Oct 31, 2024
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ANNOUNCING: "After October 7: Essays"
ANNOUNCING: "After October 7: Essays"
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJVW6X33
The demonstrations in Israel and the United States and around the world to Bring Them Home Now are in response, painfully marking every day without our beloveds who were stolen from us. The unfathomable strength of Hersh's parents, Rachel and Jonathan, has continued carrying us all through each of these days, even their darkest. With this in my heart, I dedicate this collection in memory of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, z"l. His memory will continue to be a revolution. Bring Hersh Home
It is also with amazement and gratitude that I offer this collection. To the UJA-Federation of New York family of staff, donors, and volunteer leaders, a beautiful army of angels helping to lift up the Jewish People, New York, and the whole world. We have, with incalculable fierceness and fortitude, held Am Yisrael together. Even with my intimate understanding of our work in the world, I am consistently overwhelmed by the scope, scale, and soul of our commitments. With this in my heart, I also dedicate this volume to the UJA family. A portion of the proceeds from this book will support UJA's work on behalf of Am Yisrael and the world.
As I wrote in the afterword to the collection:
"...Are we ready to make every day count? Are we ready to fight for our dignity, our bodies, and our family in Israel? Our history has taught us that the fight never truly ends. But every day, we have a choice to rise, to act, to love, to make a difference.
Let this be a year of rebuilding, of health, of strength, and of hope. Let us pray for it, and then let’s do everything in our power to make it so. Together, let’s send our hearts eastward, to Israel, where we are Lev Echad, Am Echad - One People, with One Heart.
Deep breath. Let’s begin again."
Am Yisrael Chai!
____
"In After October 7, Rabbi Menachem Creditor offers fifty-three searing and soulful reflections penned in the year following the brutal attack on the State of Israel on October 7, 2023. Through raw emotion and profound reflection, Rabbi Creditor chronicles not only the devastation and loss but also the enduring spirit of the Jewish people. His words serve as both a personal meditation and a collective call to action—an insistence that we remember, that we bear witness, and that we rise from the ashes of destruction with resilience and hope.
Rabbi Creditor's reflections draw from the heart of Jewish tradition, the commandment to never forget, and the moral duty to respond to suffering with justice and compassion. After October 7 is a powerful tribute to the unbreakable spirit of a people whose history of survival, faith, and strength illuminates a path forward in the darkest of times. Through these essays, Rabbi Creditor reminds us that bearing witness is not only a sacred responsibility, but also the foundation upon which a future of Jewish strength, peace, and justice is built."
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJVW6X33
#BringThemHomeNow #AmYisraelChai
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJVW6X33
This book, just published, was a hard one to assemble. Even harder to name. "After October 7" is an impossibility. As my dear friend, Amanda Borschel-Dan said to me in a The Times of Israel podcast, "Menachem, everything is since October 7." So it is with uncertainty that I share this collection of 53 of my essays published between October 7, 2023 and October 7, 2024. But it is also with a decision.
We cannot live IN October 7, 2023.The demonstrations in Israel and the United States and around the world to Bring Them Home Now are in response, painfully marking every day without our beloveds who were stolen from us. The unfathomable strength of Hersh's parents, Rachel and Jonathan, has continued carrying us all through each of these days, even their darkest. With this in my heart, I dedicate this collection in memory of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, z"l. His memory will continue to be a revolution. Bring Hersh Home
It is also with amazement and gratitude that I offer this collection. To the UJA-Federation of New York family of staff, donors, and volunteer leaders, a beautiful army of angels helping to lift up the Jewish People, New York, and the whole world. We have, with incalculable fierceness and fortitude, held Am Yisrael together. Even with my intimate understanding of our work in the world, I am consistently overwhelmed by the scope, scale, and soul of our commitments. With this in my heart, I also dedicate this volume to the UJA family. A portion of the proceeds from this book will support UJA's work on behalf of Am Yisrael and the world.
As I wrote in the afterword to the collection:
"...Are we ready to make every day count? Are we ready to fight for our dignity, our bodies, and our family in Israel? Our history has taught us that the fight never truly ends. But every day, we have a choice to rise, to act, to love, to make a difference.
Let this be a year of rebuilding, of health, of strength, and of hope. Let us pray for it, and then let’s do everything in our power to make it so. Together, let’s send our hearts eastward, to Israel, where we are Lev Echad, Am Echad - One People, with One Heart.
Deep breath. Let’s begin again."
Am Yisrael Chai!
____
"In After October 7, Rabbi Menachem Creditor offers fifty-three searing and soulful reflections penned in the year following the brutal attack on the State of Israel on October 7, 2023. Through raw emotion and profound reflection, Rabbi Creditor chronicles not only the devastation and loss but also the enduring spirit of the Jewish people. His words serve as both a personal meditation and a collective call to action—an insistence that we remember, that we bear witness, and that we rise from the ashes of destruction with resilience and hope.
