Marty Levine
September 22, 2025
On October 14, 2023, a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy was murdered because he was a Palestinian Boy. Yesterday I was honored to attend a ceremony naming a community playground in his honor. I thought I would share my comments.
We are thinking this morning of a youngster, Wadee AlFayoumi, who should be here with us, playing in this park and its new playground, surrounded by friends and family. And as I think of him, I cannot help but think of my grandson Asher, who is the same age that Wadee was when he was murdered, killed only because he was a Palestinian and a Muslim.
The pain of this act, the pain of this senseless act, must not be forgotten.
We are here just days after the 62nd anniversary of another moment when hatred took the lives of our children, when haters bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham and took the lives of 4 young girls, Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Carol Denise McNair.
We are here a little more than 80 years after Anne Frank was murdered.
We are here when, just this morning, another child was murdered in Gaza
All were children killed because we have tolerated hatred more than we have valued love.
n my tradition, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel taught us that ”Racism is the greatest threat to man. That indifference to evil is more insidious than evil itself.” Our silence provides justification, making evil acceptable in society.”
We come together this morning at a time when that hatred seems to be all around us, when the forces of evil that took Wadee’s life seem to be all around us. We can not let them drive us apart and forget that all of us are created in God’s image; that each life has infinite value.
This morning we join together, coming from our different families and communities, to say”No! We will not let hatred destroy us.”
We come together, reminded in a moment of great pain, inspired by the teaching of another wise person, James Baldwin, “that it demands great spiritual resilience not to hate the hater whose foot is on your neck, and an even greater miracle of perception and charity to teach your child and to remind each other not to hate.”
This morning I remember that Anne Frank, in the midst of darkness, still told us, “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.”
This morning, Wadee’s memory is a blessing because it renews our commitment to fight for what matters most…Peace in our community and in Palestine…Justice here and in Palestine…and an end to senseless hatred here and in Palestine.
Tomorrow night, my community will begin its celebration of Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of a new year. I hope for all of us that it will be a year in which we can see our prayers for an end to slaughter are answered, a year in which the hatred ends and the killing stops. A year in which Julia Ramirez’ “Block The Bomb” will stop the flow of bombs to Israel.
May Wadee’s memory be for a blessing.
