This Jewish Life: Thank You, Jefferson
Posted By James BesserThis Jewish Life: Thank you, Jefferson
On Saturday night of L'Taken, a weekend long social justice seminar for high schoolers, we bring our students to the Jefferson Memorial to celebrate Havdalah. With 250 students sitting on the marble steps, holding candles, and singing, the experience is often a highlight of the weekend for the kids.
This past Saturday, our Havdalah ceremony coincided with the start of the DC Cherry Blossom Festival. The Cherry Blossom Festival is an annual, two-week long event, marking the blooming of the cherry trees with various concerts, performances, and community projects.
For example, on Saturday afternoon, every inch of the National Mall was covered with people flying kites as part of the Smithsonian Kite Festival. Singing verses of "Let's Go Fly a Kite" from Mary Poppins, my fellow Legislative Assistants and I spent one of our precious few free hours during the weekend enjoying the beautiful day and watching the crazy kites fly through the sky. We mused that we would probably not be conducting Havdalah at the Jefferson with so many more people than usual wandering around.
A few hours later, we found ourselves standing on the steps of the Jefferson, practically begging our Program Director to find a new location for the service so that we wouldn't have to wear our Judaism on our sleeves in front of the hundreds of people who were visiting the Memorial. But the students began to arrive and we proceeded as planned.
It ended up being an incredible experience. Amidst hundreds of DC tourists and locals who were enjoying the day, we sang Debbie Friedman's Havdalah tunes and welcomed the new week together. Some onlookers were taking pictures of us, others were asking questions about what was going on, and I even think I saw a video camera among the crowd.
The situation was vaguely uncomfortable at first, but once I was able to shed my embarrassment, it was amazing. We were standing at the "feet" of Jefferson-- the man who championed the separation of church and state, understanding that it is the key to religious liberty --and we were publicly exercising our right to practice our religion, in any way that we pleased.
Every time that we have Havdalah at the Jefferson, we read quotes about his legacy and his efforts to ensure religious freedom, but the readings were never as poignant as they were last weekend. With more daylight than usual (thank you daylight savings time) and more people watching us, we were exposed, vulnerable, transparent, and completely protected by our First Amendment Right to the Free Exercise of religion.
I am surprised that it took me seven L'Takens to understand the power of that moment, but I am certainly glad that our Program Director (in his infinite wisdom, I guess) made us stay, despite our protests, to embrace the moment.