Ki Teitzei: Broad Insights from Traveling Abroad

Hello again, everyone!

Last week I was on vacation and didn't write a blog post, mainly because I was out of the country. I spent three days in Davao City, the Philippines, where my wife was finishing up a summer internship, and then we spent five days together in Hong Kong before returning to the US. It was a terrific trip, but it's GREAT to be home!

One of the things I always love about travel is the opportunity to see how other people live, and to gain a little insight into how they view the world. This was particularly true last week, as I was visiting a region I had never been to before, and one that is nearly half-way around the globe from Wallingford, PA. Experiencing a vastly different culture can open your eyes to something unfamiliar and exotic. Most importantly, however, it sheds a little light back on your own life, and allows you to see yourself with a new degree of objectivity and understanding.

A news story that really caught my eye while I was away was the controversy over the proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero in New York. I was surprised to find that people abroad aren't nearly as upset as many Americans about the idea of something Islamic being built two blocks away from the 9/11 site. Now neither country we visited is predominantly Muslim, so that doesn't account for the discrepancy. And places like Davao are certainly no strangers to religious clashes with Muslim groups! So I wonder why Americans react so strongly to this controversial project. Perhaps it's specific to 9/11, but then I read about the Pew Research Center's new poll saying that 31% of Republicans still think President Obama is a Muslim. I wouldn't necessarily mind that so much (though the persistent ignorance of some people is truly disconcerting), except the poll also showed that more people who disliked the president believed he was a Muslim. Why are the two linked together? Politico.com writes that, "people who disapprove of Obama’s job performance are more likely to consider him a Muslim." What does that say about us, and our feelings about Islam?

This week, our Torah reading talks about returning lost property to our neighbors; essentially telling us to help the people around us who are in distress. The Torah specifically says, twice in fact: "Do not ignore it!" We know what it means to be oppressed, to have others criticize us and view us with distrust, simply because we are Jews. How can we do the same to someone else?

I felt very lucky, blessed in fact, to be able to travel half-way around the world and to see several different cultures, societies, and ways of life. We all have different ways of expressing ourselves religiously, politically, and emotionally (and don't even get me started on different foods!!), and if we want others to respect our rights to do so, we have to respect theirs as well. Each of us has to take responsibility to promote trust and communication, rather than suspicion and prejudice. And you don't even need to get on a plane, get vaccinated, or put up with jetlag for that insight. You'll just have better pictures to show for it!