For Sue Kurtz

on the Dedication of

The Malcolm Rosenberg Hillel Center

Virginia Polytechnic Institute

April 21, 2013

We have not come into being to hate or to destroy

We have come into being

To praise, to labor, and to love

A year ago this plot was clay. Now, quarried 

in Roanoke and Jerusalem, in Tidewater and Tiveria, 

Hokie stone rises from red ash borne 

by an orange and maroon bird, reborn 

from the dust of the six million and the blood 

of the thirty-two shot and killed in madness. 

Thirty-two. Gematria for heart, for purpose, for resolve, 

for Yah keeps, Yah assembles, Yah is good,

but also for hollow out, for pierce, for hide. 

So many different visions to be incorporated,

so many arguments for the sake of heaven,

so many shekels needed to build this tabernacle, 

this dwelling place in the Virginia wilderness, that

we were not always certain we’d see this day.

New generations will be born in this house,

not a headstone for he whose name it bears, 

but a school for justice, a home for souls, a vineyard. 

This is the fulfillment of those who came, 

furriers, spice merchants, schmata men, teachers, 

and scientists, in hope of life without pogrom,

without persecution. And those who did not come, 

who were lost in fire. 

This is our meaning, our community, our family.

This is our purpose, to struggle, to build, to continue.

This mishkan. This people. This blue day. This.