Rachel Myers

It means we do Hebrew as an act of resistance, you know,

Being a young person and trying to learn a new language is very difficult.

And you can imagine, like little kids, they're going to complain about doing the work.

But now it's an act of resistance.

Now us learning our traditions, us learning this language, us practicing Judaism out loud is a sign and is a symbol that we do not cower in fear, that we are a strong people, that Judaism is important to us just the same way it was important to the generations before us.

I couldn't help but put myself in their shoes.

What did the congregation do then?

What were the leaders working towards?

Whether or not that they were in the spot to align themselves with the civil rights movement at a time that was quite violent and difficult.

Myself putting in the congregation now,

I have to align myself with things that are violent and difficult.

That choice wasn't given to us, to me.

And that's what I'm leading with the kids as well.

It is our responsibility as teachers

as this Jewish community in the Deep South, to be educators about Judaism, to be inclusive, to be welcoming, to be loud about our Judaism in a way that people understand us and there can be more

love and appreciation than the hatred that we've seen.

Were there some items you were able to recover?

A lot of the items in the building will be able to be recovered and cleaned, but the majority of what was in that library space is no longer.

The artifacts that we recover will tell a story of a congregation that has been attacked twice, but is stronger than ever and continues to remain.

Those scrolls have their own history, don't they?