The Magic of Empathy
Society will flourish when we take time to understand each other.
In one of the most spiritual moments of my life, I received a text message on July 4, 2023, from a Black pastor in Denver, Colo.
The Pastor and I have become friends over the last decade and text fairly frequently. He regularly asks about my kids and I about his two college-aged sons. We talk spirituality. He reads my essays. We discuss world affairs. Sneakers. Family. And Denver Nuggets basketball.
But this text was different. Here it is verbatim.
“Hey, my brother! Thinking of you today. Today my sons and I are traveling from Prague to Berlin and we just visited a concentration camp in Terezin. God bless you my brother. #NeverAgain #StandUpToJewishHate.”
Terezin was the camp the Nazis set up as a waystation before Jews were shipped off to the extermination camps of Auschwitz and Treblinka. Over 150,000 Jews passed through Terezin before being sent to their deaths. Some 15,000 were children. Over 33,000 Jews died of hunger and malnutrition in Terezin. My own family lost four cousins under the age of 6 to the Nazi murder machine.
The Pastor’s text message touched my soul.
