August 25, 2023 • 27 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Dara Horn is an accomplished American writer, winning accolades and prizes for her fiction and non-fiction alike. She was approached to give a graduation speech to Jewish cadets at West Point in 2023. Here is Horn to tell the story of how her speech came to be—and the recorded copy of the speech she delivered. It's one of the most beautiful ever given at any graduation at any college—at any time. The subject: being uncomfortable and uncool.
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Speaker 1 (00:12):
This is Lee Habie with our American Stories, the show
where America is the star and the American people. Up next,
you're going to hear from Darah Horn. She gave a
commencement speech to the West Point graduates who happen to
be Jewish in twenty twenty three, and I came across
(00:32):
this from a friend and the story came to life.
Here's Darron, who she is and how she came to
write this speech.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
My name is Darah Horn, and I'm a writer. I've
published six books. My first five books were novels that
all deal very deeply with Jewish history, culture, belief texts,
but incorporate those sort of ancient stories into modern contexts.
And my most recent book is a nonfiction book with
(01:03):
the rather provocative title People Love Dead Jews. It's a
collection of essays about the role that Jews play in
a non Jewish society. And I also have a spinoff
podcast from this book called Adventures with Dead Jews that
tells a bunch of stories that aren't in the book
because it's a bottomless topic, the role that Jews play
(01:25):
in a non Jewish society, and so, and you know,
I tend to approach these things with a little bit
of an off kilter kind of tone, as you can
sort of maybe tell by the title. So the invitation
to West Point, though, was quite unexpected. What happened was
there was a cadet there, which is you know, undergraduates
there are called cadets. There was a cadet there named
(01:45):
Jacob Foster, and he was listening to my podcast and
really enjoyed it and then went and read my book
People Love Dead Jews, and then approached the Jewish chaplain
at West Point and asked if I could be invited
to be there Backel or speaker at the Jewish Bacalariate
service as part of their commencement at West Point. And
I got this invitation. I was very honored, but also
(02:08):
very intimidated because I thought, you know, people Love Dead
Jews not really a great fit for commencement inspirational speech
at west Point. You know, it was like sort of
a mismatch there, and I was sort of, you know,
I was flattered that they invited me, but I was
a little bit confused what they wanted because I think
there's a lot of expectations when you speak at a
graduation that you're really speaking to the graduates, and you're
(02:32):
supposed to give them some kind of message, And I
just thought, you know, all of the platitudes that people
say to graduates at you know, typical colleges and universities
kind of don't apply here, because you know, the cadets
at West Point, they graduate, they're commissioned as second lieutenants,
and then they they're serving the country for you know,
and they all have a requirements of how many years
(02:54):
they're going to serve. These are people who made this
decision of what they were going to do essentially with
their lives and career at a very young age. They
don't need me to tell them here's my advice for life.
You know, what should you do? What should you do
with yourself? Like they've already decided. And so I thought,
what am I going to say to these people? You know,
(03:14):
in the United States and in most Western democracies, our
whole system is based on a concept of rights. What's
interesting about Jewish civilization is that it does have this
parallel to American civilization, and that it's a culture that's
based on a shared system of laws and a shared
text that we're all interpreting. Right for in the United States.
(03:35):
Of course, it's the Constitution. In Judaism, traditionally it's the Torah, right,
it's the Hebrew Bible. But what's different about the Jewish
premise of civilization is that it's not based on this
idea of rights. Instead, it's based on an idea of obligation,
or what we call in Judaism commandment. And that was
the point where I saw some parallel with what these
(03:57):
young people were doing at least point. And I realized
very quickly that this date was the day before the
Jewish holiday of Shavuote, and the Jewish holiday of Shavuote
is the holiday where we celebrate the giving.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Of the Torah at Mount SINAI. So this is really a.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Moment in Jewish life of accepting obligations from God and
accepting the commandments from God. And I saw in these
graduates at West Point, in a sense, we're meeting that
moment in the same way, they're also standing at their
own kind of SIGNI where they're accepting their obligations, like
in this case in a similar in a ceremony where
(04:35):
they were going to be commission as officers a few
days later. And when I realized that I thought that
this is perhaps a good way to speak to these
American Jewish graduates at West Point without any further ado.
This is the speech that I gave at the Jewish
Baccalaureate service for the graduating Jewish Cadets of the class
of twenty twenty three at the United States and Military
(04:57):
Academy at West Point on May twenty fourth, ty twenty three. Normally,
a graduation speaker is supposed to offer the new graduates
a dose of wisdom and guidance. I'm probably supposed to
advise all of you to wear sunscreen and.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Make mistikes and live life.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
To the fullest. But the truth is that looking at
all of you, and all of you everywhere in this room, graduates, alumni, veterans, officers, faculty,
and of course also the family and friends who have
poured their hearts into supporting all of you during these
challenging years and the even more challenging years ahead, during
(05:41):
which you've all dedicated your lives to defending our democracy,
I honestly feel outclassed by every single person in this room.
What can I possibly say to you that you don't
already know, You're already all deep aware of what many
(06:02):
other college graduates only weren't after years of beamlessly stumbling
through life, which is that a life of meaning only
comes from service to others.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Compared to your peers.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Graduating from other colleges around the country, you have all
spent the last four years being extremely driven and extremely devoted,
and to say something slightly less graduation worthy, you've also
spent these years being extremely uncomfortable and also extremely uncool.
(06:37):
I cannot pretend to understand your experience, but I do
know the profound value of being uncool and uncomfortable, and
so does every Jew who has ever lived for the
last three thousand years.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
And you're listening to Dara Horn's commencement to the West
Point Cadets graduating class of twenty twenty three, the Jewish Cadets,
and talking about being uncool and uncomfortable, and how Jews
throughout history have known something about both. When we come
back more of this remarkable story and this remarkable speech,
(07:17):
Darrel Horn's speech to the West Point class of twenty
twenty three, the Jewish Cadets. Here on Our American Stories,
liehbib here, the host of our American Stories. Every day
on this show, we're bringing inspiring stories from across this
(07:39):
great country, stories from our big cities and small towns.
But we truly can't do the show without you. Our
stories are free to listen to, but they're not free
to make. If you love what you hear, go to
Ouramericanstories dot com and click the donate button. Give a little,
give a lot. Go to auramericanstories dot com and give.
(08:10):
And we continue with our American Stories and with Darrah
Horne's speech to the Jewish Cadets, the graduating Cadets and
class of twenty twenty three at West Point. Let's pick
up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Growing up in our corealistic American society, many of us
were taught a kind of clunky lesson by very well
meaning people who wanted to.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Teach us how to respect our neighbors.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
The way we were often taught this important value is
by someone essentially telling us, see this group of people
over here, who you might be inclined to be prejudiced against.
You shouldn't hate those people because they're just like you
and me. They're just like everyone else. But the problem
is that Jews have spent the past three thousand years
(09:06):
not being like everyone else. Uncoolness is Judaism's brand, going
all the way back to the ancient Near East, where
everyone else was worshiping a marvel cinematic universe of sexy deities,
and the Jews were sort of like the losers in
the school cafeteria, praying to their bossy and very unsexy,
(09:30):
invisible god. And in the many centuries as a minority
in places around the world, Jews have made this choice
over and over again to remain uncomfortable, to distinguish themselves
from their neighbors in any number of ways, to cling
to those distinctions, and over the course of their lives,
(09:51):
to learn and understand.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
What those distinctions really mean.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
They made that choice even when they had easier options,
and even when it meant risking their lives. One of
the things I've learned in my work as a writer,
and especially most recently is the writer of a book
with the somewhat provocative title People Love Dead Jews, is
(10:17):
the profound value.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Of being uncomfortable. I think that the uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Moments are always where the story is, because those are
the moments when you're about to learn something that you
might have gone through your entire life not knowing. The
only way that people ever learn and change is by
being uncomfortable, by choosing to put themselves in situations that
push them to the very edge of what they think
they understand.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
And that's a choice that all of you know very well.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
You've all chosen at a really young age to dedicate
yourselves completely to defending our nation and without any way.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Of predicting where that commitment might take you.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
And you've chosen not only to commit to that uncomfortable
and uncertain future, but to lead others. Throller Major Frommer
pointed out to me that Judaism actually has many unexpected
similarities with cadet life at West Point. Both are governed
by these extremely complex rituals and rules of daily living,
(11:23):
the determined details of things like what you wear, how
you cut your hair, what you eat, how you walk,
how you talk, and basically how you spend every hour
of every day. But military life and Jewish life are
also similar in a much more fundamental way. They're both
based on the ideal of obligation, or what we call
(11:45):
in Judaism commandment. Tomorrow night is shovel Out, the holiday
where we celebrate the giving of the Torah at Mount Sini,
thousands of years ago, and Jewish legend teaches us that
it wasn't only the Jews of that generation who stood
at Sinai, but that all future Jews were also physically
(12:06):
present at that moment, standing at Sinai to receive the
Torah from God. As an American Jew, I used to
be very uncomfortable and troubled by that legend because it
seemed to directly contradict the American view of our place
in history. In the United States, one of our foundational
ideas is that it shouldn't ever matter who your parents
(12:30):
or grandparents or great grandparents were. It doesn't matter where
you come from or what your background is. What matters
is what you do with the opportunities this country gives us. So,
of course, that's what we call the American dream in
Jewish culture. This foundational legend we have of all of
us standing at Sinai seemed to me like the exact
opposite of the American dream, because that legend suggests that
(12:53):
actually it does matter who your parents are, who your
grandparents and great great grandparents are, and that the most
important event in your life happened thousands of years before
you were born, and there's nothing you can do about it.
But chaffut is also when we celebrate the biblical story
of Ruth, the first convert to Judaism, who rejected all
(13:13):
the easier options open to her and instead chose to
join the Jewish people. The reality is that today all
Jews are Jews by choice, free to decide whether and
how we will engage.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
With this tradition.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
The Pacidic master Knachmano Brotsov taught that the Torah is
actually given not just at one point in history, but.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
At every moment, in every hour of every day.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Whether or not we believe that we all once stood
at Sinai, we are all constantly choosing what this tradition
means to us and whether we want to stand at
Sinai again. Judaism isn't really a religion the way that
some of our neighbors might understand that word.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
As a set of abstract beliefs.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Instead, it's a radical idea about freedom and responsibility. The
core idea of Judaism is monotheism and the rejection of idolatry. Today,
we think that idolatry in the ancient world meant something
like praying to a statue, but that is not what
idolatry was then or now. In the ancient Near East,
(14:27):
many Nationians had many, many gods, and one of those gods.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Was the dictator.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
In ancient Egypt, where the Jews ancestors were enslaved, the
pharaoh was considered one of the gods. So when the
Jewish people said that they don't bow to idols, what
they actually meant was that they don't bow to tyrants.
People have often wondered how the Jews have endured for
so many thousands of years as one of the only
(14:55):
ancient peoples who still exist today. I think the answers
more to America's endurance as now one of the longest
lasting democracies in the modern world. I think in both
cases it lies in the refusal to bow to tyrants.
The Jewish people, almost three thousand years ago, liked the
(15:16):
American people almost three hundred years ago, had to create
a model of human leadership that was the antidote to tyranny.
The generation of freed slaves who accepted the Torah discovered
that freedom actually requires hard work, because it turns out
that societies that are not run by tyrants require constant cooperation, compromises,
(15:41):
decision making, problem solving, dedication, and vigilance to sustain them.
We all know the famous words from the Torah that
God tells to the Egyptian Pharaoh through Moses, let my
people go. But in the Torah, every time that phrase
let my people goes, let my people go appears, it's
(16:02):
followed by another phrase, let my people go.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
So they may serve me in the wilderness.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
The purpose of freedom is to allow the people to
willingly accept the commandments laws about how to create a
just society. Human dignity only comes from choosing to take
on those responsibilities and accepting those obligations to others.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Today, at West Point, you are.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
All now standing once more at a kind of Sini,
recognizing your obligations.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
And a few days from now.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
You are going to be commissioned as officers, and not
long after that you are all going out to serve
in the wilderness.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
And you've been listening to Darrel Horne's speech to the
class of twenty twenty three at West Point, the Jewish
cadets were assembled, and she told them one heck of
a story, Because this is beautiful storytelling via a speech.
And we've spent a lot of time on great speeches
quite a few, from Churchill Roosevelt's beautiful Prayer on the
(17:10):
Night of d Day to one hundred million Americans, and
even to Anne Frank all the way in Holland Lincoln's
Gettysburg Address of Beauty, and we have a Lincoln impersonator
do that. And Dari's speech, I think stands up with
all of them. It's just so beautiful. All Jews, she said,
are Jews by choice and so true as all Christians are.
(17:34):
And she talked about on coolness being Judaism's brand, and
talked about the profound value of being uncomfortable. Last that Jews,
like Americans and like Christians too, don't bow to tyrants.
When we come back more of Dara Horne's remarkable speech
(17:55):
here on our American Stories. And we continue with Darrah
Horn here on our American Stories and her remarkable speech
to the Jewish Cadets graduating class at West Point twenty
(18:18):
twenty three. Let's return to the final part.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Our American forebears of all backgrounds saw this country as
a wilderness, an open places those fear and possibility. And
I think that the future itself for all of us
is also a kind of wilderness. Full of uncertainty, but
also full of promise. All of you have committed to
a future that you can't possibly imagine, and.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
So did your parents when they raised you. Not so
long ago.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
When the Jewish people accepted the Torah at Mount Sinai,
they said, not seven shma will do it, and then
we will listen to it. They accepted the torrist laws
before even hearing what those laws were, and without regard
to where those obligations might lead them. And only later
did they listen to those laws, learn them, and discover
(19:15):
what they might mean.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
All of you have responded.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
To that call in your lives as Americans to defend
this country with everything that you have and to use
your talents to lead others in its defense. And by
being here today and in all of your many roles
in this Jewish community here at West Point, all of
you are also responding to that call in your lives
as American Jews. For some of you, the power and
(19:45):
beauty of Judaism is something that has always been part
of your life. For some of you, it's something that
you either discovered or deepened here in this place that
you entered while instinctively knowing what it means to live
a life of commitment. But all of you are about
to go out into the wilderness. Your lives as American
(20:08):
military leaders in the coming years will be well structured,
with many challenging but apparent paths in front of you.
