Not just the Class of 2022. The Class of 5782.
Remember, you are not just the class of 2022. You are the class of 5782. As you are about to embrace the world that might not embrace you back, stick with your Jewish identity, your Jewish roots. They may endanger your life in a world of growing anti-Semitism, but they will always protect your soul.
You are not just the class steeped in the losses of the COVID. As you enter a world more uncertain than that of your parents, remember that you are also the class steeped in the quickest vaccine development in history. Let America’s can-do spirit be your own in everything you do.
You are not just the class of unprecedented polarization. As you navigate the divisions, see the world for what it is: full of people without small children who go out of their way to locate spare baby formula for parents they do not know; full of people of wealth who set aside a good portion of it to found family foundations to alleviate small corners of the world’s woes; full of budding scientists whose thirst is to discover a better device, a better medicine, a better method. See the world for all the idealists who populate it.
You are not just the class of this Earth. As you lift your eyes to the skies, realize that you live in the first generation of civilian space flight. As the cost falls, you could fly upword too — as the cost inevitably drops as technology advances. Remember, it was only a couple of decades ago that overseas telephone calls were prohibitively expensive, and now you can call, or text, or FaceTime for the smallest fraction of the cost. This same fracturing of cost will open up the heavens to you.
You are not just the class that will struggle with “benefits” or the lack thereof — with the inevitable financial burden of covering your medical insurance, even if you have no need of it just now. Remember, those costs can conceal the unimagined, almost utopian advancements in medical science. Maladies that consigned almost everyone to the grave only a half century ago have met their match, as the new advancements save lives and alleviate pain. You are the beneficiaries of these untold millions, perhaps billions, of hours of research that have make these drugs and treatments a given. Be grateful for them.
You are not just the class that views Israel through the prism of debates and conflicts — over Palestinians, over the nature of Jewish society, over the dangerous threats from without. You are the class that was born into a world in which Israel exists, in which Jews in trouble around the world — such as Ukrainian Jews — automatically presume they have a place to go — a refuge. You are living the dream of 2,000 years, however imperfect the current state of the dream.
You are not just the class that has lived in a world of wars, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Ukraine, in Gaza, in Syria and elsewhere. The great bulk of you are in the class that has not been called to fight in these wars. You have enjoyed peaceful lives. In this you are distinguished from countless ancestors and countless contemporaries around the world. Your experience is an aberration in history. Do not discount the possibility that you might somebody be called upon to evince the heroism that has so often called to humankind.
You are not just the class that had to pick sides between this amount of time to spend on social media and that amount of time, between this type of post and that type of post, between this football team and that one. You are the class that will need to pick the candidates — or to be the candidates — to pick sides in the sharp controversies of our time. Indirectly or directly you will need to pick sides on everything from homeless policies to environmental to nuclear policies. On this you have no choice. But you do have the choice to take stands and still maintain an even keel —to take stands yet sustain the social fabric via civility and respect.
You are not just the class that will be exposed to Catholics and Buddhists and Muslims and non-believers, to Russians and Ukrainians and Indians and Koreans, to bluffers and helpers and phonies and people of the highest integrity — you likely already have been. You are the class that, like every class, has taken all this in within something of a cocoon and will now need to test who you are in a much bigger world, often a hard world. Your commitment to being not only the Class of 2022 but the Class of 5782 will be tested. You will need to see whether amidst all of the cross-cultural exposure and challenge, you can see clear ahead based on your roots, your heritage. You will need to see whether you can enjoy your own integrity and uniqueness; can treasure the shofar and Shabbat and matzah and tzedakah and caring for those whom others do not care for.
Ultimately, you are not a class any longer. You are you. You are on your own. You have been well prepared to make it on your own — to soar. And now we sit back; we put an end to our observations based on our own hard won experience. We sit back and watch. We want to see you soar.
Copyright © 2022 by the Intermountain Jewish News
