I'd like people having read the book [Future Tense] to feel so much more positive about Jewish identity. And not just Jewish identity for us as Jews, but as something that has an influence on the people and the world around us.
I call Judaism the voice of hope in the conversation of humankind. And to me, to be a Jew is to be an agent of hope. So through tzedakah, we help people in need. Through chachnasat orchim, the concept of Jewish hospitality, we reach out to the people who are lonely. Even every time we make a blessing, we sing a little fragment of God's light in the apple we eat, the company we eat it with, a glass of water, the sun in the sky.
Judaism is one of the great civilisations that sees God down here in physical pleasures, in everyday interactions. So let's hear less about antisemitism, less about the negatives, and let us see Judaism as the way of unlocking the joy and beauty of everyday life.
