Two Rabbis at a national moment reminded us that Jewish continuity begins in community

A National Rededication That Became Personal

At the Rededicate 250 ceremony last Sunday, Colonel Rabbi Dr. Soussan; the Rabbi of Magen David Sephardic Congregation and a U.S. Army chaplain, stood on the national stage and offered the benediction. His prayer brought a distinctly Jewish voice to a moment of national reflection. Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik, the Rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel, America’s oldest Jewish congregation founded in 1654 by 23 Spanish and Portuguese Jews, delivered a Jewish address at the ceremony.

Seeing these two Rabbis at such a pivotal civic gathering carried profound meaning. Soussan’s benediction and Soloveichik’s remarks reminded us that covenant, continuity, and communal responsibility are not abstractions but lived commitments. Their presence framed the week that followed; including our Rabbi’s D’var Torah this morning; as a reminder that Jewish rededication begins with us, in our own communities.

Two Rabbis, One Message: Continuity Lives in Community

What distinguished that moment was not simply that two Rabbis participated, but how their roles complemented one another. Colonel Rabbi Dr. Soussan offered the benediction, bringing Jewish prayer and Sephardic presence to the ceremony. Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik followed with a Jewish address that framed covenant and responsibility within a broader moral and historical context.

That an Ashkenazi Rabbi leads America’s historic Western Sephardic congregation while a Sephardic Rabbi leads the nation’s Sephardic synagogue is itself a quiet testament to an insight articulated by scholar Mijal Bitton. She argues that Sephardic continuity is not a matter of lineage but a communal model; warm, rooted, covenantal, that others can inhabit and help sustain. In their different ways, both Rabbis embodied that truth........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)