (the only phone call I ever received in my professional life that literally nauseated me).- Religious media people becoming the only people in the world other than the Islamic fanatics to focus their criticism on the victims rather than the perps.- Middle Americans, saying to television reporters, "Good on 'em! (New Yorkers) Now, maybe they'll be just plain folks like the rest of us." - ignorance in the West thus linking arms with the Islamic fanatics dancing in the streets of Ramallah with joy at the news of so much destruction and death in America.There is seldom any shortage of heroism or folly in times of crisis.The time after 9-11 was bizarre for all of us who lived and worked in Manhattan.My sons had never seen me cry before. In our Shabbat service on September 15th, 2001, I asked the veterans in our congregation to lead most of the service, and the kaddish, especially. During kaddish, I wept for a moment on the bima in a way I could not hide. My sons asked me later, "Abba, why were you crying?" I told them, the towers falling had made me very sad  – but because they were so young, I did not finish the whole thought that moved me to tears. I knew 9-11 was only the beginning. On the pulpit, I was feeling the weight of knowing a lot of good people were going to go into harm's way to keep us all safe.That first Shabbat service together after 9-11 was the start of a new era of community life incorporating the reality of living in the center ring of a bull's-eye.The people of my congregation did not come to Manhattan for a few days after 9-11-2001 to stand for photos. We had been living and serving here together since August 1993. Our synagogue was eight years into its existence when the Twin Towers fell. This blog is being written on September 11, 2012, and the synagogue is still here.  Still in the same neighborhood. Still standing the same ground. Still doing the same ministry we did for eight years before 9-11, and for eleven years since.Why did we not flee?Why are we not now "Beth El of Manhattan, Kansas?"Surely, half-way between Abilene and Topeka on US Route 40, we would be less likely ever to face weapons of mass destruction. Also, surely no one can be so naïve as to think the religio-political zealot faction that committed the 9-11 infamy is done with New York. They continue to plan and hope every day to place a nuke in Grand Central Station – or on Pennsylvania Avenue, half-way between The Capitol and The White House.What keeps us here?Love of our City? Surely, it is profound - but it is not our anchor.Love for our Jewish People in this city?Surely, its gravity is massive - but we could love our people elsewhere, and be less likely targets of WMD's.Why stay here?One simple idea, stated in the Scripture quote at the top of his blog: our marching orders have not changed.Fear is not in charge.God is in charge. And truth is not for sale under duress.Our marching orders have not changed.We all share a sense of calling to build a synagogue of Two-Testament faith in Manhattan, in which spiritual vibrancy and intellectual rigor are not mutually exclusive; which raises up a standard to which the wise and the honest may be drawn; and which soundly affirms the first-century historic person, Yeshua of Nazareth (called "Jesus" in Greek) as the figure the Sages of Israel call, "Messiah, Son of Joseph, who will be killed." (Babylonian Talmud, Tracate Sukkah 52a) I have spent "my life, my fortune, and my sacred honor" on the past forty years preparing to be rabbi of such a synagogue, and propelling awareness of the faith life it holds forth.The Scriptures tell us, "If in any way, you differ (from God's will), God will reveal that to you also."If something changes in regard to the Will of God, God takes primary responsibility for letting us know. Absent such a clear change of orders, the Scriptures tell us to "walk by the standard we have already attained."The southern religion teacher, Bob Mumford, used to say, "Evidence you are doing God's will is ... trouble." The West Wing television series writers put it this way: "If we've got the fanatics riled, we must be doing something right."After 9-11, our synagogue was twice directly threatened by Muslim fanatics. The threats cost us our 2001 meeting place, but moved us into a far better one. "What they meant for evil, God meant for good," in the words of our patriarch, Joseph, in Genesis. Until 2011, we were the only synagogue in all five New York City boroughs to be targeted by a Muslim fanatical threat - and it happened twice! Yet - we are still here.On a larger scale of thinking: after 9-11-2001, the whole western world of cities became Israel.By that I mean, the hostile countries surrounding Israel can afford to start wars with Israel and lose as many times as they wish. They can attack, lose, re-coup, and attack again. Israel cannot afford to lose even once. One loss means the loss of everything, the end of the Jewish State.The western world cannot afford to let even one fanatic with a nuclear device, a vial of epidemic contagions, a mass-affecting toxin, succeed. Even one such loss is unthinkable. So - the all the west has "become Israel." The West must now think in terms of prevention rather than retaliation. Attacks cannot come close to being carried out, because only one attack would inflict more casualties than many previous wars.I often joked in the early stages of building our faith community in in New York City, that Manhattan is the western-most suburb of Jerusalem. If you sneeze in Columbus Circle, they say "Gesundheit!" on Mt. Scopus.Not so much a joke, after 9-11.Our late President, John F. Kennedy, stirred the world by saying, "Ich bin ein Berliner." Meaning, "I am a citizen of Berlin."Every free person everywhere in the world can now say with pride, "I am a New Yorker."When saying those words, they are, by proxy, also saying, "Ani Yisraeli.""I am a citizen of Israel."For us, and all in our synagogue, it is a privilege to say any of those phrases, and not merely be speaking solidarity with those who treasure freedom.For me and my family, both phrases are literally true.We are New Yorkers. We are also citizens of Israel. Danger has never really been a factor in the choice of our allegiances, or any of our ethics-driven choices.After I publish this blog, I have to leave my office to do some errands - in "The City" - our City.Ich bin New Yorker.I will do my best to follow truth where it leads, and follow God where He allows me to understand He leads - and I will advance the ideas I believe have merit by offering them on their merits - not by flying jet planes into buildings to kill and terrorize anyone who disagrees with me. What I see as the holiest sentence outside Scripture was penned just a little south of me, right here in Manhattan. "No one shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law." Those words draw the loudest "amen" of which my human soul is capable. And I am proud to be a citizen of two countries holding such "truths to be self-evident."In the 1970's film, Time After Time, the main character holds aloft one of his fists, and says, "The first man to raise one of these is the first man who has run out of ideas."Shanah tovah to all.As the old prayer goes: "May the One who makes peace in the high places make peace for us, and for all Israel, and let us say, 'Amen.'"Rabbi Bruce L. Cohen11 September 2012PS – * As a German speaker, Comp Lit major, and former dictionary definitions editor/author, I feel compelled to note that JFK's famous quote contains a grammatical error: in German, the indefinite article "ein" is not used when saying you are a citizen of a city or country. JFK should have said: "Ich bin Berliner." Not that it hurt his delivery or impact. :-)