Let there be light

Editorial

The two shafts of blue light rose from the depths of what was the World Trade Center and illuminated the night sky. Like beacons showing the way, they traversed the distance between the devastation at their beginning and the promise of hope at their end.

They brought to mind innumerable literary references as they sliced through the darkness. "Let there be light," they seemed to say, even in a world that now seems cloaked in darkness. The 88 high-powered searchlights made a fitting "Tribute in Light" to mark the six-month anniversary of the tragedy of Sept. 11.

Lit the evening of March 11 by children of two of the more than 2,800 victims who perished in the attack, they were preceded by the words of "America the Beautiful," with its evocation of beautiful skies and expansive bounds.

As throngs looked upward, remembering all those who perished, it was with a glimmer of hope that, yet again, those spacious skies would be sources of wonder and light, peace and contentment.

... Lighting the way

The horrific attack on Sept. 11 and the continuing violence in Israel remind painfully of the presence of dark forces of evil in the world, and our power to combat them through acts of lovingkindness and compassion.

For more than 60 years, the annual campaign of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix has helped to light the way, reaching out to our beleaguered brothers and sisters in Israel, to Jews and others in 60 countries around the world, and sustaining the structures of Jewish communal life locally. The annual campaign provides a modicum of light in a world all too often darkened by want and need.

This year, dollars raised will help to replenish precious resources diverted from human services to defense needs in Israel; will assist with the immigration and resettlement of impoverished Argentinean Jews in Israel; and will provide myriad opportunities for enriched Jewish life at home.

This Sunday, March 17, volunteers will be calling households throughout the Valley asking for support for this year's effort. Please answer the call and respond generously, or make your gift online at www.jewishphoenix.org.

Your contribution will help to make life a little easier, the world a little more comforting, and the Jewish future a little more secure.

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