A Ballot for Heart and Soul…

This November’s Election:

Thanksgiving Interfaith Service

Temple Emanuel has participated in an annual interfaith Thanksgiving service since 1967. I do not know this for a fact, but I surmise that Rabbi Harold Silver was instrumental in creating the first service because a hallmark of his rabbinate was building interfaith relations.

Please appreciate how important this service was at its inception for the Jewish community of the South Hills. First, it came in the months after Israel’s Six Day War, when Israel enjoyed overwhelming grassroots support here in the United States. In the 60’s zeitgeist and patois, it was “in” to be Jewish.  Second, the Thanksgiving Interfaith Service affirmed the general community’s acceptance of the burgeoning Jewish community in the South Hills. When Temple Emanuel was founded in 1951, a miniscule South Hills Jewish community had grown to a small Jewish community. By 1967, the South Hills Jewish community was substantial. Third, the Thanksgiving Interfaith Service was a novel and welcome experience for Jews to pray beside Christians, and to pray in parlance that would be acceptable to everyone. Fourth, it was a keystone event in the creation of the South Hills Interfaith Ministries that has been the bedrock of interfaith relations in our community ever since.

When I arrived in 1980, the Thanksgiving service rotated from year to year between Temple Emanuel, Our Lady of Grace Church and Bower Hill Community Church. Sometime in the late 80’s, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church joined the rotation. Ever since, the Thanksgiving service has been held here at Temple Emanuel every fourth year. This month, it is once again Temple’s turn. The Thanksgiving Interfaith Service is Tuesday, November 24, starting at 7:30 pm.

But as I invite you to the service, I also must apprise you of two factors. First, the majority of the people who attend the service are members of the host congregation. Second, the attendance of Temple members has declined markedly over the years, and conspicuously when we host the service here at Temple Emanuel. At our last Thanksgiving Service in 2005, I recall that we had something less than the “thirty-six righteous ones” who in rabbinic tradition sustain the world, or in our case attended the service. The choir members of the participating churches alone probably outnumbered the Temple members who attended that service.

No doubt, the novelty of the service has worn off with the passing years. Non-Jews attending services here at Temple are commonplace, especially at bar or bat mitzvahs. Conversely, I don’t doubt that you are in churches as often, for lifecycle events for Christian friends and family. But I propose that the other factors that made the first Thanksgiving Interfaith Service so significant remain relevant today. Israel needs all the support it can get, and we are the direct connection to Israel in the eyes of our Christian neighbors. Moreover, we should never take for granted that Jews stand in the good graces of the overwhelming majority of American Christians. Finally, we should continue our support of the South Hills Interfaith Ministries, just as SHIM has supported the South Hills Jewish community.

Nonetheless, Temple members certainly have “voted with their feet” in a downward trend toward total non-participation. Of course, I will be here at the service when Christians scan Temple’s Sanctuary for Jewish faces. Yet what is the message to our guests when their hosts are conspicuous by their absence? What will my Christian colleagues in the clergy infer if I tell them that there is little interest among Jews to join with Christians in prayer for this holiday of Thanksgiving that everyone acknowledges is Jewish in its origins? What will SHIM think when interfaith activities seem such a low priority for the South Hills Jewish community?

So here is the opportunity to vote not only with your feet, but also with your heart and your soul, as well as with your love and respect for your neighbors, yourself and our community at large. Your attendance will determine if this is merely the next Thanksgiving service in a string of annual Thanksgiving Interfaith Services dating back forty-two years, or the last for lack of interest. I have no specific number in mind, other than it certainly should exceed thirty six Temple members. It is a lovely service, less than an hour in length, and highlighted by some fabulous music. Vote “Yes” to the Thanksgiving Interfaith Service. Stuff the ballot box the only way you can. Come.