Fast Times, Memories, and Lessons (plus Happy Sylvester)

Posted on December 31, 2023 by Keith Dvorchik

It’s the last day of 2023 – Happy New Year! (Happy Sylvester for those who know). My 13 year old dog Bella woke me up early to eat her breakfast and go outside. After taking care of her needs and brewing a pot of coffee, I sat down and turned on the television. One of my favorite movies, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, was on, so I had to watch it. It immediately brought back memories.

Fast Times chronicles high school in the early 80’s. It’s the story of my adolescence. At different times I can relate with Brad, Spicoli, Rat, and Damone. We knew who was Linda, who was Stacy, and who was Lisa. Certainly we all had a teacher like Mr. Hand. The hair, clothes, language, teachers, cars, and situations bring me right back to being in high school. The friends and the fun we had, all while looking forward to our amazing futures in college, with careers, and the unlimited opportunities ahead of us. It was the 1980s, so capitalism was king. Everybody believed they would become incredibly successful and wealthy. We had no limits ahead of us.

Hanging out in somebody’s basement. Life was good and the future was bright for all of us.

It’s hard to believe that was about 40 years ago. As I think back over the past approximately 40 years, I wonder where the time has gone. I still feel like that 15–17-year-old high school kid most of the time, even though my own children are much older than that. I still feel like I have that amazing future in front of me even though I also recognize that nearly 2/3 of my life is now behind me.

Lately I have been thinking a lot about those times. I attended two high schools. My freshman and sophomore year were at Susquehanna in Harrisburg, PA. Then we moved to the Philadelphia area where I finished high school at Upper Dublin. My Susquehanna friends were friends from elementary, middle, and high school where we had a long history of growing up together. My friends from Upper Dublin were forged from the power of the last two years of high school and coming of age together. I moved to Florida in 1992 and lost contact with many of them until social media gave us the opportunity to reconnect many years later.

My high school classmates have had lives that cross the entire spectrum. Unfortunately, some died tragic deaths at a young age. I think of them and what they missed in life often, grateful for my own life experiences. Some of them have been wildly financially successful, earning generational wealth. Most of us have lived lives filled with meaning, getting through the ups and downs that life brings us. We have faced challenges and successes, often with dignity and sometimes without. Yet here we are, about to enter 2024, just like we entered our senior year of high school back in 1984. Looking forward to what life brings us. I went back and found some pictures of us. Some aged well and some, well, let’s say they just aged.

Half of our graduating class. Try to find me – it definitely didn’t age well.

The other half of our class.

A group of us got to spend a month in England in November 1984. Feel free to write about my timeless look in the comments.

One of our favorite pictures from England as we got to dress in ancestral clothes

A group of us before prom. Perfectly 1980s

I was active in BBYO – most in this picture still keep in touch today.

Toga parties were the thing back then

One of my dear friends died of breast cancer this year. She was a few months older than me, we graduated high school together, and kept in touch through the years. Our lives followed similar paths. Careers, marriage, children, family. Meaningful lives that we could be proud of. And then cancer struck. She beat it once, but it came back and won the second time. A .500 average in baseball would mean a unanimous Hall of Fame career. A sad outcome in life. We spoke a few months before her passing and while there seemed to be a resignation in her voice, she remained hopeful for the future. When I think of her, I am always shocked that she is really gone and we won’t be able to share pictures, laughs, and the joy of our children’s accomplishments. We won’t be able to reminisce about ‘the good old days’ and laugh out loud at how ridiculous we were.

My dad died in 2022. A few months ago, my mom told me a story that she had just recently heard from the person who was in the ambulance with him as he was transferred from a hospital in Tampa to Advent Health in Orlando. He told this person that he wasn’t afraid of dying. He just was sad about all that he would miss. I think about his wisdom and insight all the time since my mom shared that story with me. And how much he has missed in just over a year. And how much he will miss and how much we miss him. It brings tears to my eyes every single time.

