Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Our shared humanity and collective responsibility

Opinion

Our shared humanity and collective responsibility
Getty Images

Rothberg leads Einhorn Collaborative, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to addressing America’s growing crisis of connection by advancing the science and practice of empathy, mutual understanding, and relationship building in the United States. She leads a dedicated team that comes together around a shared question: How can we live and work together in ways that both embrace our differences and nurture our shared humanity?

In a conversation with Eboo Patel on his podcast, journalist Amanda Ripley described high conflicts as “whenever you see contempt, disgust, violent rhetoric, and action… and more personally, you can feel it internally.” I felt a sense of clarity when I heard this description. Maybe that is why I have had trouble finding the words when people ask me the seemingly simple question: How are you?


Over the past months, we have seen versions of high conflict play out in the U.S. on social media and college campuses, as well as in our workplaces and the halls of Congress, in response to the October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israeli civilians and the ongoing war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza and Israel.

In the wake of such profound ruptures in communities across our country, as Executive Director of Einhorn Collaborative, a non-profit foundation working to build social connection and cohesion for well over a decade, I have received many messages from friends, family, and colleagues asking what it will take to continue to bridge divides at this moment, against a societal backdrop of heightened ostracization, “othering,” and the absence of belonging felt by many Americans.

Answering this question has become increasingly challenging, and I am sure I am not the only one feeling that way. You may be wrestling with this question, too, and I want you to know that you are not alone.

In moments of such wrestling, especially when the hurt feels so close, it's important to find ways to take a step back and ask ourselves a bigger question, such as “What is our collective responsibility at this moment?”

David Einhorn, Trustee and Founder of the foundation where I work, beautifully answered this question in a recent letter to Cornell students, written on the heels of protests and violent antisemitic threats on campus. He looked to our next generation as the possibility and hope we need to build a more pluralistic society, where people of different backgrounds and beliefs work together to build community, find belonging, and draw upon their differences to solve shared problems.

Here is a short excerpt of David’s letter, and I encourage you to read it in full in The Cornell Daily Sun:

"The value of diversity does not come from huddling with your own group. Rather, it comes from engaging with those who are different from you. The whole community benefits when you make that effort to engage. Whoever the ‘they’ is, they proudly wear the same Cornell sweatshirts you do.

Even on contentious issues like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, you may be surprised by the common beliefs, values, hopes, and fears that you share with someone from a different background, life experience, and perspective. No matter where we live or what faith we practice, we all want to be free from bigotry and hatred. We want to contribute positively to our communities and provide for our families. We want to see our loved ones come home safely at night. And we want to live lives of meaning, with myriad opportunities that help each of us flourish and thrive.

As you confront the crisis of hyper-polarization and divisions at Cornell, I ask that you see the inherent humanity and dignity in all people, especially those with whom you disagree. This creates a campus culture that enables us to build trust and relationships across lines of difference, repair ruptures, and bridge divides."

I can’t help but think that David’s message to and belief in Cornell students can be applied to every facet of our lives today: in our homes, neighborhoods, and workplaces, as well as on our school campuses. Even if you did not go to Cornell, I hope you can see yourself in David’s letter. Let it inspire you to do the greatest good for yourself, the people you love, and the people with whom you fundamentally disagree.

As we have seen in the past month and throughout our history, international conflicts, no matter how far away, have the potential to further polarize the American public and inflame underlying threats of violence. Even though social connection and social cohesion in our country may be harder to achieve in this new context, our shared work of fostering trust among Americans and repairing the social fabric is much needed now.

It will take time to rebuild relationships, empathy, and understanding for many who are affected by the recent events, and it will require all of us. I’m grateful to many of our partners and field-leading organizations like Citizen University, Braver Angels, Interfaith America, Resetting the Table, More in Common, BridgeUSA, Constructive Dialogue Institute, and Millions of Conversations that are meeting the moment with urgency by providing support and resources to communities experiencing rupture and heightened divisions.

