Rabbi's Week in Review Blog

This past Sunday, I did a presentation on jazz and jazz history, with an emphasis on Kansas City jazz. It has been awhile since I have taught jazz, so it involved more preparation than I expected.  

After many years, I still hold that jazz, at its foundation, is an African-American art form. It has been and continues to be a vital means of creative expression and communication when other forms of expression have been denied to the Black community.

As such, it is up to us to listen to what jazz composers are trying to say. This makes me think of our need to be avid, sensitive listeners as others try to communicate their stories. So much of the narratives surrounding the conflict in Israel-Gaza is the need for each side to assert their stories without listening to the other side assert their stories. We all have stories, stories of pain and persecution.

My hope, my prayer as we approach Hanukkah, a time in which we celebrate a miracle, is that we can imagine our own miracle of sorts — a positive future and a shared story, a story of shared peace.