When I leave my office at a Jewish nonprofit at night, there is sometimes a moment when I pause before opening the door.

Outside, the parking lot is quiet. The building behind me is full of Jewish life—children who played and sang throughout the day, families who came for programs, colleagues still finishing their work.

And for a brief second, before taking a breath and stepping outside, a thought passes through my mind:

Please don’t let this be the moment.

In the past year, I have been asked a very specific question in many different ways. Sometimes it is spoken directly. Sometimes it arrives quietly in a text message late at night from a donor or community member. Sometimes it is the look in someone’s eyes when they walk into our Jewish building and notice the security guard.

The question is always the same:

Recently, there was yet another attack on a synagogue, this time in West Bloomfield, Michigan. In the same news cycle: a shooting at a college campus, violence against Jewish institutions in Toronto, attacks in Europe, rockets fired toward Israel.

For Jews today, the news often arrives in a steady rhythm of alerts and headlines. But the question many of us are asking is not really about the headlines. It is how to live as Jews when the world feels increasingly hostile to Jewish life.

I think about this often.

I think about it when community members call asking what our organization is doing to keep them safe—not because they distrust us, but because fear has a way of making people reach for reassurance.

I think about it when I watch children playing on the playground outside my........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)