Looking back on 5784, I am blown away. This year has been overflowing with pain, suffering, fear, and loss. I am filled with such anguish thinking about how many people have lost their lives. I honestly cannot tell you why it had to be this way. At the same moment that I have grown despondent about the state of the world, I am filled with gratitude as to the health, safety, and development of my children this year. Looking back I have seen how much each of them has grown. They are extraordinarily resilient and powerful people. I often think that they are the only reason that I have not lost all hope.

Looking back at a year in review I see a theme that I wanted to share. This came into focus when reading about Project 2025. Project 2025, also known as the 2025 Presidential Transition Project, is a political initiative published by the Heritage Foundation that aims to promote conservative and right-wing policies to reshape the United States federal government and consolidate executive power if Donald Trump wins the 2024 presidential election.  At first blush it is hard not to hear in it the echo’s of Mein Kampf. Just as this book outlined many of Hitler’s political beliefs, his political ideology and future plans for Germany and the world, Project 2025 outlines a rightwing plan under a Trump 2.0 administration.

Project 2025 is a vision for how the Right will rewrite the narrative of America to meet their needs. While I find this all horrible and morally reprehensible, there is something that I have come to admire or at the least find instructive in the boldness of this. Looking back on 5784 we see that we the Jewish people and the Jewish State of Israel were in the news every day. I realize that one of the elements that I found most challenging was how we were not the narrator of our own story. We were filling other roles in other people’s version of history. Have we been relegated to being NPCs in some real life version of Grand Theft Auto?

Are we merely regurgitating scripted responses or adhering to a predetermined set of beliefs without engaging in independent reasoning or original thought? It is clear that we are the cannon fodder in the proxy wars between much larger players. We have become tragic NPCs in many other people’s stories.

When I look back at this last year I am moved by the speed and force in which the Jewish community was able to react, but is that enough? When I look forward to next year I want to think about how we might shift into being proactive. When I think about Project 2025, I am inspired to think about the potential of our own Project 5785. How might we recenter ourselves as the narrators of own stories on ourselves? What are our policies? What is our Mandate for Leadership? What is our plan for restoring the family, in all of its manifold forms, as the centerpiece of Jewish life? What is our plan for how we want to work with our government to secure the safety of Jews domestically, in Israel, and worldwide? What is our role in looking after the needs of our neighbors here and in the region? What is our role on today’s college campus? What is our plan for securing our God-given individual rights to live freely by our understanding of our values, including making decisions about our bodies? What should we be doing differently this coming year? We need to reclaim our voice and our destiny and as a people.

In 5785 we need to hold hope. We are not fated to misery. In 5785 we should all be blessed to be the main character in telling our own story, that is our destiny. May we all be inscribed in this Book of Life. Together we will write a great story.

*see more on Fate and Destiny- The Right Distance: Hagar and Miriam