Week 34: The Simon Wiesenthal Center
Hello beautiful GIVE52’ers. I hope you do not mind this early email. I simply couldn't wait until Monday. I want to send my love.
I research and write each week’s message the week before, but now, as I am trying to process the events in Charlottesville… well, I feel I have to say something and that we can do something together.
Watching these events, it is hard to believe that this is 2017 in America. I grew up at Jewish day school hearing from survivors of the Holocaust about the horrors they went through and their insistent proclamations of “never again”. I’ve listened as they told us as young children to stand up for what is right, to fight for those who are persecuted, and to never let hate fester in your heart. I was just a little girl when I heard from these heroes, people who survived against all odds, but those talks stay with me and I keep replaying them in my mind now. Now, as I watch actual Nazis and white supremacists in our streets.
I am reminded of two great quotes from two great men:
“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
“For the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth - that Love is the ultimate and highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love.”
It is my great hope that we can find our way through this together, to stand up for what is right, to condemn the hatred we have seen, and to do it all with love.
Love for each other, love for our fellow human beings, and clear-eyed focus on the good we want to see in the world.
So, this week, please join me in giving to the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
You can learn more about their mission in fighting hatred here.
This project has been a huge source of joy for me every week. I have loved every minute of connecting with you, of hearing your stories, and learning what lights you up and sparks your passion.
You give me hope. You make me believe that, even in dark times, we can aspire to “the ultimate and highest goal which man can aspire”.
Through love and in love,
Jodi Spangler
