Lyric Crane’s isolating experiences led her to become a passionate educator about the Holocaust and anti-Semitism. A guest essay.
Recently I saw a sign in front of a store in Seattle that read “We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.” In an era where victimhood seems to have increasing currency, I was surprised to see a message of resilience.
Lyric Crane, an Everett-based young woman, embodies this message. She took the pain of anti-Semitism throughout her childhood and turned it into fuel for her journey as an educator. Crane, a graduate of Western Washington University, was selected for the Masa Global Leadership Summit earlier this year and is now teaching English to children in Jerusalem.
Something else struck me about this essay: the loneliness of growing up without a strong Jewish community. I spent a lot of time thinking about this earlier this week, on Purim. Members of our community walked around the neighborhood exchanging treats, filled synagogues and living rooms to hear the Megillah, raised tens of thousands of dollars for charity in a single day, and ate and drank and laughed with friends. It made me appreciate the built-in safety net Judaism not only provides but actually mandates.
Purim, of course, is also the celebration of a woman’s heroism in the face of genocide and an upside-down world. It’s a good reminder of the power we all hold, no matter how small we are. It’s a reminder to join a community, because we can’t do it alone. And it’s a call to embrace our pain and keep burning it as fuel.