My dad, Evan and me on the field at Ben Hill Griffin stadium before a game during Evan’s football recruiting. One of my treasured memories as I watched my dad kvell over his grandson.

It reminds me that time is our most precious commodity and the only thing we can’t get back. In 2013 when our moving truck caught fire and burned and we lost our material possessions, so many people reached out because of the loss. Yet while we were saddened to have lost things that we loved; they were all replaceable. And in my ‘proof God exists’ moment, the only things that weren’t lost in the moving fire were the things that couldn’t be replaced with any amount of money. Things that came from our grandparents. Our ketubah (Jewish marriage certificate). Picture albums from my bar mitzvah, from our wedding, from when the kids were babies. We can make more money, get another car, buy a different house or move to a different apartment, get new clothes, furniture, or other material things. What we can’t get back is time.

The smell of smoke and burned things is fresh for me when I look at these pictures more than 10 years later.

So, as we end 2023 and begin 2024, I hope this is a year focused on people. On friends and loved ones. I have enjoyed reconnecting with my high school friends and seeing what their lives are like. Enjoying their work and life accomplishments. Seeing pictures of their grandchildren (I’m far too young to have grandchildren). Watching their children graduate college, get married, have B’nai mitzvahs, and their major career changes. Sharing stories both online and in person with each other, reminding ourselves of these special time that while long gone feel like yesterday. I appreciate these friendships more every day and how we are able to help each other or our friends and families just because we want to and are able to.

Just a few weeks ago, somehow the topic of a party I threw in early 1983 came up. The comments made me laugh as the memories of that crazy night came back. And of course, the next morning when I was busted by my parents and the punishment that came afterwards. Yet, 40 years later, I don’t regret it and love the memories we all share.

As we think about our goals for the new year, I urge you to think about the ones that are truly important. They are not going to put that you ‘worked 50 hours a week’ on your tombstone. Nobody in their eulogy is going to celebrate that you ingnored your friends and family to work those extra hours. You will be celebrated for the things that you showed up to, not the things you missed to earn money. Think about the friendships from years ago and from today. Think about what is really priceless and what is just transactional. Invest your time and energy in the right place for an unbelievable return. As I do that, I wanted to share some pictures from this past year that re priceless to me. Because family and community is what is truly priceless to me.

My mom, brother, sister and me the day before my dad’s unveiling.

At the Orlando ballet with my son Matthew, his girlfriend Carla, and my wife Alison

Matthew and me at the Jaguars game – special father son time

Matthew and me watching my son Evan coach in the championship game for Tusculum College

Evan on the field before the conference championship game. Matthew and I are in the stands watching and cheering on Tusculum.

Matthew, Carla and me at the theater. Usually it’s Alison but when she has to work, Carla takes her place

Alison and me on vacation in Bali

Evan in his happy place – coaching college football. I’m so grateful he found his passion and is pursuing it.

Traveling to DC with a group from Orlando to join the 300,000 people who rallied in support of Israel after the horrors Hamas committed on October 7, 2023. I’m proud to be one of the people who were there.

Survival of the Jewish people

Posted on December 31, 2023 by Keith Dvorchik

Over the past 3 months, I have discovered substack and the amazing wealth of great writing that is there. Bari Weiss’s The Free Press and Kareem Abdul Jabbar are my two favorites so far and I have paid subscriptions to both. I am currently exploring Daniel Gordis’s Israel From the Inside with a free subscription to decide if it’s worth paying for as well. His piece on Friday moves me closer to paying for the content.

In Friday’s piece, he writes about the letters left by IDF soldiers for their families in case they are killed in combat, highlighting two that have been publicly released and discussing the number of IDF soldiers who have them either on their bodies or left in their rooms at their home. In his words, these letters “reveal a young Israeli generation astounding in the depth of its commitment to the Jewish people.” And more importantly to me, he states, “If the West is to survive, its young women and men will need to emulate them.”

