Friend --
As we approached Rosh Hashanah last year, I found myself unable to extend the traditional wishes for a sweet new year.
“The fact is,” I wrote in an email last September, “[the Hebrew year] 5780 promises to be a difficult and emotionally taxing one -- for our country as a whole and for the American Jewish community.”
So instead, I offered a promise: If we continued to work together to defend our Jewish and democratic values, to push the foreign policy conversation in a more progressive direction and to do everything in our power to defeat President Trump, we’d have a chance of emerging from 5780 poised, at last, for a sweet new year.
When I wrote those words, I could not have imagined just how dark 5780 would be. Yet I stand by my promise. The work we’ve done over the last year has put our movement in a position to play a major role in the coming election and in the better future it can bring.
But that work is not yet over. So I’m asking you to make sure we enter the new year at full strength to deliver the change our community, our country and our world so desperately need.
Donate now to help us reach our $50,000 Rosh Hashanah goal >>
The months ahead won’t be easy. This president is going to do everything within his power to divide our community, as he has our country.
He’ll continue to attack Jews who don’t support his far-right agenda and try to sow tensions between communities allied in the fight for equality and justice. He’ll continue to fan the flames of hatred, imperiling Jews, Muslims, immigrants and people of color.
And, no doubt, he’ll play to his far-right base with reckless foreign policy decisions that make our goal of a just and viable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict harder to achieve.
But together, we’ll fight back as we have for the past four years. And I have no doubt we can prevail.
Let’s make 5781 the year we begin to heal our nation and repair our world. Let’s make it the year our foreign policy comes into alignment with our values and America regains the trust of Israelis and Palestinians working for peace and human rights.
Instead of just wishing each other a sweet new year, let’s create one together.
Thank you for your support,
Jeremy Ben-Ami
President, J Street