In the last few weeks, I keep returning to pieces written by the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. I came upon one quote that has since stayed with me, “The world we build tomorrow is born in the stories we tell our children today.” As I put my children to bed each night, holding them a bit tighter and longer these days, I tell them fables like the one about a lion and a mouse and why acts of kindness, no matter how big or small, are never wasted.

When we see ourselves reflected in another human being, we see that our survival and well-being are inextricably linked. May this be our guiding light as we navigate such darkness.

A version of this article was originally published in the Einhorn Collaborative’s newsletter.

Read More

Connecting Early Childhood Development to Climate Change

The Connecting Early Childhood Development to Climate Change report offers practical guidance for advocates, researchers, organizers, and other communicators who can help shape conversations about climate change and child development.

FrameWorks Institute

Connecting Early Childhood Development to Climate Change

Summary

Climate change is typically framed as a future problem, but it’s already reshaping the environments where children live, grow, play, and learn. Despite that reality, public attention is rarely focused on how climate change affects children’s development—or what we can do about it.

This report, produced in partnership with the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University and Harvard Chan C-CHANGE, offers practical guidance for advocates, researchers, organizers, and other communicators who can help shape conversations about climate change and child development. It includes:

Keep ReadingShow less
The Ivory Tower is a Persisting Legacy of White Supremacy

Conservative attacks on higher education and DEI reveal a deeper fear of diversity—and the racial roots of America’s “ivory tower.”

Getty Images, izusek

The Ivory Tower is a Persisting Legacy of White Supremacy

The Trump administration and conservative politicians have launched a broad-reaching and effective campaign against higher education and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts in particular. These attacks, often amplified by neo-conservative influencers, are not simply critiques of policy or spending. At their core, they reflect anxiety over the growing presence and visibility of marginalized students and scholars within institutions that were not historically designed for them.

The phrase ivory tower has become shorthand for everything critics dislike about higher education. It evokes images of professors lost in abstract theorizing, and administrators detached from real-world problems. But there is a deeper meaning, one rooted in the racial history of academia. Whether consciously or not, the term reinforces the idea that universities are–and should remain–spaces that uphold whiteness.

Keep ReadingShow less
The Critical Value of Indigenous Climate Stewardship

As the COP 30 nears, Indigenous-led conservation offers the best hope to protect the Amazon rainforest and stabilize the global climate system.

Getty Images, photography by Ulrich Hollmann

The Critical Value of Indigenous Climate Stewardship

In August, I traveled by bus, small plane, and canoe to the sacred headwaters of the Amazon, in Ecuador. It’s a place with very few roads, yet like many areas in the rainforest, foreign business interests have made contact with its peoples and in just the last decade have rapidly changed the landscape, scarring it with mines or clearcutting for cattle ranching.

The Amazon Rainforest is rightly called the “lungs of the planet.” It stores approximately 56.8 billion metric tons of carbon, equivalent to nearly twice the world’s yearly carbon emissions. With more than 2,500 tree species that account for roughly one-third of all tropical trees on earth, the Amazon stores the equivalent to 10–15 years of all global fossil fuel emissions. The "flying rivers" generated by the forest affect precipitation patterns in the United States, as well our food supply chains, and scientists are warning that in the face of accelerating climate change, deforestation, drought, and fire, the Amazon stands at a perilous tipping point.

Keep ReadingShow less
U.S. President Donald Trump greeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

U.S. President Donald Trump (2R) is welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) at Ben Gurion International Airport on October 13, 2025 in Tel Aviv, Israel. President Trump is visiting the country hours after Hamas released the remaining Israeli hostages captured on Oct. 7, 2023, part of a US-brokered ceasefire deal to end the war in Gaza.

Getty Imges, Chip Somodevilla

The Ceasefire That Shattered a Myth

And then suddenly, there was a ceasefire — as if by divine miracle!

Was the ceasefire declared because Israel had finally accomplished its declared goals?

Keep ReadingShow less