Like many of you, I also quickly saw footage of a man who threw himself at one of the gunmen and successfully disarmed him, saving countless lives.
I've seen countless posts lauding this man, Ahmed al Ahmed, as a hero and a model for what solidarity should look like between Jews and Muslims or Arabs.
Ahmed is absolutely a hero. But he is most certainly not my model for what solidarity should look like.
Solidarity should not look like men throwing themselves at active shooters.
Solidarity should not look like people putting their bodies in front of government thugs trying to impose a racist ban on a minority religion or ethnicity.
Solidarity should not look like synagogues and mosques swapping strategies regarding how to "harden the target".
Solidarity should not look like a taxi driver evacuating terrified survivors from the scene of an ongoing massacre.
Solidarity should not look like desperately working the phones to try and rescue a family buried under the rubble of their own house after it was hit by a tank shell.
Solidarity shouldn't look like that, because none of those things should happen.
You want to know what my model of solidarity is?
It's a new arrival in town asking where they can find Halal food, and being pointed to the excellent Kosher market down the street.
It's two neighbors snickering over the well-meaning lady next door who somehow gives a different wrong pronunciation of both of their names, every time.
It's the synagogue and the mosque sharing a parking lot.
It's bonding over the common elements of shared cuisine, and bonding over trying unfamiliar elements of different cuisine.
I understand why, in the wake of unfathomable tragedy, a story like Ahmed's provides a flicker of hope in a dark time. And make no mistake - he is a hero. But I don't want more Ahmed al Ahmeds because I don't want more situations where that sort of heroism is required. It is a tragedy that our vision of solidarity -- of ideal solidarity -- is tempered through atrocities that never should happen in the first place. That should be a depressing thought. The subtext -- elevating Ahmed's story and the narrative of solidarity as a hedge against those who wish to inspire an Islamophobic and racist backlash -- is also depressing. I'm not saying it isn't necessary or it's wrong -- I'm saying it's depressing, and our model of solidarity should envision something that is greater precisely because it is more mundane.
The solidarity we should aspire to is not the extraordinary work of extraordinary individuals in times of crisis. It is rather the ordinary, everyday work of making friends, creating love, building connections, being neighborly. No crisis, just communities enmeshed in bonds of caring.
That's what solidarity should look like.
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