Rabbi’s Corner

Dear Friends,

This weekend marks the 11th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Protests and subsequent military intervention.  Many of us remember the iconic image of passive resistance – 4 military tanks brought to a halt by the solitary protestor.

Many protestors were not as fortunate in their encounters with the military.  The exact number of casualties is unknown with wildly varying reports ranging from 186 to 7,000 deaths.  What is unquestioned is that the military intervened using force to quash a protest regardless of civilian casualties.

We are all sensitive to the oppression of human rights, and rightly so.  But it is also essential to distinguish between hyperbole and the actual violations of human rights.  It is not uncommon to find wronged parties (either real or imagined) in America claiming to have had their rights violated for matters citizens in other countries would consider trivial considering their own oppression.  The exaggerations of alleged rights violations not only diminish the significance of our freedoms, but perversely equates our problems with the struggles of those giving their lives for the simple right to speak.

Let us remember the struggle of those who gave their lives for their freedom, and respect their sacrifices with gratitude we have for the freedoms we often take for granted.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Josh Yuter