Those statements and the article itself made me think deeply about the future of Judaism, of Jewish life in America, the future for my children and future grandchildren. It brought me back to my childhood and talking with my grandparents about Jewish life when it was so different than today. I also thought about my own Jewish identity, both what it means to me and how I express it. I thought about the way I grew up and how I live now, both the similarities and the clear differences.

For many people, what it means to be Jewish changed in the aftermath of October 7^th. For some, it was because of the murder, rape, kidnapping, and other atrocities that were reported. For others, it was watching their ‘friends, colleagues, and allies’ abandon them. Others watched or experienced the increase in antisemitism and Jew hatred around the country, in their backyard or on their alma mater’s campus. They were shaken by the hatred they saw or experienced. Many people, for the first time in their lives, realized that they were Jews first and that every other identity was secondary. It was similar to the revelation the Jews of Germany experienced in the 1930s.

I have wondered about the future of Jewish life in America for most of my 25-year career in the Jewish world. I have watched as Jews of all ages have drifted away from Jewish life and spent more time and resources in the non-Jewish world. I have seen both in my personal life and with my friends and others, the lack of synagogue affiliation, fewer and fewer people keeping kosher (I grew up in kosher home but haven’t kept kosher since I left for college), and more and more people choosing secular life over any form of Jewish life. I wondered if after thousands of years of hatred trying to eliminate the Jewish people, would it finally be their love and acceptance that did it.

The post October 7^th world shows me that I may have been right. The increase of Jew hatred has seemed to generate interest in Jews exploring Jewish life and finding out what being Jewish means for them. In many ways it reminds of me of what happened on September 11^th on college campuses when it became ok to ask spiritual questions and students were very much asking about God.**

As Jews begin to question what it means to be Jewish, they are finding all sorts of different answers. For me, I have found a few things that answer that and are meaningful.

I have chosen to get involved in Jewish rituals. This includes things like putting on tefillin, lighting candles on Shabbat, and I am preparing to bake challah once again with a new gluten free recipe so I can enjoy it as well.

I am spending an hour a week learning Torah with a Rabbi and meet with another Rabbi friend of mine for an hour a week to talk and begin doing some Jewish learning. I enjoy these deep conversations and how each week we take ancient Jewish text and convert it into a lesson for the 21^st century and my daily life. Unlike Hebrew School as a child, the time flies by as we discuss, argue, debate, and question each other. It’s intellectual, spiritual, and fun.

I wear very little jewelry. It’s not who I am. After October 7^th, I decided that I wanted to wear a piece of Judaica, so I searched and found a beautiful Magen David (star of David) made by an Israeli artist that has Israel at the center of it. I wear it proudly outside of my shirt, publicly displaying my Jewish identity and my love of Israel.

I hung a new, special mezuzah made from the plastic removed from the water by Tikkun HaYam (Repair the Seas) on my new home office. You can purchase one of these mezuzahs or the other cool things they make from recycled plastic here.

I continue to watch the inspirational messages that my friends Harry Rothenberg and Ari Shabat send each week based on the Torah portion. The 3-4 minutes I spend to watch each of them inspires me and gets me thinking about something I can do in my life. I look forward to getting them each week.

As you see, it’s not a lot. Yet it is meaningful and makes my day better because I take the time to do something Jewish on a regular basis.

It brings me back to the two statements above from Daniel Gordis:

“reveal a young Israeli generation astounding in the depth of its commitment to the Jewish people.”

The IDF called up 300,000 reserves and expected 250,000 at most to actually report for duty. Instead, 360,000 showed up. This was due to their commitment to the Jewish people. The bitter political divides in Israel were put aside after October 7^th as the commitment to Israel and to the Jewish people took precedence. Watching the Haredi (groups within Orthodox Judaism that are characterized by their strict adherence to halakha (Jewish law) and traditions) sign up for the army when they were exempt was extremely moving for me. I was also incredibly moved by Mia Schem, held hostage by Hamas in Gaza for 55 days. Not long after her release, she got a tattoo that reads, “We will dance again”. Her commitment to not allow Hamas to define her future shows me that I can’t allow anybody to determine my future either. This is the commitment of the Maccabees, of those on Masada, of Ruth and Queen Esther. It is what has allowed the Jewish people to continue to survive.

