Wishing all my dear friends and readers a sweet New Year filled with light and enlightenment, open hearts, and new beginnings.
L’ Shanah Tovah.
This should be the season of open hearts.
At some point in time, there is not one among us who did not have a family member who was a stranger to America, who came to this country looking for a fresh start. Whether out of fear, religious persecution, or economic hardship, our country offered hope and sanctuary.
It provided a new beginning to a foreigner, a place that would become a permanent and unquestioned home for generations.
This vintage Jewish New Year’s card from the early 20th century depicts two eagles in the sky: Under the Imperial Eagle of the Russian coat of arms, a group of impoverished, traditionally dressed Russian Jews, carrying their meager belongings, line Europe’s shore, gazing with hope across the ocean.
Waiting for them are their Americanized relatives, whose outstretched arms simultaneously beckon and welcome them to their new home. Above them, an American eagle clutches a banner with a line from Psalms: “Shelter us in the shadow of Your wings.”
Massive Jewish immigration to the United States diminished sharply with the Immigration Act of 1924, which aimed to further restrict immigrants from southern Europe and Russians who had begun to enter the country in large numbers beginning in the 1890s. Racism and blatant anti-Semitism certainly played a role in this legislation.
In this new year, we need to honor our heritage of embracing others, not our ugly heritage of exclusion, and welcome those who are in need who come to our country just as once our own family was welcomed.
Envisioning The American Dream 
Your sentiment, sense of history, contemporary relevance and exquisite prose makes the new year special to your many readers and ardent fans. Thank you for these warm thoughts and your very open heart, Sally. L’ Shana Tovah.
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Thank you so much and I’m glad the words can resonate with you.
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Happy New Year to you, too!
My personal New Year (Western calendar) was the resolution to clear clutter out of my life, both in personal relationships and my apartment. Though health issues complicated the latter, working smarter helped me regain some slow efforts toward completion.
It is an amazing feeling to see the light with personal relationships with negative people ending or the clutter on the floor in the kitchen by the drawers revealing extra storage space for things you hadn’t room for before!
One can’t help but wonder what inattention allowed such situations to dominate! Anyway, big weights are lifted by decluttering, taking responsibility for simplifying and improving one’s relationships and living situation.
Change is hard sometimes, but recognizing where change is good, not just different, puts a smile on one’s face! Best wishes for another New Year on Tishrei 1, 5784! I hope Google steered me to the right answer!
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Its so funny that you are talking about ridding your life of clutter as I was just engaged in this similar conversation with 2 cousins of mine. Clutter, collecting and saving are the bane of my family who can at times border on hoarding. I have turned this family predilection into an asset and am highly organized and have utilized my collecting into creative purposeful ways. I know how good it must feel to rid yourself of those things you no longer need. And when it comes to relationships that weeding out of toxic people is exhilarating and allows you to breathe more freely. Thank you for the New Year Wish and yes you got the number right!
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Good! The older I get the more ignorant I realize I am about so many things. I am a heavy user of Google and Wikipedia when I need a quick dose of information or a questionable translation I hope either cheers an international non-English speaking friend or gives them a good laugh for all the clumsy uses of words! I think Mandarin is the worst for a computer translation from English.
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Shana tova, Sally!
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Thank you so much. The new year always comes with a sense of hope, of potential and creativity unexplored, and I wish that for you.
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To hope and new opportunities! L’Chaim!
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