[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 163 (Tuesday, November 15, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1475-E1476]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                OUR GOD IN WHOM WE HAVE PLACED OUR TRUST

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. E. SCOTT RIGELL

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, November 15, 2016

  Mr. RIGELL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to include in the Record the 
following on behalf of my constituent, Rabbi Dr. Israel Zoberman. Rabbi 
Zoberman is the Founding Rabbi of Congregation Beth Chaverim in 
Virginia Beach, Virginia. He is a commissioner on the Virginia Beach 
Human Rights Commission and a past national Interfaith Chair for the 
Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA). Rabbi Zoberman asked me to 
include the following in the Record:
   We have gratefully gathered on the auspicious occasion of our 7th 
annual Veterans Day service, at our uplifting communal home of the Reba 
and Sam Sandler Campus and the Simon Family JCC of our beloved Hampton 
Roads community. Let us proudly recall our heroes--past, present, and 
future--and their singular selfless and sacrificial devotion to our 
great American nation, as well as its undying legacy of democratic 
values and ideals, which remain a shining beacon of light to the entire 
free world for those in particular still living in the darkness of 
oppression.
   We underwent a bruising vitriolic presidential election uncovering 
deep wounds and conflicting divisions within the American people on 
critical core issues. In the American way, we look forward to another 
peaceful, orderly, and gracious transition of power through ballots, 
not bullets, unlike some other countries. We will continue to abide by 
the high principles that have guided and preserved us as the world's 
leading democracy. Even as we pray for togetherness through the 
essential gift of unity, we are mindful that unity does not imply 
unanimity. We understand that our amazing diversity of people and ideas 
is the empowering source of our enviable strength as a superpower, and 
ultimately democracy depends on a vigorous debate, though with 
civility, of differing and even opposing views, including noxious ones, 
by all sides.
   After all, the dynamics of periodic change are inherent in the 
governmental system we have called democracy, one that our founders 
wisely chose and devised for us to follow and participate in at the 
birth of the audacious experiment we call America. Humbling is the 
democratic proposition that constitutional power may change hands 
without abandoning the underlying tenets that have lit our path, 
allowing us to live in freedom and flourish like no other nation. The 
British system insightfully speaks of the ``loyal opposition.'' The 
recent contentious election points at ``two Americas,'' or even more, 
and our goal is to build connecting bridges toward ``a more perfect 
union.'' Both winners and losers (alternating in a democracy) belong to 
the one big tent of our American family. There is plenty of space for 
everyone in the inviting spirit of dialogue. All are needed in order to 
fully fulfill America's promise and mandate.
   Our military heroes, including our Jewish American ones, are the 
essential and appreciated shared golden treasure, gloriously gluing 
together the disparate parts of our politic tapestry while protecting 
its very existence. Only yesterday we observed the 78th anniversary of 
Kristallnacht (the Night of the Broken Glass throughout Germany on 
November 9-10, 1938), the beginning of the end of European Jewry, 
orchestrated in the heart of so-called civilized Europe with disastrous 
consequences for humanity. The presence of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial 
Museum in our nation's capital is a poignant statement that democracies 
are vulnerable. Democracies require eternal vigilance and engagement of 
the caring, concerned, courageous, and compassionate citizenry, lest it 
becomes perverted from within due to extreme conditions and corrosive 
demagoguery with evil intent. The Jewish people can sadly attest that 
words do matter and bear fateful consequence. Human dignity and God's 
divinity go hand in hand.
   These are unsettling and dangerous times. Children and adults are 
being bombed and starved with impunity in Aleppo, Syria. Millions of 
homeless refugees are again on the run. The Islamic State assaults 
civilization in Iraq and elsewhere. The Iranian government has acted 
belligerently, and Russia has emboldened aggression. I am painfully 
reminded of belonging to the surviving remnant (Sherit Ha'Pleta) of 
European Jewry, a time in which early childhood was spent in the 
Displaced Persons Camps of Austria and Germany, surrounded by barbed 
wire for protection, and whose father fought in the 118th Red Army 
infantry division outside Leningrad and Moscow. Having been privileged 
to live in our unique Hampton Roads for over 30 years, the most 
powerful hub of military in the world, whose mission is defending 
freedom's sacred cause, I am sharply cognizant of how powerless 
European Jews were during World War II and the Holocaust, and the 
difference the United States and the State of Israel make.
   As we celebrate Thanksgiving, the American holiday par excellence, 
which is rooted in the Pilgrims' attachment to the Hebrew Scriptures 
and the Israelites' journey from bondage to freedom, we reflect on our 
nation's humble beginnings of fleeing refugees. We are duty-bound to 
give thanks for our measureless blessings, pledging to share them with 
the less fortunate in hopes that America will continue to be blessed. 
May we ever turn pain into promise, hatred into love, violence into 
vision, adversity into advantage, and trial into triumph with Shalom's 
holy peace of healing, hope, and harmony for all of God's children. 
Amen.

[[Page E1476]]

  

                          ____________________