“If the West is to survive, its young women and men will need to emulate them.”

This is the important point for those of us in the United States and in the diaspora. Our young men and women need to emulate this commitment. I watch the divide among our youth about Israel and Judaism and fear for the survival of Jewish life in the diaspora. We fight amongst ourselves and give those who want us to not exist the ammunition they need. We defend those who exhibit Jew hatred, antisemitism, through intellectual statements, qualifying what they said, blaming others, or using things like race, religion, history of being in a persecuted or minimized group as the reason they have these beliefs and that they don’t really mean it. It’s time for our Jewish young women and men to accept that when people say they want to kill us, they really want to kill us. When people defend those who promise to kill us and are actively killing Jews, they want the Jews to be killed by these people.

We need a radical new approach to Jewish life. We need to inspire people with the beauty and power and meaning of Jewish life. We need to help people understand it’s not ‘all or nothing’ as they may have been taught growing up. Instead, it’s take something, anything, and do it, use it, live it, love it, and maybe it grows into something a little more.

Wearing my Hanukkah PJs – that one thing can be fun!

I saw a meme this Hanukkah that said the miracle of Hannukah is not that the oil lasted 8 days. The miracle of Hanukkah is that it has sustained the Jewish people for over 2,000 years. Let’s not let that miracle burn out when a little effort will make the flames of Judaism grow exponentially.

** I know many people choose to write G-d to not write God’s name but since that isn’t really the name, I choose to just write it.

Change and the power of people

Posted on December 26, 2023December 29, 2023 by Keith Dvorchik

Change isn’t easy. It’s new, it’s different, and often comes with pain, either because it’s something we don’t want or because it’s something that hurts that forces us to see things differently and behave differently. As we approach the new year, 2024, it’s a time many people make resolutions for the new year. Things they will change. A number of years ago I made the last one, and one I have kept ever since. I vowed to stop making New Year’s Resolutions?

Why did I do that? Most of these are aspirational with no intent to actually make the changes. The impetus is a date on the calendar, not a desire for real change, and as a result, they simply don’t work. By not making any more new year’s resolutions, I empowered myself to make the changes in my life when they are needed rather than because it’s now January 1^st of a new year.

As I look back at the past year, it gives me a chance to look at the changes I have made and the impact they have had and what I hope they will have as I move forward.

On September 6, 2022, my father died. I have been lucky in my life to have wonderful relationships with my parents, and this was a transformative moment in my life. My dad was who I went to for advice and guidance. He was a role model. With him no longer physically here, change was needed in my life. I had to find others who could help provide the guidance that my dad offered for nearly 55 years. My Uncle Marty, my close friends Todd and Ron. People who I had long standing, trusted relationships went to a deeper level.

I began to question what was really important in my life. What mattered to me. I made a commitment to increase the amount of time I spent with my family as time had become the most important thing in my life. I wanted to improve my health, lose weight, and get better reports from my doctors. None of this happened overnight, but it all happened because of the combination of the pain from the loss of my dad and the strong desire for something different. I lost 55 pounds, my health improved, and my doctors were beyond thrilled, and I chose to invest more time with my family, taking advantage of what I could. As my oldest son left the house this morning to return to Tennessee because they needed him back a week early, I was filled with gratitude for the time we did get to spend and look forward to the next opportunity. Pain, something we all do our best to avoid, forced change, something we also tend to avoid, to improve my life, which all want but often aren’t willing to do the work to make happen.

I changed my career. As somebody who spent 25 years working in the Jewish non-profit sector, it was something I enjoyed and something that was core to my identity. I had thought of doing something else many times but never actually made it happen. Fear? Insecurity? Uncertainty? Change is often forced upon us and then we have the choice to rise to the challenge or not. I’m excited about the new future and what it means. I have more time with my family, more time to address improving my health and fitness. Less stress. When my mom said to me, “I was waiting to get the call that you had a heart attack.” it was a wake-up call. It’s a new future ahead with things I cannot foresee and yet, I am more excited about it than I have been in a long while. Change can be scary and exhilarating, uncertain and exciting. How we choose to approach it, what our attitude is and what we are willing to often determine our success.

