Memory Sustains Humanity: Words inscribed on a glass and wooden case, which protects a Torah scroll in Mississippi. Which is there because it survived the Holocaust.

Which now has survived another holocaust, this one arson.

The Holocaust Torah was brought to Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson Mississippi. It has stood in its glass case in the synagogue since 1992, in silent memory of those people and religious items which survived the Shoah in Europe.

And there it stood last week, once more silently witnessing a fire set intentionally to destroy Jewish objects, Jewish memory, Jewish life.

I lived about three hours north of Jackson for a brief time in the late 1980s. It is far into the Deep South. The kind of place where it’s easy to imagine someone being completely ignorant of people who practiced a different religion.

I lived in Bolivar Tennessee, which had one grocery store, seven banks, and some 20 churches. It was a dry county, but you could buy moonshine from a guy at the gas station outside of town, if he trusted you.

With New York plates on my car, I was not considered trustworthy. We’d drive over an hour into Memphis to get a glass of wine with dinner.

I didn’t have to go as far to find other Jews. There was a small synagogue just 30 minutes up the road, in Jackson Tennessee.

Southerners are both deeply suspicious of outsiders and incredibly friendly. And the very first indication of that friendliness is inviting you to their church. The result is that I was constantly “outing” myself as a Jew.

Southerner will tell you that the friendliness is only skin deep, but it does suck you in. They go out of their way to make you feel welcome. To a certain degree. After that, you’re on your own.

All this is to say that I wasn’t too surprised by what happened to the synagogue in Jackson Mississippi. Saddened, yes. Surprised, no. Fear-driven prejudice runs deep. Not that Jews are all that scary. But we’re different.

For me, the moral of the story isn’t that antisemitism must be fought till our last breath. Sadly, I believe that our best efforts to confront prejudice, ignorance, and antisemitism will have little or no effect.

No, for me the moral of the story is that Jews continue to persist, sometimes in the oddest places, all over the planet. We belong to communities large and small. We speak dozens of different languages and pay taxes to different governments. We raise children, worship with other likeminded people, and try to get along with our neighbors. Just like everyone else.

What gives me hope? That there are synagogues in places like Jackson Mississippi and Jackson Tennessee.

That people from all over the US — Jews and non-Jews alike — are sending condolences and donations to help rebuild Beth Israel Congregation, both psychologically and physically.

That the churches in Jackson have stepped up to offer a place to pray, and space to store and protect the unharmed Torah scrolls.

That the glass case inscribed with the words “memory sustains humanity” still stands, as does the scroll it has protected for nearly 40 years.

Want to help?

From their website: “If you would like to help rebuild Beth Israel Congregation, please use this link. We have had tremendous support from the community and appreciate the outpouring of love.” Just click on the underlined words above to go straight to their donation site.