Groundhog Day

Living our days, and what lessons we take from looking back over time

I had a chance to join a group - mostly clergy, from Auburn Seminary - in discussion with editors from The Economist (1). The Economist is marking the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States by touring the country, in the spirit and footprints of Alex de Tocqueville, interviewing ordinary Americans. They asked us to talk about our family’s first contact with America.

I thought of Grandpa Izzy, the earliest born relative I remember, born in 1897, just over 125 years ago. He traveled to the United States, illegally, on his brother’s papers, fleeing a Europe that was not safe for Jews.

For Izzy, the United States provided an opportunity, to live in safety, to become a citizen, to start in business. He was able to support himself and his family. Along the way, he started a factory in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, a shoe company, in one of the buildings left abandoned when the coal mine shut down. The mine had been the economic driver of opportunity in the community. Lori’s Shoes provided crucial jobs, dignity, income, and security. Decades later, when Jacob and I were driving through PA, we stopped for lunch in Punxsutawney, and talked with folks at the sandwich shop who told us, with some appreciation, that their parents and grandparents had jobs with the company.

Izzy’s daughters married men who joined the Army. That Greatest Generation felt the responsibility that comes with opportunity. My grandfather and great uncles flew from North Africa into Italy, fought in Europe, and survived as POWs. They all came home alive. And the subsequent generations served their communities - in the military, or as volunteer first responders, or in the other work we chose to do.

I distinctly remember a moment when I was in high school - maybe it was 1983 or 1984 - I remember that it struck me. I thought, “There has never been a better time to be alive, and I am one of the luckiest people ever to be born.” I was a Jew in American, a white man, above average height, from a stable, loving, financially secure family. I was lucky to be in good schools. Everything felt ascendent.

Over time, I’ve become disillusioned, slowly at first as I taught and learned more about American history, and then more quickly as I became more involved, perhaps less so when Obama was sworn in to office, but again, more deeply, as we witnessed the backlash of white supremacy. I remember when Jacob was about the head out to Iowa for college, feeling worried about life in a red state. I remember when Tessa was starting college just a few years later, how much more I was unsettled by antisemitism in particular, on the right and on the left. And all of that even before October 2023.

In the last two years, I’ve been stressed and depressed, as people have talked about the loneliness exacerbated by COVID, the resurgence of the MAGA alt-right, the toxicity of antisemitism on the left. I’ve listened to fellow Jews wonder: “Maybe this is the time to leave?” “When it might be too late to do so?”

But as I was telling this story, my story, my family’s story as best I understood it or as I recalled it in that moment (2) - As I was telling this story to the Auburn clergy and the reporters from The Economist, I felt a renewed commitment. America has never been its ideal self. We’ve made progress and there’s been regression. We’ve welcomed more people into to mainstream, with respect and opportunity. We’ve fallen short so many times. But for all this country provided for my family, I was reminded, I felt a renewed responsibility, a boost in the arm. I don’t know if my ancestors would tell me to buck up, exactly. But I felt I had to.

And so, on this Groundhog’s Day, I’m thinking about my great-grandfather, his time in Punxsutawney, my ancestors all. I am appreciating anew the opportunity this country provided for my family, I’m facing my disillusionment, but renewing myself, being responsible as I am, to the work necessary to move this country closer to its ideals, for more people, like me or not, but all Americans. (3) (4)

(1) I know who invited me, but I’m not sure why anyone agreed to have me there.

(2) I hope that those of you who know the story better will help me correct the record, and fill in some of the details that are hazy at best.

(3) And I’m encouraging everyone to watch “Groundhog Day”, one of my favorite movies, for all its moral, spiritual, and comedic brilliance.

(4) And if you’re inspired and want to do something today, consider giving to The Haven Fund (https://havenfundnyc.org/), the pop-up, short term effort Lisa launched to get additional funding to the community organizations that are serving our neighbors in these harsh times, legal defense for neighbors snatched off the streets, food to those too scared to leave for groceries let alone their jobs, and accompaniment to young children whose parents can’t walk them to and from school.