January 22, 2021

As we prepare for Shabbat and its respite of personal and family tranquility, let us be grateful for a peaceful inauguration and the orderly, democratic and constitutional process it represents.

In his Inaugural Address, President Joe Biden rightly noted that such a transfer of power from one president to the next signifies “the triumph not of a candidate, but of … democracy.”

In the words of our Senator Amy Klobuchar: “Now it falls on all of us, not just the two leaders we are inaugurating today, to take up the torch of our democracy, not as a weapon of political arson, but as an instrument for good.” Or, as stated by Senator Roy Blunt, Sen. Klobuchar’s Republican co-chair, the United States “can only fulfill its promise and set an example for others if we are always working to be better than we have been…” 

To this end, we look forward to working with the new administration and elected officials from both parties in the spirit of the words of Amanda Gorman, who challenged us all to see the light, and be the light: