Hi, I'm Harris Lapiroff.

I am trying, today, Rosh Hashanah, to think about the sweetness of the new year.

All I can think of is the bombs being dropped far away, funded by my taxes, exploded in my name.

It feels unfair that Israel should be able to take this from me. I don’t want my celebration of Jewish holidays to be predicated on what Israel is doing. I often say that my Judaism has nothing to do to Israel. My ancestors were Jewish long before the modern state of Israel existed. I’ve seen no evidence they ever lived on the land that Israel claims is my homeland. Frankly, I would be Jewish even if the state of Israel did not exist. Nor do I feel any safer because it does exist. So what right does it have to invade my thoughts on this day, to mar a celebration of renewal with cities ground down to rubble and the bloodied bodies of Arab children?

But here I am, unable to think of much else.

I will do what I can to make the world sweet. May the next year be sweeter than the last, for all of us.