Honoring Our Veterans

Eight days after Election Day, November 11, 2020 will mark the 102nd anniversary of the cease fire that ended World War I. The next year, President Woodrow Wilson declared November 11 to be Armistice Day and in 1956, the name was changed to Veterans Day to honor all those who served in and survived WWI, WWII and Korea. When Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Martin Luther King Day and Labor Day were deemed to always be celebrated on a Monday, Veterans Day was deemed so important, remained on its actual date of November 11.

Keeping Veterans Day on November 11, however, seems to relegate it to a minor celebration. It rarely creates a three day weekend. Thankfully, Veterans Day sales are rare. It’s in November so few people picnic or Bar-B-Que. Some few people reach out to veterans in the families or to their friends who served in our military. How then do we best observe Veterans Day?

Reach out to any veterans you know. Instead of just saying “thank you for your service,” reflect with them on the importance of the freedoms and rights they fought to uphold: Free speech; Freedom of religion; Protection from warrantless searches…. If you do not have a veteran to reach out to, reflect on those freedoms yourself. Most importantly, 8 days before Veterans Day, VOTE! Honor our veterans by exercising our greatest freedom, our greatest right, our greatest privilege and participate in the democracy they helped preserve.

Our veterans stood up for us. We best honor them by standing up for and using our freedom, our rights by actively participating in our representative democracy. VOTE, VOTE in person, VOTE absentee and mail in or drop off your ballot.

Shalom uv’racha, Rabbi Harry Rosenfeld

Rabbi Harry Rosenfeld has served congregations in Memphis, TN, Anchorage AK, Buffalo, NY, and now in Albuquerque, NM. Throughout his career, Rabbi Rosenfeld has been active in Social Justice work and voter registration.