Is Nothing Sacred?

At the Sunny Isles Beach February Commission Meeting, right after a particularly toxic campaign period, Rabbi Kaller delivered a moving invocation. Referencing The Diary of Anne Frank, it was a call to heal, to turn the page, and to believe in the good in each other. It was a message our city needed and one for which I was personally grateful.

Unfortunately, shortly before Yom Kippur, the invocation was taken out of context and used as a political attack – the opposite of its intended purpose. To malign a healing message as Jewish families prepared for the Day of Atonement and Forgiveness showed a complete disregard for a well-respected religious leader and, more broadly, our Jewish community.

The misuse of the invocation was offensive and entirely out of bounds, even by political standards. It was ugly and mean-spirited, not to mention inappropriate.

Like the invocation at issue, however, we can find guidance in Anne Frank’s work by leading by example, being grateful for “all the beauty still left around [us] and [being] happy.”