But how you continue to lead and deepen your Jewish
lives and what paths you'll take as Jewish leaders, is
still entirely up to you.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
That freedom and responsibility will be very uncomfortable. You will
be making those choices in many places where you might.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Not have a Jewish community to support you, and at
a moment in history where a a resurgence of hatred
might tempt you to make the more comfortable choice of
not being quickly Jewish at all. But you also have
the courage of many generations of Jews behind you who
have made the uncomfortable choice, generations going back to Sinai,
(21:02):
the more recent generations who escaped the persecutions of other
places to come to this country, and also the thousand
plus Jewish graduates of West Point who to whose names
we've just added yours. This country is one of the
few places in the world where Jews has had the
opportunity to.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Serve as military leaders.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
But in every place that Jews have had that opportunity,
they have seized it. Even in the nine hundreds, the
Hebrew poets Mulhana Gid was the chief general of Spain's empire,
leading Ernies into battle.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
In the ancient world, Jews.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Were so renowned for being elite warriors that they were
actively recruited by Persian and other imperial forces, who manned
their most dangerous outposts.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
Entirely with Jewish commanders.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
And as all of you know, we have had Jewish
graduates from West Point from the very beginning. These were
all people who deeply understood the call to a life
of service. You have spent the past four years learning
from the many military leaders around you, and maybe sometimes
learning from them how you don't want to lead, and
(22:16):
I think you have that in common with all West
Point graduates from the past two hundred years. But allow
me to take a moment to prepare you for your
future with some advice given to the very first Jewish
military leader, long before West Point existed. When Moses died
in the wilderness, the leadership of the Jewish people passed
(22:39):
to Joshua, a man with whom today's graduates share much
in common. Joshua was born into a people who had
endured great oppression in the past in a foreign land,
but whose new generation was born free from the sufferings
of their elders. Their challenge was different, to build the
(23:00):
tech to society that allowed for many different tribes and
perspectives to live together and flourish.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Like many of our graduates today.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Joshua was different from his own parents and even from
his predecessor Moses, because, unlike his civilian predecessors, Joshua was
a warrior, a military leader tasked with entering enemy territory
and defending a nation. Joshua had already engaged in covert operations,
(23:30):
sneaking into the Promised Land to collect intelligence on how
to conquer it. Nearly all of the other spies who
had entered the Promised Land with him told Moses that
the land was unconquerable. Only Joshua and his deputy were
unafraid of the daunting military task that lay ahead of them,
(23:51):
and so when Moses died, God gave Joshua a commencement
speech at what is essentially Joshua's commissionings money. God said
to Joshua the famous Hebrew words, Kazakh, the Emots be
strong and courageous. But the way God continued this commencement
(24:12):
speech is very revealing. God did not give Joshua military
advice or tell him to respect his elders or to
where sunscreamed. Instead, God told Joshua to keep warning. God
said to Joshua, you should keep the book of the
Torah always on your lips.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
You should recite from it night and day.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
For God, Kazakh, the Emmots to be strong and courageous
meant being brave enough to always continue learning, to keep
going back to that uncomfortable place, to be curious and
humble enough to learn what you don't yet know, not
just about the battlefield and not just about life, but
(24:59):
about this time, this Jewish civilization, this powerful antidote to tyranny,
that has brought us to this moment, and that now
relies upon you to sustain it. So on this momentous day,
I am not going to tell you to wear sunscreen,
(25:19):
because I think that you have all of the rules
and regulations you need that are going to tell you
exactly what you're supposed to wear.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
You're also already you also.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Already know that you will make mistakes, and you already
can teach the rest of us about how to live
life to the fullest. Instead, I want to offer you
the words of the God of our ancestors, Kazakh the Amats.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Be strong and courageous.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Be strong and courageous enough to lead people into battle.
Be strong and courageous enough to learn again and again
what is worth defending. Be strong and courageous enough to
stand at Sinai at every hour of every day. Be
strong and courageous as you carry forth with you the
(26:09):
antidote to tyranny. Borrow atater nilo Hanu malafala chef yanu
the kiyamanu vihigiyanu was Manhase. Blessed you, order, God, Ruler
of the universe, who has kept us alive and sustained.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Us and brought us to this moment.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
And I'm saying this blessing just for myself, for the
honor of being in your presence today. May God bless
all of you graduates. May God bless America and all
of its defenders.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Mazeltov, and you've been listening to Darrah Horne, an award
winning author, recipient of three National Jewish Book Awards, and
you can see your work of The New York Times,
Wall Street Journal, The Smithsonian, The Atlantic. This one appeared
in the tablet. This speech. I cried reading it on
an airplane. Again. I'm not Jewish, but these ideas, these words,
(27:00):
they're just so beautiful. Be strong and courageous, he said,
to lead people into battle and to learn what's worth defending.
Be strong and courageous, and carry forth with you. The
Antidote to Tyranny. The story of Darrew Horne's commencement speech
at West Point to the Jewish Cadets graduating class of
(27:21):
twenty twenty three. How it came to be here on
Our American Stories
This is Lee Habie with our American Stories, the show
where America is the star and the American people. Up next,
you're going to hear from Darah Horn. She gave a
commencement speech to the West Point graduates who happen to
be Jewish in twenty twenty three, and I came across
(00:32):
this from a friend and the story came to life.
Here's Darron, who she is and how she came to
write this speech.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
My name is Darah Horn, and I'm a writer. I've
published six books. My first five books were novels that
all deal very deeply with Jewish history, culture, belief texts,
but incorporate those sort of ancient stories into modern contexts.
And my most recent book is a nonfiction book with
(01:03):
the rather provocative title People Love Dead Jews. It's a
collection of essays about the role that Jews play in
a non Jewish society. And I also have a spinoff
podcast from this book called Adventures with Dead Jews that
tells a bunch of stories that aren't in the book
because it's a bottomless topic, the role that Jews play
(01:25):
in a non Jewish society, and so, and you know,
I tend to approach these things with a little bit
of an off kilter kind of tone, as you can
sort of maybe tell by the title. So the invitation
to West Point, though, was quite unexpected. What happened was
there was a cadet there, which is you know, undergraduates
there are called cadets. There was a cadet there named
(01:45):
Jacob Foster, and he was listening to my podcast and
really enjoyed it and then went and read my book
People Love Dead Jews, and then approached the Jewish chaplain
at West Point and asked if I could be invited
to be there Backel or speaker at the Jewish Bacalariate
service as part of their commencement at West Point. And
I got this invitation. I was very honored, but also
(02:08):
very intimidated because I thought, you know, people Love Dead
Jews not really a great fit for commencement inspirational speech
at west Point. You know, it was like sort of
a mismatch there, and I was sort of, you know,
I was flattered that they invited me, but I was
a little bit confused what they wanted because I think
there's a lot of expectations when you speak at a
graduation that you're really speaking to the graduates, and you're
(02:32):
supposed to give them some kind of message, And I
just thought, you know, all of the platitudes that people
say to graduates at you know, typical colleges and universities
kind of don't apply here, because you know, the cadets
at West Point, they graduate, they're commissioned as second lieutenants,
and then they they're serving the country for you know,
and they all have a requirements of how many years
(02:54):
they're going to serve. These are people who made this
decision of what they were going to do essentially with
their lives and career at a very young age. They
don't need me to tell them here's my advice for life.
You know, what should you do? What should you do
with yourself? Like they've already decided. And so I thought,
what am I going to say to these people? You know,
(03:14):
in the United States and in most Western democracies, our
whole system is based on a concept of rights. What's
interesting about Jewish civilization is that it does have this
parallel to American civilization, and that it's a culture that's
based on a shared system of laws and a shared
text that we're all interpreting. Right for in the United States.
(03:35):
Of course, it's the Constitution. In Judaism, traditionally it's the Torah, right,
it's the Hebrew Bible. But what's different about the Jewish
premise of civilization is that it's not based on this
idea of rights. Instead, it's based on an idea of obligation,
or what we call in Judaism commandment. And that was
the point where I saw some parallel with what these
(03:57):
young people were doing at least point. And I realized
very quickly that this date was the day before the
Jewish holiday of Shavuote, and the Jewish holiday of Shavuote
is the holiday where we celebrate the giving.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Of the Torah at Mount SINAI. So this is really a.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Moment in Jewish life of accepting obligations from God and
accepting the commandments from God. And I saw in these
graduates at West Point, in a sense, we're meeting that
moment in the same way, they're also standing at their
own kind of SIGNI where they're accepting their obligations, like
in this case in a similar in a ceremony where
(04:35):
they were going to be commission as officers a few
days later. And when I realized that I thought that
this is perhaps a good way to speak to these
American Jewish graduates at West Point without any further ado.
This is the speech that I gave at the Jewish
Baccalaureate service for the graduating Jewish Cadets of the class
of twenty twenty three at the United States and Military
(04:57):
Academy at West Point on May twenty fourth, ty twenty three. Normally,
a graduation speaker is supposed to offer the new graduates
a dose of wisdom and guidance. I'm probably supposed to
advise all of you to wear sunscreen and.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Make mistikes and live life.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
To the fullest. But the truth is that looking at
all of you, and all of you everywhere in this room, graduates, alumni, veterans, officers, faculty,
and of course also the family and friends who have
poured their hearts into supporting all of you during these
challenging years and the even more challenging years ahead, during
(05:41):
which you've all dedicated your lives to defending our democracy,
I honestly feel outclassed by every single person in this room.
