Last week, I went to Bethany Beach with my family. For 30 years, we’ve held this tradition sacred, gathering the parents, kids, cousins, nieces, nephews, and significant others together for some memorable quality time. This year was especially meaningful as we had four generations together under one roof. What a gift it was lounging together with my dad and my grandson.

I like to think that familial ties are a central part of what animates our community as well. That Jewish peoplehood acts as a special source of gravity, drawing and holding people close by virtue of their Jewish identity. This is something that has held us together for thousands of years, through great struggles and great successes, and it’s something we want to continue nurturing across Jewish Greater Washington.

But I also know that a community is built on more than association. While family is enough to bond our crew at Bethany Beach, our community rests on several building blocks including faith, tradition, memory, language, experiences, aspirations, and mutual responsibility.

Importantly, the bonds of peoplehood free us from having to reach consensus. It enables and supports our diverse opinions and our individual evolving relationships to Judaism and Jewish life and adds to our collective vitality. At Federation, we work every day to proliferate Jewish learning and pride and build paths for people seeking to connect with others and with Jewish wisdom. We want to ensure that everyone can tap into the transformative sense of belonging that comes from being part of a diverse Jewish people.

But honoring our differences is only step one. Step two is working with and across our differences to shape the Jewish future. This is no easy feat at a time when convictions run deep. How do we articulate our values while leaving room for a broad range of Jewish expression? How do we stand for something in a topsy-turvy world while strengthening our ties?

Some days, I wake up ready to draw definitive lines in the sand and on other days, all I want to do is protect our ability to stay in conversation with one another. I’m convinced that finding the balance between conviction and peoplehood, fluidity and delineation, will be the work of our time.

I know many of you feel this tension too. We care about what is happening in our communities, our country, and the world, and sometimes that means we find each other on opposite sides of an issue. How we manage our response in these scenarios will have a profound impact on where we go from here.

So long as we remember our commitment to each other, our vast array of opinions and perspectives can only be a strength.