Rabbi Michael Z. Cahana’s Sermon about the Summer of Love: Is Love the Answer to Nazism?

“Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish justice in the gate.”  (Amos 6:15)

Choosing that passage from the prophet Amos (6:15), Rabbi Michael Z. Cahana of the historic Congregation Beth Israel in Portland, Oregon, gave a sermon on the topic, “Summer of Love / Summer of Hate – Love is What We Need,” on Rosh Hashana, 5778. (That would be September 20, 2017 in the Gregorian calendar.) His message was simple: that we were seeing an outbreak of hateful right-wing violence, and the answer was not angry confrontation, but love. His claim was deeply rooted in religious tradition. He did not speak for weakness, but for the strength of love and justice. His lesson reaches to us today, four years later, maybe more than ever. For Rabbi Cahana gave a scriptural response to the viciousness of the United States of America’s growing right-wing movement.

 

The Rising Right-Wing Threat

 

Rabbi Cahana commented about “the history of White Supremacists, Neo-Nazis and the KKK” in his own city of Portland, Oregon. He recalled his childhood experiences: his parents needed to protect him and his siblings from “the night phone calls and bomb threats.” He criticized the recent “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. He criticized the “Torch-bearing marchers chanting the Nazi slogan of ‘Blood and Soil.’” He was chilled as he heard the white supremacists’ slogan “Jews Will Not Replace Us,” which “made me question our Jewish safety.” He expressed his shock that the Charlottesville police declined  to protect worshipers in the Charlottesville synagogue.

 

People who scream out these white supremacist and Nazi slogans often call themselves “patriots.” Yet, do those so-called patriots really stand for American revolutionary values? In contrast, Rabbi Cahana reminded his congregation of the exact words of tolerance and equality that George Washington himself offered to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island. Washington said:

 

“Happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens.”

 

Those words from the United States’ first president assured Jews that, in our country, there was no place for religious prejudice. Yet, Unite the Right did the opposite of Washington’s words. They tried to take the nation along a dark road of bigotry.

 

The Answer Is Love, Not Hate

 

How should good people respond to attitudes like those of “Unite the Right?” The ideals of equality that George Washington promised survive only if people act on them. The rabbi’s answer to right-wing threats was not hostility, but love:

 

“But I am not discouraged. I am optimistic. I know the goodness of this country and I know that the shouted hatred of a few, even when it turns deadly, is far outweighed by the kindness in the hearts of the many.“

 

Describing Naziism as “a dying ideology,” Cahana instead insisted that:

 

“What we need is a little more love.”

 

Concluding his powerful sermon, Rabbi Cahana embellished on the prophet Joel:

 

“Hate evil – be outraged, love the good – bring love, bring optimism, find the good – establish justice in the gate –  make sure that the actions we choose are positive and good and lead to more justice.”

 

Echoing Joel’s ideas, Cahana insisted that anger could lead us nowhere. Anger breeds only more anger, and so the answer is love:

 

“Outrage keeps us in a place of hate. What we need is love. Love, not anger, to confront the hate. Love of each other is stronger than the hate which wants to tear us apart. Love the stranger and welcome them into our midst. Love the other who is different and let them know they are loved. Let those who are the objects of hate feel the love. All you need is love.”

 

No group has ever suffered more terribly from right-wing extremists than the Jews during World War II. Yet, the right wing seems committed to denying history. Recently, a Texas school district told its teachers that they should teach “both sides” of the Holocaust. (They backed down under pressure.) Are there really two sides of the Holocaust? Well, only if you think there is a good side to bigotry, mass murder, slavery, and brutal slaughter. No, unlike that Texas school district, we should not try to justify the Holocaust. We should not excuse bigotry and cruelty. We should not forget the historic horrors of right-wing extremism. To forget is to risk repetition.

 

At the same time, Rabbi Cahana insisted, “The Summer of Hate has ended.” He urged the congregation to “create again the Summer of Love.”

 

Rabbi Cahana’s most positive point, however, was, in the words of the prophet, to “establish justice in the gate.” Powerful forces, not just in the United States, but across the world, are trying to revive the Nazi tyranny. Or, if not Nazism itself, many people support its close cousins like the Ku Klux Klan and the Proud Boys. In the face of that threat, should we not remember that justice, not strength, is the ultimate earthly power?

 

And What about Today?

 

Yet, four years after Cahana’s sermon, the right-wing threat has failed to disappear. Contrary to Rabbi Cahana’s hope, I see no sign that right-wing extremism is dying. People carrying Confederate flags stormed into the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. Their futile hope was to use violence to reinstall their hero, who had conclusively lost reelection, as President of the United States. People at political rallies openly wear Nazi emblems on their clothing. A right-wing member of Congress threatened to murder his liberal colleagues – and Republican leaders, instead of condemning him, remain silent.

 

All the same, was Cahana’s sermon too optimistic? I think not. Let us never forget that the ancient tradition of Judaism, as well as most of the world’s great religions, is to do what is right. Can we ever risk thinking that evil will overpower good? To be optimistic and loving does not make either a person or a nation weak. It means that justice is the stronger force. 

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