As the news broke last week of Yahya Sinwar being killed by the IDF, I experienced many emotions, as I'm sure many people did. Surprisingly, one of the thoughts that filtered into my brain was the idea of character. Thinking about one's character has been on my mind as I have come out of the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

 

Several years ago, our community had the distinct pleasure of Michael Josephson speaking in our community when he was our Jewish Federation Annual Meeting keynote speaker. If the name does not sound familiar, I'm sure his voice might if you ever listened to KNX1070. You see, up until 2011, he told these stories about people during little vignettes that were included periodically on KNX1070's news coverage. Whenever I heard his voice, I was always captivated to listen to what his story would be "this" time, and it always revolved around the idea that the way one carries himself and acts is critical. He used to end each of his segments with... "This is Michael Josephson, reminding you that Character Counts!"

 

One of my wife's and my favorite Michael Josephson's writings is titled What Will Matter. If you have never read it, take a few minutes and do so right now. To summarize it, the poem talks about how when all is said and done, it won't matter what we own or possess, but rather how we have chosen to carry ourselves and the way we've treated other people. Have we done all we could to help our fellow man? Have we conducted ourselves morally? Have we been honest with our customers and staff in business? He ends his poem with these words:

 

Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident. It's not a matter of circumstances but of choice. Choose to live a life that matters.

 

Josephson believed in this work so much that he created a nonprofit called Character Counts! (in honor of his parents) to help improve school-aged students' character, social-emotional, and academic skills and school culture. The curriculum his organization developed has been used in schools throughout the country.

 

This same idea and belief in the importance of one's character is also a part of Judaism. As you know, our tradition, along with other religions) teaches what it means to be a moral person. And yet, we still find ourselves in a climate of hate that we are trying to overcome. How we choose to live our lives and the way we treat others does matter.

 

Two weeks from today, the vast majority of American society will have either voted or will be heading to the polls/ballot drop-off boxes to vote. With both ideas in mind, the LA County Commission on Human Relations' LA vs. Hate program created a new Vote Against Hate campaign for this exact moment. The idea behind this is to encourage people to "consider voting for people and policies that strengthen our diverse communities and protect them against hate and discrimination. Everyone should remember voting is a human right and a tool in the fight against hate and discrimination."

 

We must remember that how we choose to conduct ourselves through our actions and beliefs does matter. And… it can help reduce the amount of hate that exists in the world if everyone keeps this in mind.