Rabbi Creditor's reflections draw from the heart of Jewish tradition, the commandment to never forget, and the moral duty to respond to suffering with justice and compassion. After October 7 is a powerful tribute to the unbreakable spirit of a people whose history of survival, faith, and strength illuminates a path forward in the darkest of times. Through these essays, Rabbi Creditor reminds us that bearing witness is not only a sacred responsibility, but also the foundation upon which a future of Jewish strength, peace, and justice is built."
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJVW6X33
#BringThemHomeNow #AmYisraelChai
Oct 11, 2024
Oct 9, 2024
Oct 8, 2024
One People, One Heart: The Day After One Year Later
One People, One Heart: The Day After One Year Later
Rabbi Menachem Creditor
[Note: Today’s Torah is dedicated to the UJA-Federation of New York
family. I’m always proud of the work we do, but yesterday, on the one-year anniversary of the October 7th attacks, I felt an even more overwhelming sense of pride. Tens of thousands of New Yorkers gathered in Central Park, in indoor events, and online. Fifty rabbis gathered to say Kaddish. High School choirs, David Broza, Eden Golan, and Regina Spektor sang. Survivors of the Nova massacre, parents of Hostages, and family members of those murdered one year ago shared their stories. New York’s political leadership stood in solidarity. UJA’s CEO, my beloved friend Eric Goldstein, stood at the very heart of our collective wound in Israel. He spoke with tenderness and power at the site of the Nova Music Festival about being “Lev Echad, Am Echad - One Heart, One People,” united around the world through this pain and in this healing. In this spirit, I thank the staff, donors, and volunteer leaders of UJA-Federation New York for being such a beautiful army of angels helping our whole world.]
Yesterday’s history is the Torah we live through; today’s Torah is the one we write with our lives, with our fierce determination to keep going.
The Global Jewish People has been there through every major chapter of Jewish history in the last century—helping birth the State of Israel, supporting Jews arriving in America, lifting up communities through the pandemic, and showing up on the ground for Ukraine. And now, post-October 7th, we continue to be there for Israel, over and over again.
But yesterday, watching my friend Eric Goldstein standing at Nova at Kibbutz Re’im—where our hearts were torn open—it struck me deeply. We are survivors, all of us. The dancers, the singers, the leaders—they are our rabbis today. Their survival is sacred. No, it’s not the same as those who survived the Shoah, but the reverence we give them is profoundly resonant.
Friends, as we look forward to Yom Kippur, we remember how to count our days. "Teach us to number our days, so we may attain a heart of wisdom. (Ps. 90:12)" These days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are so much more than days of repentance—they are days of repair, days of return, days of rising higher and higher.
Yesterday, I saw a community alive, even in the face of deep grief. I saw the strength of New York’s Jewish community, the love that was on full display, the beauty of interfaith unity, and the music of our youth, from high school students to college a cappella groups, lifting us all. And I was reminded again that we know how to mark time. We know how to cherish every minute.
Are we ready to make every day count? Are we ready to fight for our dignity, our bodies, and our family in Israel? Our history has taught us that the fight never truly ends. But every day, we have a choice to rise, to act, to love, to make a difference.
Let this be a year of rebuilding, of health, of strength, and of hope. Let us pray for it, and then let’s do everything in our power to make it so. Together, let’s send our hearts eastward, to Israel, where we are Lev Echad, Am Echad - One People, with One Heart.
Rabbi Menachem Creditor
[Note: Today’s Torah is dedicated to the UJA-Federation of New York
Yesterday’s history is the Torah we live through; today’s Torah is the one we write with our lives, with our fierce determination to keep going.
The Global Jewish People has been there through every major chapter of Jewish history in the last century—helping birth the State of Israel, supporting Jews arriving in America, lifting up communities through the pandemic, and showing up on the ground for Ukraine. And now, post-October 7th, we continue to be there for Israel, over and over again.
But yesterday, watching my friend Eric Goldstein standing at Nova at Kibbutz Re’im—where our hearts were torn open—it struck me deeply. We are survivors, all of us. The dancers, the singers, the leaders—they are our rabbis today. Their survival is sacred. No, it’s not the same as those who survived the Shoah, but the reverence we give them is profoundly resonant.
Friends, as we look forward to Yom Kippur, we remember how to count our days. "Teach us to number our days, so we may attain a heart of wisdom. (Ps. 90:12)" These days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are so much more than days of repentance—they are days of repair, days of return, days of rising higher and higher.
Yesterday, I saw a community alive, even in the face of deep grief. I saw the strength of New York’s Jewish community, the love that was on full display, the beauty of interfaith unity, and the music of our youth, from high school students to college a cappella groups, lifting us all. And I was reminded again that we know how to mark time. We know how to cherish every minute.
Are we ready to make every day count? Are we ready to fight for our dignity, our bodies, and our family in Israel? Our history has taught us that the fight never truly ends. But every day, we have a choice to rise, to act, to love, to make a difference.
Let this be a year of rebuilding, of health, of strength, and of hope. Let us pray for it, and then let’s do everything in our power to make it so. Together, let’s send our hearts eastward, to Israel, where we are Lev Echad, Am Echad - One People, with One Heart.
Deep breath. Let’s begin again.
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