I love being Jewish that being said I am
very aware of the history of my people
a history of pride glory and horrors
Jews have been history’s scapegoat from
the Spanish Inquisition to the Holocaust
but a few days after I was born my rabbi
blessed me for the very first time and
it was nice I started going to Jewish
summer camp when I was 10 and my camp
friends are like my sisters
I was Bob mitzvah at 13 I became a
Jewish adult I’ve been to Israel twice
and my sophomore year I had the
opportunity to travel to Washington DC
with reformed Jewish teens from all over
the country where we lobbied at Capitol
Hill for issues that Jews face every day
so clearly I really loved being Jewish
Judaism is a part of my identity that I
am grateful for every single day I am so
proud of my religion and the amazing
community that comes along with it my
religion is an invisible barrier maybe
someone that I had never met would be
able to use a stereotype or to to
ascertain that I was Jewish whether it
be my nose my dark curls whatever but
Judaism is on the inside Judaism is not
skin or hijab Hey
it is always hate last year my temple
receipts claims that our community would
be bombed the synagogue administration
had to hire police security just so that
children could attend religious school
and people could pray on Shabbat last
year my high school had a swastika
written on the bathroom wall minority
teachers received anonymous messages
that they should be deported
Natick citizens received hate mail for
their sexuality and for the color of
their skin
Jews are just one of many oppressed
people finding themselves in an
all-too-familiar position in today’s
America history’s hatred has bubbled
back up to the surface violence at a
white nationalist rally in
Charlottesville Virginia took the lives
of three people self-proclaimed Klansmen
and neo-nazis proudly showed their faces
on national television in our own
beloved city of Boston in Fenway Park’s
Green Monster for spectators unrolled a
banner that read racism is as American
as baseball racism sexism anti-semitism
homophobia xenophobia they’re all
different trees in the same forest with
their roots deep in the ground of pure
hatred when I watch the news
when I talk with my family when I debate
in class I find it very easy to feel
very small I am one teenage girl in a
suburb in Massachusetts what sort of
change or difference on the world could
I possibly ever make
but I have watched hatred grow in my
town my city my state my country from
the smallest of seeds and although this
rapid growth of hatred is appalling it
has taught me an important lesson
if hatred can spread like wildfire
then so could peace as a young person
growing up in this America it is
essential that I live each day with hope
I must choose to live my life with
optimism with open eyes open ears and an
open heart I don’t fear hatred and still
I refuse to fight it with hatred of my
own when I was blessed by my rabbi as an
infant
I had just entered the world like all of
us I was born with no bias no hatred the
only thing I had in my first moments of
life was unconditional love if every
person looked at future generations with
a goal of preserving this unbiased love
and its innocence then our world could
begin to rid itself of hate if hate was
no longer viable than it would totally
cease to exist I know that this sounds
like a really big idea and I also know
that we can’t turn back the past or try
and rewrite history but what we can do
is move forward so where could we start
to shape the future of hatred perhaps we
could start at the beginning
when among young people be aware of bias
ours or others overt or subtle and speak
up with a positive message of your own
whatever that may be let’s not be shy
eliminating hate is a collective mission
so every person of every kind has a role
to play voices speaking up could be so
powerful so Universal that that feeling
of smallness that we all experience
could absolutely fade away so day to day
conversation to conversation let us
strive in little ways to make our own
impact on the generations of the future
thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
very aware of the history of my people
a history of pride glory and horrors
Jews have been history’s scapegoat from
the Spanish Inquisition to the Holocaust
but a few days after I was born my rabbi
blessed me for the very first time and
it was nice I started going to Jewish
summer camp when I was 10 and my camp
friends are like my sisters
I was Bob mitzvah at 13 I became a
Jewish adult I’ve been to Israel twice
and my sophomore year I had the
opportunity to travel to Washington DC
with reformed Jewish teens from all over
the country where we lobbied at Capitol
Hill for issues that Jews face every day
so clearly I really loved being Jewish
Judaism is a part of my identity that I
am grateful for every single day I am so
proud of my religion and the amazing
community that comes along with it my
religion is an invisible barrier maybe
someone that I had never met would be
able to use a stereotype or to to
ascertain that I was Jewish whether it
be my nose my dark curls whatever but
Judaism is on the inside Judaism is not
skin or hijab Hey
it is always hate last year my temple
receipts claims that our community would
be bombed the synagogue administration
had to hire police security just so that
children could attend religious school
and people could pray on Shabbat last
year my high school had a swastika
written on the bathroom wall minority
teachers received anonymous messages
that they should be deported
Natick citizens received hate mail for
their sexuality and for the color of
their skin
Jews are just one of many oppressed
people finding themselves in an
all-too-familiar position in today’s
America history’s hatred has bubbled
back up to the surface violence at a
white nationalist rally in
Charlottesville Virginia took the lives
of three people self-proclaimed Klansmen
and neo-nazis proudly showed their faces
on national television in our own
beloved city of Boston in Fenway Park’s
Green Monster for spectators unrolled a
banner that read racism is as American
as baseball racism sexism anti-semitism
homophobia xenophobia they’re all
different trees in the same forest with
their roots deep in the ground of pure
hatred when I watch the news
when I talk with my family when I debate
in class I find it very easy to feel
very small I am one teenage girl in a
suburb in Massachusetts what sort of
change or difference on the world could
I possibly ever make
but I have watched hatred grow in my
town my city my state my country from
the smallest of seeds and although this
rapid growth of hatred is appalling it
has taught me an important lesson
if hatred can spread like wildfire
then so could peace as a young person
growing up in this America it is
essential that I live each day with hope
I must choose to live my life with
optimism with open eyes open ears and an
open heart I don’t fear hatred and still
I refuse to fight it with hatred of my
own when I was blessed by my rabbi as an
infant
I had just entered the world like all of
us I was born with no bias no hatred the
only thing I had in my first moments of
life was unconditional love if every
person looked at future generations with
a goal of preserving this unbiased love
and its innocence then our world could
begin to rid itself of hate if hate was
no longer viable than it would totally
cease to exist I know that this sounds
like a really big idea and I also know
that we can’t turn back the past or try
and rewrite history but what we can do
is move forward so where could we start
to shape the future of hatred perhaps we
could start at the beginning
when among young people be aware of bias
ours or others overt or subtle and speak
up with a positive message of your own
whatever that may be let’s not be shy
eliminating hate is a collective mission
so every person of every kind has a role
to play voices speaking up could be so
powerful so Universal that that feeling
of smallness that we all experience
could absolutely fade away so day to day
conversation to conversation let us
strive in little ways to make our own
impact on the generations of the future
thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
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