What can I possibly say to you that you don't
already know, You're already all deep aware of what many
(06:02):
other college graduates only weren't after years of beamlessly stumbling
through life, which is that a life of meaning only
comes from service to others.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Compared to your peers.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Graduating from other colleges around the country, you have all
spent the last four years being extremely driven and extremely devoted,
and to say something slightly less graduation worthy, you've also
spent these years being extremely uncomfortable and also extremely uncool.
(06:37):
I cannot pretend to understand your experience, but I do
know the profound value of being uncool and uncomfortable, and
so does every Jew who has ever lived for the
last three thousand years.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
And you're listening to Dara Horn's commencement to the West
Point Cadets graduating class of twenty twenty three, the Jewish Cadets,
and talking about being uncool and uncomfortable, and how Jews
throughout history have known something about both. When we come
back more of this remarkable story and this remarkable speech,
(07:17):
Darrel Horn's speech to the West Point class of twenty
twenty three, the Jewish Cadets. Here on Our American Stories,
liehbib here, the host of our American Stories. Every day
on this show, we're bringing inspiring stories from across this
(07:39):
great country, stories from our big cities and small towns.
But we truly can't do the show without you. Our
stories are free to listen to, but they're not free
to make. If you love what you hear, go to
Ouramericanstories dot com and click the donate button. Give a little,
give a lot. Go to auramericanstories dot com and give.
(08:10):
And we continue with our American Stories and with Darrah
Horne's speech to the Jewish Cadets, the graduating Cadets and
class of twenty twenty three at West Point. Let's pick
up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Growing up in our corealistic American society, many of us
were taught a kind of clunky lesson by very well
meaning people who wanted to.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Teach us how to respect our neighbors.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
The way we were often taught this important value is
by someone essentially telling us, see this group of people
over here, who you might be inclined to be prejudiced against.
You shouldn't hate those people because they're just like you
and me. They're just like everyone else. But the problem
is that Jews have spent the past three thousand years
(09:06):
not being like everyone else. Uncoolness is Judaism's brand, going
all the way back to the ancient Near East, where
everyone else was worshiping a marvel cinematic universe of sexy deities,
and the Jews were sort of like the losers in
the school cafeteria, praying to their bossy and very unsexy,
(09:30):
invisible god. And in the many centuries as a minority
in places around the world, Jews have made this choice
over and over again to remain uncomfortable, to distinguish themselves
from their neighbors in any number of ways, to cling
to those distinctions, and over the course of their lives,
(09:51):
to learn and understand.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
What those distinctions really mean.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
They made that choice even when they had easier options,
and even when it meant risking their lives. One of
the things I've learned in my work as a writer,
and especially most recently is the writer of a book
with the somewhat provocative title People Love Dead Jews, is
(10:17):
the profound value.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Of being uncomfortable. I think that the uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Moments are always where the story is, because those are
the moments when you're about to learn something that you
might have gone through your entire life not knowing. The
only way that people ever learn and change is by
being uncomfortable, by choosing to put themselves in situations that
push them to the very edge of what they think
they understand.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
And that's a choice that all of you know very well.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
You've all chosen at a really young age to dedicate
yourselves completely to defending our nation and without any way.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Of predicting where that commitment might take you.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
And you've chosen not only to commit to that uncomfortable
and uncertain future, but to lead others. Throller Major Frommer
pointed out to me that Judaism actually has many unexpected
similarities with cadet life at West Point. Both are governed
by these extremely complex rituals and rules of daily living,
(11:23):
the determined details of things like what you wear, how
you cut your hair, what you eat, how you walk,
how you talk, and basically how you spend every hour
of every day. But military life and Jewish life are
also similar in a much more fundamental way. They're both
based on the ideal of obligation, or what we call
(11:45):
in Judaism commandment. Tomorrow night is shovel Out, the holiday
where we celebrate the giving of the Torah at Mount Sini,
thousands of years ago, and Jewish legend teaches us that
it wasn't only the Jews of that generation who stood
at Sinai, but that all future Jews were also physically
(12:06):
present at that moment, standing at Sinai to receive the
Torah from God. As an American Jew, I used to
be very uncomfortable and troubled by that legend because it
seemed to directly contradict the American view of our place
in history. In the United States, one of our foundational
ideas is that it shouldn't ever matter who your parents
(12:30):
or grandparents or great grandparents were. It doesn't matter where
you come from or what your background is. What matters
is what you do with the opportunities this country gives us. So,
of course, that's what we call the American dream in
Jewish culture. This foundational legend we have of all of
us standing at Sinai seemed to me like the exact
opposite of the American dream, because that legend suggests that
(12:53):
actually it does matter who your parents are, who your
grandparents and great great grandparents are, and that the most
important event in your life happened thousands of years before
you were born, and there's nothing you can do about it.
