By Lana Zilberman Soloway
In loving memory of Vivian Silver z”l

What are the right words that need to be spoken at this challenging time?

Etty Hillesum, was a 29-year-old Jewish woman from Holland, who perished in the Shoah, 80 years ago today, on the third of Kislev. During her darkest hour, when she was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, she wrote these words: “Give your sorrow all the space and shelter in yourself that is its due, for if everyone bears their grief honestly and courageously, the sorrow that now fills the world will abate. One day we shall build a whole new world. Against every new outrage and every fresh horror, we shall put out one more piece of love and goodness, drawing strength from within ourselves”.

Although Etty did not live to see a better world, she never stopped believing in one.

Rabbi Regina Jonas was the first female Rabbi to be ordained in Germany in 1935. She served as the rabbi of the Jewish community in Berlin until she was deported first to Terezin and then to Auschwitz-Birkenau. 

Before her death, she wrote the following words: “I chose this profession because I religiously believe that God does not oppress any human being. I believe in equal spiritual rights for all humans who are created in the image of God. Our people were planted in history as blessed people. Being “blessed” by God, means to be a blessing, to act with love, kindness, and loyalty everywhere all the time. Being humble and feeling love for all human beings can protect the world. The role of Israel always was and still is to guard these values and implement them in the world”.

Regina was also murdered in the month of Kislev when she was only 42 years old. Her words and actions became her last testament. 

This Kislev, as I am the age of 42, their legacy becomes my path. 

There are no words that can adequately describe the present chaos in our lives. The world however, also came into being from a state of chaos, so there is hope.

I remind myself that in every generation, there were evil powers that wanted to destroy our People. Jewish memory is filled both with stories of destruction and stories of rebirth. Light always comes after darkness, just as prophecies of consolation follow prophecies of destruction. It is important to allow space for sadness and to grieve what is lost, while finding comfort in all that we have. A possibility for a new dawn does exist, to start afresh, from the beginning.

I believe that the Holy One does not oppress people, but cries with us. 

For many years I searched for whom to blame for world disasters. I felt terrible and truly did not understand why bad things happen to good people. I was blaming God.

The most meaningful impact on me of my Rabbinic journey is my personal theological growth and understanding of God. On this journey, I reframed the question from “Where was/is God?” to “Where were/are the people?”

I truly believe that we share the responsibility for this world with the Holy One. Our part in this partnership is to seek justice, in order to be able to inherit the land that God promised us, while building a society based on Torah, worship and acts of love and kindness.

So I stand here today thanks to courageous women and men who protected the Jewish soul and humanistic values for thousands of years. 

My Saba, Shimon z”l, dreamt about a Jewish State but did not live to see it. My Aba, Daniel z”l and my Ima Marina fulfilled his dream by making Aliyah and bringing me to Israel on November 15, 1990, exactly thirty-three years ago. They could never imagine that I would become a Reform Rabbi but they always taught me that no dream is too big.

I want to thank the Holy One, my teachers and rabbis, my friends at the Hebrew Union College, my beautiful soul sisters Yael and Miriam, my beloved family who are watching from afar, my new home at Congregation Or Ami, and all my wonderful friends who made an effort to be here with me today, in person and on Zoom.

I am humbled by this ordination and will do my best to be worthy of it by seeing the good in people, seeking justice for all, building bridges between the State of Israel and world Jewry and between the Jewish People and other nations and religions.

My Torah is your Torah. 

Hineni. Here I am.