My wife, Shoshana, was murdered by a suicide bomber. She was one of over 100 victims that were killed or injured at 2:00 P.M. on August 9, 2001 at the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem. Jews all over the world share my pain.
We all want to do something to fight against the current wave of violence and anti-Semitism in Israel and throughout the world. We have tried to defend ourselves against the media attacks and suicide bombers, but the defense is not working. Jews in every country share a sense of fear and desperation -- a feeling that we must tell the world the truth. But the sad truth is that in the eyes of the world, the Jewish concepts of morality and honesty are no match against the immorality and lies of our opponents.
We must change our strategy. In place of fear we must feel pride. In place of desperation we must show concern for our fellow Jews. One of the fundamental principles of Judaism is kindness; we need to teach this to our people and to the world.
On January 1, 2002, I started a non-profit organization called " Partners In Kindness." Partners In Kindness produces non-sectarian material to inspire schools, employers, governments and the general public to do acts of kindness. Visit our website www.PartnersInKindness.org .
Our second non-profit organization is called "A Tradition of Kindness." A Tradition of Kindness hopes to work with Jewish organizations around the globe to show people of all religions that Jewish kindness is demonstrated daily in every country, every city, and every town. This kindness forms the basis of the Jewish religion. Indeed, Jewish kindness is in the heart of every Jew.
The "Tradition of Kindness" website will be highly emotional and moving. It will feature dozens of stories of kindness from every facet of Jewish life from around the world. Visitors to the website will be able to subscribe to a weekly e-mail, free of charge and replete with stories about kindness.
Our first project, which is well underway, is called "A Daily Dose of Kindness." Each day people report acts of kindness to me and I report anonymously to the list what people have done. These stories give you ideas and encourage you to do acts of kindness. It is pretty contagious. In just two months, 300 participants in four countries had subscribed to the e-mail list.
A Tradition of Kindness is much more than a website or an e-mail list, it is a organization which will be used to galvanize the Jewish people in kindness through grass-roots programs involving the future leaders of the Jewish people -- our children.
We are launching another e-mail program in schools. Jewish schools, both religious and secular, all over the world will submit stories about acts of kindness. Every grade, every school, and every country will sponsor two weekly contests -- one contest for stories about acts of kindness that the students do; a second contest will be for acts of kindness that their parents do. Once a month the schools will e-mail us their winning stories. Our multinational panel of judges will pick winners for each country. The list of all winning stories will be distributed to all participants. We need your help to make this project succeed. Ask your school to join our project.
A Tradition of Kindness will leverage the tremendous energy and public interest newsworthiness of these projects to create uplifting news stories for both the secular and Jewish press throughout the world. A rather tall task perhaps. But our Rabbis have taught us that "In a place that there is no man, strive to be a man."
We invite you to join us. Be our "partner in kindness." Help us to show all the nations that the Jewish world is a world of kindness.
We do not need your money. Nor do we need much of your time.
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