Rabbis Susan Shankman and Rachel Schmelkin want everyone to feel comfortable and welcomed in the Washington Hebrew Congregation community. That’s why they hosted “Across the Aisle: A Jewish Dialogue in Polarized Times” on Oct. 15, just weeks before the next presidential election.
The event featured two prominent speakers — Rabbi David Saperstein, the director emeritus of the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism and the former United States ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, and Tevi Troy, a former U.S. deputy secretary of health and human services — and was held in partnership with One America Movement, a nonprofit organization that seeks to tackle political polarization in the country.
About 75 attendees came to WHC to hear Saperstein and Troy share their points of view on a range of topics including the Israel-Hamas war, immigration policy, abortion and the future of American Jewry. Saperstein and Troy are traveling the country to debate these fundamental issues through respectful dialogue and perhaps find common ground.
Schmelkin, who moderated the event, created questions to ask the speakers with Shankman and Rabbi Fred Reeves, the director of Jewish life at One America Movement.
“Rabbi Saperstein and Tevi Troy each stand firm in their belief, and when they share those beliefs with each other, they do so respectfully,” Schmelkin said. “They really listen to what the other person is saying. And there’s even humor, in a really respectful way, they can poke at each other humorously and have fun together, even while they’re disagreeing. I think that was beautiful to watch.”
Schmelkin said this type of civil dialogue is important in politically polarized times so that we recognize others’ humanity.
“Jewish tradition teaches us that every person is created B’tzelem Elohim — ‘in the image of God,’ and I think it’s all too easy these days to stop seeing the human being underneath the political identity,” Schmelkin said. “When we engage in conversation, even when they’re hard, we can see the other person as created in the image of God.”
She added that another significant Jewish value is peace, and we can achieve peace by “being in conversation.”
“The Talmud is full of disagreement and arguments between rabbis about matters, issues that are of great importance, and the minority opinion is preserved, even if it’s not the one that wins out,” Schmelkin said. “So I think it’s really Jewish. At the core of Judaism is this value to listening to and holding multiple perspectives at any given moment.”
As Saperstein and Troy shared their perspectives, some topics of conversation elicited a visceral reaction from some audience members — there were “strong opinions” in the room regarding how the Israel-Hamas war has played out for the past 12 months, Schmelkin said.
“I could see at times that one of the speakers would say something that offend[ed] somebody, and I could see in their face that they felt angry or I could see that they felt uncomfortable, because I could tell their body language changed, and what was really cool was that nobody got up and walked out. People stayed and kept listening,” she said.
This habit of listening to one another despite disagreements is something the event organizers wanted to emphasize. At one point during the event, Troy said he learned an adage from his mother: “You can always make new friends, but you can’t make new old friends,” which resonated with Schmelkin.
“I think that we are living in a time where people ‘cancel’ each other left and right and actually end friendships over politics, end friendships because their cousin, their friend, their colleague is voting or plans to vote opposite from how they’re going to vote,” Schmelkin said. “Particularly when we’re talking about lifelong friendships, it’s a big decision to give that up, and one that we really, really should think long and hard about before we do it.”
The speakers took audience questions curated by Schmelkin, which included questions related to the upcoming election and antisemitism: “How do I deal with antisemitism?” “How does antisemitism manifest on the [political] right and left?”
All in all, Schmelkin felt that the event was a resounding success. She noted that Saperstein and Troy were able to find commonalities even when they disagreed on certain issues: “They demonstrated that there’s nuance in these conversations.”
“I left feeling really proud of Washington Hebrew Congregation because I think that it was brave. Everyone who showed up there was brave to be willing to listen to a viewpoint that is not their own,” Schmelkin said. “It’s a really brave thing to do, especially now.”
