A University of Cincinnati Professor is one of 100 religious voices chosen to write a letter to President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and members of the 117th Congress to promote peace. The tradition began with the 2016 election of President Trump.
Rabbi Matthew Kraus, head of UC's department of Judaic Studies, first learned of the American Values, Religious Voices: 100 Days, 100 Letters program through Hebrew Union College.
He likes how it models the diversity of voices both religious and geographical. "And on a more personal level, after the election of 2016, in class we had a conversation with students and what they were really concerned about was the toxcicity of discourse," he says. "They wanted to be able to have conversations without people screaming at each other."
Kraus thinks the religious voice can be very powerful. Two-thousand people subscribed to the letters online the last time. He hopes the letters provide comfort to people in showing they are not alone how they are thinking and feeling.
Here is a copy of Kraus's letter, which will be sent March 9 and can be seen by others online:
Dear President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Members of the 117th Congress, After the Israelites suffered the great trauma of Jerusalem being attacked, the Temple destroyed, and our people exiled, the final books of the Hebrew Bible provided empathy, comfort, and a roadmap to restoration. Then and now, returning and rebuilding from exile is no easy task. We have suffered together in exile: “By the waters of Babylon we laid down and wept as we remembered Zion” (Psalm 137:1). We look to you to return us from exile: “Thus said Cyrus, ruler of Persia: ‘…let anyone of you go back to Jerusalem’” (Ezra 1:2-3). We look to you to rebuild: Cyrus “shall say of Jerusalem: ‘She shall be rebuilt,’ and to the Temple: ‘You shall be founded again’” (Isaiah 44:28). We will join you and return together: The “people came up from the captive exiles…who returned to Jerusalem and Judah” (Ezra 2:1). We will join you and rebuild together: “We, God’s servants, will start building” (Nehemiah 2:20). We pledge to care for those not prepared to return from exile: “All who stay behind…let the people of their place assist them” (Ezra 1:4). And we mourn those who did not survive the exile: But “the memory of the righteous shall be for a blessing” (Proverbs 10:7). We recognize that not all support rebuilding: “Thereupon the people of the land undermined the resolve of the Judeans and made them afraid to build” (Ezra 4:5). Yet we are responsible to build for everyone: “For My House shall be called a prayer for all peoples” (Isaiah 56:7). We look to renew, to rebuild. Our materials are a vision of a better future and the memory of past pain and blessings: “Let us come back; renew our days as of old” (Lamentations 5:21). There is memory. There is suffering. There is loss. Exile has been prolonged. And yet together we can transform the shared experience of exile into the rebuilt foundations of that better future: “All the people raised a great shout extolling God because the foundation of the House of God had been laid.” (Ezra 3:11). We entered exile in sorrow. Let us return and rebuild in joy as a new and better people. Sincerely, Rabbi Matthew Kraus Head, Department of Judaic Studies University of Cincinnati Values: Rebuilding, Unity
Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh scholars are also writing letters.
UC Press published the 2017 version of letters.