But chaffut is also when we celebrate the biblical story
of Ruth, the first convert to Judaism, who rejected all
(13:13):
the easier options open to her and instead chose to
join the Jewish people. The reality is that today all
Jews are Jews by choice, free to decide whether and
how we will engage.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
With this tradition.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
The Pacidic master Knachmano Brotsov taught that the Torah is
actually given not just at one point in history, but.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
At every moment, in every hour of every day.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Whether or not we believe that we all once stood
at Sinai, we are all constantly choosing what this tradition
means to us and whether we want to stand at
Sinai again. Judaism isn't really a religion the way that
some of our neighbors might understand that word.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
As a set of abstract beliefs.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Instead, it's a radical idea about freedom and responsibility. The
core idea of Judaism is monotheism and the rejection of idolatry. Today,
we think that idolatry in the ancient world meant something
like praying to a statue, but that is not what
idolatry was then or now. In the ancient Near East,
(14:27):
many Nationians had many, many gods, and one of those gods.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Was the dictator.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
In ancient Egypt, where the Jews ancestors were enslaved, the
pharaoh was considered one of the gods. So when the
Jewish people said that they don't bow to idols, what
they actually meant was that they don't bow to tyrants.
People have often wondered how the Jews have endured for
so many thousands of years as one of the only
(14:55):
ancient peoples who still exist today. I think the answers
more to America's endurance as now one of the longest
lasting democracies in the modern world. I think in both
cases it lies in the refusal to bow to tyrants.
The Jewish people, almost three thousand years ago, liked the
(15:16):
American people almost three hundred years ago, had to create
a model of human leadership that was the antidote to tyranny.
The generation of freed slaves who accepted the Torah discovered
that freedom actually requires hard work, because it turns out
that societies that are not run by tyrants require constant cooperation, compromises,
(15:41):
decision making, problem solving, dedication, and vigilance to sustain them.
We all know the famous words from the Torah that
God tells to the Egyptian Pharaoh through Moses, let my
people go. But in the Torah, every time that phrase
let my people goes, let my people go appears, it's
(16:02):
followed by another phrase, let my people go.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
So they may serve me in the wilderness.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
The purpose of freedom is to allow the people to
willingly accept the commandments laws about how to create a
just society. Human dignity only comes from choosing to take
on those responsibilities and accepting those obligations to others.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Today, at West Point, you are.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
All now standing once more at a kind of Sini,
recognizing your obligations.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
And a few days from now.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
You are going to be commissioned as officers, and not
long after that you are all going out to serve
in the wilderness.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
And you've been listening to Darrel Horne's speech to the
class of twenty twenty three at West Point, the Jewish
cadets were assembled, and she told them one heck of
a story, Because this is beautiful storytelling via a speech.
And we've spent a lot of time on great speeches
quite a few, from Churchill Roosevelt's beautiful Prayer on the
(17:10):
Night of d Day to one hundred million Americans, and
even to Anne Frank all the way in Holland Lincoln's
Gettysburg Address of Beauty, and we have a Lincoln impersonator
do that. And Dari's speech, I think stands up with
all of them. It's just so beautiful. All Jews, she said,
are Jews by choice and so true as all Christians are.
(17:34):
And she talked about on coolness being Judaism's brand, and
talked about the profound value of being uncomfortable. Last that Jews,
like Americans and like Christians too, don't bow to tyrants.
When we come back more of Dara Horne's remarkable speech
(17:55):
here on our American Stories. And we continue with Darrah
Horn here on our American Stories and her remarkable speech
to the Jewish Cadets graduating class at West Point twenty
(18:18):
twenty three. Let's return to the final part.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Our American forebears of all backgrounds saw this country as
a wilderness, an open places those fear and possibility. And
I think that the future itself for all of us
is also a kind of wilderness. Full of uncertainty, but
also full of promise. All of you have committed to
a future that you can't possibly imagine, and.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
So did your parents when they raised you. Not so
long ago.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
When the Jewish people accepted the Torah at Mount Sinai,
they said, not seven shma will do it, and then
we will listen to it. They accepted the torrist laws
before even hearing what those laws were, and without regard
to where those obligations might lead them. And only later
did they listen to those laws, learn them, and discover
(19:15):
what they might mean.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
All of you have responded.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
To that call in your lives as Americans to defend
this country with everything that you have and to use
your talents to lead others in its defense. And by
being here today and in all of your many roles
in this Jewish community here at West Point, all of
you are also responding to that call in your lives
as American Jews. For some of you, the power and
(19:45):
beauty of Judaism is something that has always been part
of your life. For some of you, it's something that
you either discovered or deepened here in this place that
you entered while instinctively knowing what it means to live
a life of commitment. But all of you are about
to go out into the wilderness. Your lives as American
(20:08):
military leaders in the coming years will be well structured,
with many challenging but apparent paths in front of you.