October 7 was a sea change for me and many others. As I watched the news unfold, as I communicated with friends and family in Israel via WhatsApp during the day, I was horrified, scared, angry, and stunned. I’ll never forget the video of people murdered in their cars and they zoomed in on a minivan with the father, dead and slumped forward on the steering wheel while his young daughter, clinging to his back, was slumped dead against him. It’s a horrifying image that is burned into my brain. I saw the 47-minute Hamas video and those images are forever in my memory. I have connections through friends to at least four hostages who thankfully have been returned to Israel. October 7 was deeply personal in a way I never expected or wanted.

As somebody who was already a very public Jew due to my career, being more public wasn’t a real change. But choosing to invest in being Jewish in my actions was something I could do. I had begun learning with a Rabbi and have continued to do that weekly with a bigger zest and interest. Sometimes I’ll even learn with 2 Rabbis in a week because it’s interesting to hear different perspectives. My tefillin is out and gets used (not daily as some change comes slowly). I don’t identify with any particular denomination any longer – I am a Jew and that’s enough. I am not a jewelry person, yet I bought a new Mogen David (Star of David) from Israel that has the State of Israel as the center of the star and wear it proudly and visible when many others are feeling the need to keep theirs hidden due to safety concerns. I have ordered some additional pieces from Israel, both for my own identity and to support Israeli artists. The guy who hates jewelry is now wearing Jewish jewelry.

I have always been somebody who felt that people were the most important thing in the world. Throughout my life and my career, I have always invested in people. I have some long term friends that I have known literally all my life to those who I’ve been friends with for 20 and 30 years. My kids often joke about their ‘relatives’ that aren’t really related to them. Alice and Jerry (z’l), Amy, Gabi, Karen, and their kids. Uncle Aric and Aunt Carol. My best friend Todd. Ron and Sandy z’l (z’l). It’s very common for them to not ask ‘how are we related?’ but ‘are we really related?’ when these names come up.

I have people that I have worked with from 25 years ago that I still keep in touch with and are still friends. These relationships are ones that I treasure (and those who worked with me or were students at UF when I was at Hillel or at Federation in Seattle or the JCC or Federation in Orlando know exactly what I mean and who you are.) We still talk on a regular basis, sometimes out of the blue and sometimes every few weeks. While not a change, my commitment to people has increased in the last year. Investing in them. Helping them. Being their friend regardless of anything else. October 7^th reminded me just how precious those friendships are. The messages on my birthday reminded me how precious those friendships are. People reaching out after my dad died made me realize how incredibly luck and wealthy I am, not because of money or things, but because of people. My career shift highlighted the people who reached out to talk and ask questions. Here are just four examples from the past 5 days that highlight this (I could give many more):

Thursday I spent an hour on a zoom with my friend Harriet. For the past 3 years or so we meet on zoom every week to talk about life, work, stress, family, and the just be friends. It started as part of a cohort and we just never stopped. It’s often the highlight of my week just for the personal connection.
Friday I spent an hour on a zoom with my friend Shelley, catching up on life, talking about our families, our other friends, our careers, things we have considered doing, things we are doing, and just being together for the hour enjoying each others company.
Monday I reached out to a number of friends to wish them a Merry Christmas. One of them, Jamal, let me know that he is writing a book that will be published in 2024 and that he references me in the book and will share it with me before it’s published. I was beyond humbled and overwhelmed by this.
About a week ago, I messaged my friend Yaron, who is a leader in the IDF reserves that I know is on the front line in Gaza. I didn’t expect a prompt reply, or maybe any reply, because of what he is tasked with doing. Monday he replied, apologizing for the delay, which also humbled me. He is currently the operations officer for the Gaza Division so you can imagine what he is living. While he will never talk about it, I heard from other friends that on October 7^th, he grabbed his gun and raced into the fight against the Hamas terrorists, helping defend Israelis by taking on the terrorists. He thanked me for reaching out, for keeping him in my thoughts and that he mattered that much to me. We messaged and began making plans to get together after the war, both when I am in Israel and when he is in the United States. His heroism awes me. The fact that my message to him, asking about him and hoping he is ok and safe and that the war ends both successfully and soon, meant so much to him is proof of the power of people.

