It is January 6. I am sitting in one of my favorite coffee shops. It has been declared #JewishAndProud Day by American Jewish Committee.

So many thoughts as I sit here studying Talmud, wearing my Guatemalan kippah that I bought right here in Elgin. It was part of what solidified my coming to Elgin. They had fair trade Guatemalan kippot in the gift shop. I broke my own rules and bought one.

It is true that I have a kippah to match almost every outfit. And many times, as a woman rabbi many times people don’t even realize I am wearing a kippah. They just think it is some fancy headpiece.

Why is this important. Because I can. Because after the mass shootings in Pittsburgh, members of my own congregation got nervous about me wearing a kippah in public. I might put all of us in danger. But I met with each of my coffee shops. Diane and Brian at Arabica, Kathleen and Chris at Blue Box and Gregg at Starbucks. Each of them said, some variation on “Yes, please wear your kippah. You are safe here.” Well, one thought the Energizer Rabbi peace one with the sparkly studs might be a bit flashy.

Now we all know there is no guarantee of safety anywhere. It only takes one crazy person to interrupt the calm. But as I sit here in the first of many locations, not a nasty word has been said to me.

It hasn’t always been so. Jews have been persecuted for thousands of years. Sometimes even forced to wear a head covering to identify them. In World War II, Jews had to wear a yellow star with the word Jude, Jew written in the center. Their passports were stamped and their legal names were changed to include Sara for women and Israel for men.

My own Sarah, whose birthday is today, once had an issue in public school in the 90s. A girls told her that if Sarah were Jewish she couldn’t be her friend. We were a little stunned. Later that year, Sarah chose to read the Diary of Anne Frank for Biography Day. It was right around Halloween and it was how some of the older grades got around celebrating without celebrating. Each kid had to dress as their character. Oh why couldn’t my kid have picked Michelle Kwan like every other girl in class? We wrestled with how Sarah would dress. Would she wear a yellow star and sit at her desk all day like that?

We talked to her principal who didn’t think there would be any issues. We talked to a good friend who was a Holocaust survivor who figured out a way to do it. Anne Frank didn’t have to wear a star when she was in school. That law hadn’t been enacted before the Jewish kids were expelled from school. Why not, in order to make the point, make a star out of felt and pin it on. If she felt uncomfortable at all she could just unpin it.

In fact that is just what she did. Without any problems.May that always be so!

I sit here with my kippah on proudly. In the large picture window, without any fear or remorse. Proudly, wonderfully Jewish. And yet, I have the ability to take off my kippah if I were to so choose. Today I choose to sit here and wear it. Proudly, wonderfully Jewish.