But how you continue to lead and deepen your Jewish
lives and what paths you'll take as Jewish leaders, is
still entirely up to you.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
That freedom and responsibility will be very uncomfortable. You will
be making those choices in many places where you might.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Not have a Jewish community to support you, and at
a moment in history where a a resurgence of hatred
might tempt you to make the more comfortable choice of
not being quickly Jewish at all. But you also have
the courage of many generations of Jews behind you who
have made the uncomfortable choice, generations going back to Sinai,
(21:02):
the more recent generations who escaped the persecutions of other
places to come to this country, and also the thousand
plus Jewish graduates of West Point who to whose names
we've just added yours. This country is one of the
few places in the world where Jews has had the
opportunity to.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Serve as military leaders.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
But in every place that Jews have had that opportunity,
they have seized it. Even in the nine hundreds, the
Hebrew poets Mulhana Gid was the chief general of Spain's empire,
leading Ernies into battle.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
In the ancient world, Jews.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Were so renowned for being elite warriors that they were
actively recruited by Persian and other imperial forces, who manned
their most dangerous outposts.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
Entirely with Jewish commanders.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
And as all of you know, we have had Jewish
graduates from West Point from the very beginning. These were
all people who deeply understood the call to a life
of service. You have spent the past four years learning
from the many military leaders around you, and maybe sometimes
learning from them how you don't want to lead, and
(22:16):
I think you have that in common with all West
Point graduates from the past two hundred years. But allow
me to take a moment to prepare you for your
future with some advice given to the very first Jewish
military leader, long before West Point existed. When Moses died
in the wilderness, the leadership of the Jewish people passed
(22:39):
to Joshua, a man with whom today's graduates share much
in common. Joshua was born into a people who had
endured great oppression in the past in a foreign land,
but whose new generation was born free from the sufferings
of their elders. Their challenge was different, to build the
(23:00):
tech to society that allowed for many different tribes and
perspectives to live together and flourish.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Like many of our graduates today.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Joshua was different from his own parents and even from
his predecessor Moses, because, unlike his civilian predecessors, Joshua was
a warrior, a military leader tasked with entering enemy territory
and defending a nation. Joshua had already engaged in covert operations,
(23:30):
sneaking into the Promised Land to collect intelligence on how
to conquer it. Nearly all of the other spies who
had entered the Promised Land with him told Moses that
the land was unconquerable. Only Joshua and his deputy were
unafraid of the daunting military task that lay ahead of them,
(23:51):
and so when Moses died, God gave Joshua a commencement
speech at what is essentially Joshua's commissionings money. God said
to Joshua the famous Hebrew words, Kazakh, the Emots be
strong and courageous. But the way God continued this commencement
(24:12):
speech is very revealing. God did not give Joshua military
advice or tell him to respect his elders or to
where sunscreamed. Instead, God told Joshua to keep warning. God
said to Joshua, you should keep the book of the
Torah always on your lips.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
You should recite from it night and day.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
For God, Kazakh, the Emmots to be strong and courageous
meant being brave enough to always continue learning, to keep
going back to that uncomfortable place, to be curious and
humble enough to learn what you don't yet know, not
just about the battlefield and not just about life, but
(24:59):
about this time, this Jewish civilization, this powerful antidote to tyranny,
that has brought us to this moment, and that now
relies upon you to sustain it. So on this momentous day,
I am not going to tell you to wear sunscreen,
(25:19):
because I think that you have all of the rules
and regulations you need that are going to tell you
exactly what you're supposed to wear.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
You're also already you also.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Already know that you will make mistakes, and you already
can teach the rest of us about how to live
life to the fullest. Instead, I want to offer you
the words of the God of our ancestors, Kazakh the Amats.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Be strong and courageous.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Be strong and courageous enough to lead people into battle.
Be strong and courageous enough to learn again and again
what is worth defending. Be strong and courageous enough to
stand at Sinai at every hour of every day. Be
strong and courageous as you carry forth with you the
(26:09):
antidote to tyranny. Borrow atater nilo Hanu malafala chef yanu
the kiyamanu vihigiyanu was Manhase. Blessed you, order, God, Ruler
of the universe, who has kept us alive and sustained.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Us and brought us to this moment.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
And I'm saying this blessing just for myself, for the
honor of being in your presence today. May God bless
all of you graduates. May God bless America and all
of its defenders.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Mazeltov, and you've been listening to Darrah Horne, an award
winning author, recipient of three National Jewish Book Awards, and
you can see your work of The New York Times,
Wall Street Journal, The Smithsonian, The Atlantic. This one appeared
in the tablet. This speech. I cried reading it on
an airplane. Again. I'm not Jewish, but these ideas, these words,
(27:00):
they're just so beautiful. Be strong and courageous, he said,
to lead people into battle and to learn what's worth defending.
Be strong and courageous, and carry forth with you. The
Antidote to Tyranny. The story of Darrew Horne's commencement speech
at West Point to the Jewish Cadets graduating class of
(27:21):
twenty twenty three. How it came to be here on
Our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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