At the end of the day, change isn’t easy or fun, but is rewarding. People are the key to change. The relationships we build today can last a lifetime. They help us get through change. They help us get through the pain of things like losing a parent, a massacre on October 7th, dealing with a war where friends are on the front lines, and the challenges of daily life. As we come to the close of 2023, I find myself most proud of three things.

The relationship with my parents and my siblings.
The relationship with my wife and children.
The relationship with my friends, colleagues, and former students.

No amount of money can enter the top 3. No amount of success can enter the top 3. Nothing material truly matters until after those 3. I’m humbled and grateful and look forward to a better 2024.

Relationships Matter

Posted on December 23, 2023 by Keith Dvorchik

Over the past 25 years, I have attended the AIPAC Policy Conference many times. Having the opportunity to listen to incredible speakers, attend great breakout sessions, and lobby on Capitol Hill always made it a highlight.

I have great memories of taking 40+ students from The University of Florida to the conference year after year. Meeting with key Florida politicians and influential leaders for photos. Our Saturday night dinner in Chinatown became legendary and the donor who underwrote it would fly up for the dinner and not stay for the conference, just to interact with the students. I met my friend and teacher, Dr. Ken Stein, at AIPAC Policy Conference after attending his sessions and being blown away with the information he presented. That is now close to a 20-year friendship.

Perhaps the most important thing that I learned at the AIPAC Policy Conference came in 2009, when the theme was “Relationships Matter”. I met my friend Reverend Ken Flowers at that conference. I was named one of AIPAC’s Campus Allies at that conference. Neither of them were the most important thing at that conference. The topic, “Relationships Matter” was the most important thing from that conference.

That was a transformational moment for me as I began to understand the need to build relationships across all levels. People of different religions, cultures, political beliefs, etc. What hit me strongly was that in order to be successful we needed to bridge divides, have real relationships with people, and get involved BEFORE you asked for anything in return. In a country and a world which was already transactional and one that has since become even more transactional, these real relationships matter. They are what change the world.

Over the past 14 years, that is what I have strived to do. I have relationships with political leaders of both major parties. Friendships with these people. I reach out because of the relationship, not because I want or need anything. And they reach out as well. I love getting a Hanukkah card from the White House, regardless of who is the President. When my Senator sends me a little handwritten note about something, it has special meaning. When my member of the US House of Representatives texts me a note or a question, it is part of real relationship. When members of the Florida House of Representatives text or we talk, it is not because I’m trying to get them to vote a certain way but rather because we engage in old fashioned conversation.

I have friends who are leaders in the Christian and Muslim community. Leaders in African-American community and the LBGTQ+ community. I have friends who are Arabs and Christians living in East Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Nablus. I have spent time talking and learning from people who were raised to hate Jews and joined violent organizations that attacked Jews, some of them even murdered Jews in Israel, before undergoing a transformation and striving to learn and build relationships with people they never even considered people. I’ve previously written about one of them, Ali Abu Awaad, who inspires me regularly with his work towards Palestinian non-violence and finding a new way to build a different relationship with Israel that can lead to a long lasting peace.

Early this morning I got a message from my friend who is a leader in the local Muslim community. We became friends a few years ago and have done some volunteer work together. I have visited his mosque a number of times and feel comfortable there. He has gone through some personal challenges recently and I regularly check on him. His current volunteer work needs some help and so, as his friend, I am helping. His note this morning was:

Good Morning Keith. I am at the mosque for the morning prayer and I remembered you. I will

say a prayer for you. Stay blessed.

