Gerson: A special gratitude

As we prepare for the Thanksgiving holiday next week, I know that we shall see, in the papers and magazines, the usual slew of articles in which various people - some well-known - write on "I am thankful for ..."

Some of their words are very profound, some deliberately humorous, some even inane.

I guess that my words this time are in that genre, but I hope they are meaningful, as they truly come from my heart.

On this Thanksgiving, I would like to succinctly say that I am extremely thankful to be a Jew in America. And a certain memory will help explain my feelings.

Some time ago - and it was reported with a lovely story on the front page of this newspaper - I was invited by then-Congressman John Linder to deliver the opening prayer of the daily session of the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. Standing at the podium - where presidents, generals and other dignitaries have stood - on that crisp fall morning in 1999, I thought to myself, "Here I am, son of a people who have experienced the worst persecution through the centuries in other lands, nearly wiped out during World War II. And now, as a rabbi and a Jew in America, from a small town in Georgia, I stand as my people's representative, at the lectern of the highest legislative body in America. How far we have come, and how blessed is this country which made it all possible!"

I do not presume to speak for American Jews in general, but I do know many feel as I do: the grat