Shana Tova,

I hope the High Holiday period was fulfilling for all.  What I most appreciate about the High Holidays is the time to reflect.  I often think back on previous holidays and remember special times.  I remember those big meals in the 1960’s surrounded by my parents, siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins, all devouring my grandmother’s chopped liver, meatballs, and potato kugel.  I remember the late 1970’s, living in Israel on a kibbutz in the Galilee and celebrating Rosh Hashana in a mostly secular way.  After all, we still needed to get our work done – picking olives or grapefruits, assembling sprinklers in the factory or preparing food for communal meals.

My most memorable Yom Kippur was without a doubt, in 1981, when my father and I took a stroll in the middle of the day to pay our respects to the wife of the slain Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat and to the citizens of Egypt.  For a number of days following Sadat’s assassination, the Egyptian consulate in New York opened their doors to the public and asked people to pay their respects by signing a memorial book.  It was an important act for me and I’m so grateful for the memory of sharing it with my father.
 
A few years earlier, in 1978, I was standing on a street corner in west Jerusalem,  surrounded by school children, all of us waving to Sadat’s motorcade as he made his historic visit to Israel for talks with Menachem Begin.   There was such a strong sense of hope during that time, and in the ensuing months leading up to the Camp David accords – a glimpse at the possibility of finding a peaceful solution to the pressing issues of the Middle East.
 
The assassination of Sadat killed off some of that hope, and I often wonder what might have transpired had he (and other courageous world leaders) not died by assassin’s bullets.  Even with dashed hopes then and in years since, I am left optimistic that people can change their views, can learn greater tolerance and acceptance of others, and can make strides to bring about peaceful solutions to serious problems.     

May the coming year bring forth more strong courageous global leaders who work together for the common good.