Witness

Facebook is a terrible place for discussion. It’s a terrible place for persuasion. I hate posting things here because it makes me so incredibly vulnerable. Yet I keep doing it, especially about my Jewish experience. Why do I keep doing this? Because I’m begging people outside my experience to bear witness. I’m asking them to bear witness for me while I am in the act of bearing witness for my extended family. 

Today I watched Screams Before Silence I didn’t watch it because it was easy. It wasn’t. I did it because it is my responsibility and my privilege as a living Jew to bear witness to those who were abused and silenced. 

Years ago I attended a funeral in which the rabbi arranged us in concentric circles. The bereaved were in the center. Their closest friends and family stood behind them. And each circle further and further towards the outside witnessed and confirmed the adjacent circle that was closer to the center.

So why do I keep posting? Many of you are going through the same thing as me. We share our grief together. We are in the same circle.

But some of you are not. You’re outside of our community, outside of our experience. What I’m asking of you us to bear witness to us, to all of us, who are still living with so much shock and grief.

Do it by listening. Not debating. Not even commenting. Just listening.

Tell us you’ve heard so we feel less alone.