Everyone Is Wrong, the Media Lies, and Am Yisrael—the Jewish People—Want to Live in Peace and Acceptance
July 01, 2025
“Since 10/7 I am so tribal, hard for me to believe peace and loving is possible in the neighborhood [Israel’s]” text from a friend who used to live in Israel
“In the shelter. Hope to be on time” text from a friend who moved to Israel almost 20 years ago referring to a scheduled zoom meeting
“My heart goes out to you as a Jew in NYC. There’s just so much stress a person can take” text from me referring to the primary election
“Omg he won…I am sick to my stomach” text from a friend who lives in NYC, and whose daughter lives in Israel
Four Jewish women at this moment. Is this what it feels like to be living in history? Mad, sad, defiant, exhausted, disappointed, bitter, pained, searching, sharing, hurling, asking, praying, supporting.
Last night I went back to translating Holocaust narratives from Hebrew to English after a break of months. I lasted for 45 minutes, listening to 20 minutes of an interview. It’s not easy listening to how lovely Budapest was until March 19, 1944, when the Nazis occupied Hungary. It’s never easy listening to how Jews were ripped from their lives, othered to such an extent that their humanity—that humanity—didn’t matter. It’s harder now to be so aware of where “man’s inhumanity to man” can lead and STILL people peddle in hate for political purity and popularity and propaganda and ideological purposes. THE HORROR!
Where are we now in the arc of Jewish history? What holiday will encapsulate what we have been experiencing since October 7 and the world’s horrific response to the savagery that Israelis faced on that day and every day since in the normalized attacks against Jews around the world? What will our descendants eat to show that we survived, yet again? Maybe we’ll eat watermelons with seeds and the thickest skin. Will we teach our children to never trust anyone—not even other Jews—because they can turn on you in their desire to be accepted. Will we wear dull-colored cloaks over brightly colored clothes to show that inside we never acquiesced?
But I must stop thinking that way. I need to stay firmly in this moment and push back against it. Add to the voices, of Jews and our allies, who refuse to be dragged down to the hypnotic beat of hypocrisy. Tell me again how you’re for human rights, but, that it’s okay to kill all Jews?
Since October 7, when I wake up, I say Modeh Ani (a gratitude prayer) and the Shema (announcing G!d’s oneness). Before bed, I read aloud one psalm, connecting my heart back to and through others who have also lived Jewish history (I will not recount the other times of distress through the millennia!), to King David, their author, to entreat G!d to let us/me feel his presence, his protection. We are here. I am here. Hineni.
The 9th plague during Passover is darkness. Are we living in another plague of darkness, a metaphorical darkness? What light can each of us bring to turn back the descent into evil? That is my task. Your task. Be the light, even if it’s to one person. How will I/you be and bring light?