Editor’s note: The Jewish Press asked a number of prominent people in the Jewish community to share their thoughts in 50 words or less on leaving 2020 and entering 2021. Their responses follow:
We can all see that G-d – thank G-d – is still controlling the world, and not Trump, Biden, Netanyahu, or Gantz. They’re all puppets in a play that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is directing. We’re praying that in the next year G-d will continue to help Am Yisrael.
— Baruch Marzel, head of Israel’s Otzma Yehudit party
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My personal Torah learning at my dining room table never felt as important as during the months when yeshivahs were closed and the Torah in the world decreased, and I helped fill that hole. I hope in the future to keep that sense of urgency and magnitude that the world needs my learning.
— Rabbi Gil Student, founder of TorahMusings.com
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As a school parent, I have to complete a daily Covid survey. “Why do you have to tell – I only coughed once?” my children ask. I reply, “Because I won’t allow Covid to turn me into a liar.”
We should never compromise our values. Following our moral compass is sometimes uncomfortable, but brings real happiness.
— Sarah Pachter, popular author and teacher
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The Chofetz Chaim writes that history is like a wheel. As we get closer to Moshiach, more things have to happen and therefore the wheel moves more quickly. In my life, I’ve never seen as many changes as we saw this year, so it seems clear that we are immanently close to Moshiach coming.
— Rabbi Ben Zion Shafier, founder of The Shmuz
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2020 started with us in shock at the two deadly attacks in Jersey City and Monsey in late 2019. It ended with our supposed friends in government turning on Orthodox Jews regarding the pandemic in ways they wouldn’t dare act to other groups. We hope to combat such bigotry in 2021.
— Yossi Gestetner, co-founder of the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council
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I’m very optimistic about Israel’s future. Prime Minister Netanyahu has been working nonstop on obtaining vaccines, catapulting the Jewish state to the head of the line. Israel is now about to be among the first countries in the world to exit the pandemic. I’m hoping everyone else follows quickly.
— Aaron Klein, strategic advisor to Prime Minister Netanyahu
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In more than a half-century of litigating on behalf of Jewish religious observance, I often had to engage in internal battle with large numbers of well-meaning but misguided American Jews. This is the first year in which their views seriously threatened the survival of Judaism in America and in Israel.
— Nathan Lewin, noted attorney
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A mathematician computed that all the Covid-19 viruses infecting people worldwide would just overflow a teaspoon. Whether that’s true or not, there’s no denying that the tiniest of things has done big things. Going forward, I ponder the great potential – for bad and good – of the seemingly small things we do.
— Rabbi Avi Shafran, director of public affairs, Agudath Israel of America
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I now realize how much modern technology means to us – not only medically, but also in helping people survive psychologically through the telephone, computer, etc. Above all, we survived by being with ourselves in a state of oneness and having an opportunity for introspection and reflection. Perhaps Shabbos should be more like this.
— Zalman Alpert, former librarian at Yeshiva University
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2020 was jarring. But for our family there was a silver lining. Manhattan has seen protests, boarded-up stores, a huge spike in homelessness, and a mass exodus, so we seized the opportunity to spend a Sabbatical year in Israel. What an incredible breath of fresh air to be here in the Holy Land.
— Rabbi Gideon Shloush, mara d’asra of Congregation Talmud Torah Adereth El
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I’m surely not the only one who can’t wait for 2020 to leave. We have all been tested, yet we know that nothing bad comes from shamayim, so it must all be a blessing in disguise. I’m looking forward to a year filled with good news.
— Sarah Karmely, popular lecturer and author
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2020 was the year when the radicalization of left-wing rabbis claiming to be “Orthodox” despite endorsing homosexuality and conducting LGBT “marriages” finally prompted more than 250 legitimate Orthodox rabbanim to sign an open letter declaring such clergy to be not Orthodox rabbis and not even Orthodox Jews – see coalitionforjewishvalues.org/statement-on-orthodoxy.
— Rabbi Dov Fischer, a vice president of the Coalition for Jewish Values
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I’m worried about anti-Israel pressure increasing under Biden. He’s picked people who are hostile to Israel: Haines (accused Israel of terrorism and incitement), Psaki (asked if Israel is committed to peace), Pierre (accused Israel of war crimes), Blinken (supported the endorsement of Biden by Israel-hater Linda Sarsour), and Doudin (legitimized suicide bombings).
— Morton A. Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America
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“You trekked in the snow to Kabbalat Shabbat?”
“Yes,” replied HaRav HaGaon Dovid Feinstein, zt”l, as we walked to shul the next morning. “Be’veit Elokim nehalech beragesh = barad (hail), ra’am (thunder), geshem (rain), sheleg (snow). You’d do it for a client.”
We lost him in 2020. Walking without him is so hard.
— Rafael Grunfeld, Esq., received Yadin Yadin from Rav Dovid Feinstein
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Many ask me, “What would ‘The Rebbetzin’ say?” I can hear my mother’s voice now: “Life is a test.” So, let us ask ourselves: How have I changed these past nine months? Whose life have I touched? How has this world become better because I am here?
— Slovie Jungreis Wolff, noted author and lecturer
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The confusion of 2020 forced me to rethink the very definition of life. That, in turn, forced me to redefine death. Conclusion: Death is temporary, life is forever.
— Rabbi Manis Friedman, noted Chabad thinker
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I am not sure whether the fact that both my wife and I are entering our 100th year – of which 77 have been spent as husband and wife – is of interest. All our offspring are true to the mitzvoth. We both thank the Lord every evening for the blessings He has given us.
— Eliyahu Munk, translator of 15 classic mefarshim into English
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Amidst the tumult, the kol dodi dofek was heard: “Time to come home.” Anti-Semitism up, tolerance of any religion down, political uncertainty through the rafters, working remotely now a possibility – will we be deaf to the escalation in messages saying, “Plan seriously for moving to where you belong”?
— Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein, director of interfaith affairs, the Simon Wiesenthal Center
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For me, the most significant aspect of 2020 was that the coalition of forces that despise this country grew all-powerful while the opposition grew increasingly cowardly and inarticulate. It is largely impossible to seek common ground with a Big Brother who demands self-hate as the condition of acceptance.
— Rabbi Mayer Schiller, teacher at Mesifta Beis Shraga