I think Christianity has to do with a sense of kindness or sense of civility or a sense of goodness. I think what happened with this whole menorah thing is that permission was given for people to be good. People are often told that, but in this case, we gave them a way to do it.

All kinds of people put up menorahs, like the little old ladies over on D Street with the plate-glass windows and no family. Wow! What a risk they took. In a sense, they were helpless. When the Schnitzers’ home got hit, we all knew they were very capable people. I’m not sure about these people. These other people were really afraid. They weren’t mounting a huge human rights campaign; they just felt that this was the right thing to do. To me, that’s very impressive.

If I have wept over this at all, this is where I have been most touched—by the people that I know who I’ve seen participating. They had the courage to say, “I’m a Jew.” Because that’s what they were saying. Each one had to do it. It wasn’t that someone was going to come and put their glass window back if someone vandalized it. There was no guarantee.

People would tell me, “I’m afraid, I’ve got little kids.” I would say, “I understand that. I don’t put you down for that.” I think the amazing thing about this town was that people struggled with the issue. Never again will people just accept bigotry and think, “Yeah, that’s the way the world works; you just shove people around.” Even people who might’ve been peddling some of that hate might have gotten the message that the world doesn’t automatically accept that hatred is the way of the world. That’s exciting. Kids need that model. Kids need to know that goodness is better.

It’s almost embarrassing about the story. It’s not the Garden of Eden here. We have huge problems. But people are trying. I think this could happen in any community. I used to live in Chicago, and I have so many stories of people reaching out there in ways that you wouldn’t expect. This town is a little smaller, the air is a little cleaner, but I think this is every place. It’s not unique here. If it is, we are all in big trouble.

There’s a Native American word, ondinnok, that means the benevolent desires of the soul. The Iroquois believe that if those desires aren’t allowed to come out, you get sick, because those desires are at war with other, conflicting feelings. That makes more sense to me than philosophies. I can feel these two forces in my own tummy. I believe a lot of sickness is caused by the inability to express goodness.