Thought of the day

“Love is the devotion to the well-being of others without regard to the cost.”

My heart filled with joy as I read it because my friend not only thought of me on a random Saturday morning but was moved to include me in his prayers and share a little wisdom.

My friends are like a bag of skittles – all colors, flavors, and types. The commonality they all have is the type of person that they are. As the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously said:

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

That’s how I pick my friends. The content of their character. That is how I invest in relationships. The content of their character. That’s how people inspire me. The content of their character.

Recently I have been surprised and inspired by the words of a major public figure. It usually takes a lot to surprise me, but US Senator John Fetterman has done so. I was not impressed when he ran for Senate. For the first part of his term, I only saw somebody who appeared to be hanging around, almost mocking what it mean to be a US Senator. In the aftermath of October 7^th, I realize how wrong I was and how I was not judging him by the content of his character but rather the image that was presented. Senator Fetterman has spoken out powerfully and clearly about the terrorist group Hamas. He speaks out regularly about the need for all the hostages taken by Hamas to be released. He hung the pictures of all the hostages in his office. He doesn’t celebrate the violence and terror of October 7^th nor does he celebrate the horrors of the war since then. He doesn’t demand a cease-fire that will accomplish nothing but more future terror and death but speaks the truth – if Hamas returns all the hostages and surrenders, there will be a cease fire. But not before. He is taking major criticism from many in his party because of this yet he continues to hold true to his values. He is truly showing us the content of his character.

In today’s crazy world where it is easy to judge somebody by the 10 second clip they play on the news (often out of context) or the way a certain news channel may present them, or how a journalist chooses to frame a story, Senator Fetterman has reminded me that relationships matter. That getting to know people before judging them matters. That investing time and energy into a relationship, whether your world views agree or collide, is beneficial and important.

As I begin my new career arc, I often get asked what’s my favorite part of the work. My answer is consistent. I get to work with people that I like and respect. I get to help people accomplish their goals and the goals for their organization. I get to work for clients that I want to work for, and we get to build a relationship together. I choose to not have them be transactional relationships but something deeper. It’s meaningful. And isn’t that what life is all about? Finding meaning? That theme in 2009 was so accurate. Relationships Matter.

The power of stories

Posted on December 22, 2023December 22, 2023 by Keith Dvorchik

Today has been a day focused on stories. I have found that stories have the most impact and do my best to be a storyteller throughout my career. As I continue to focus on what’s happening in the war between Israel and Hamas, I find myself captivated by the stories that are now coming out. Some are sad. Some are uplifting. Some are horrifying. They all are powerful.

When I woke up this morning and began my morning routine of reading various news sources that I like to read (The Free Press, Daniel Gordis and Kareem Abdul Jabbar on substack, 1040 Daily Digest, eJewishPhilanthropy, Jewish Insider Daily, Philanthropy Today, FLAME, and all my sports news), I was struck immediately by the story of Iris Haim.

Iris’s son Yotam was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7^th and brought into Gaza. He and two others managed to escape and were thought to be terrorists and mistakenly killed by IDF soldiers the other day. It’s a heartbreaking story. And yet just days later, here is Iris speaking out to the IDF soldiers who mistakenly killed her son, telling them that she loves them. That she wants them to visit her so she can give them a hug. That she knows in the moment they did what they thought was right and what was needed. Tears came to my eyes as I looked at the picture of her and Yotam while listening to her place the blame where it belongs, on Hamas for taking her son hostage, and sending love to the IDF soldiers. I can’t imagine what she is going through nor what the IDF soldiers are going through. It was an extraordinary expression of forgiveness and love. I had tears in my eyes and have watched in many times to see true humanity. You can watch the video and below it see her on TV just a few weeks ago talking about Yotam and IDF soldiers who were killed.

I continued to explore the news and saw a horrific story about the music festival. Hamas terrorists took the phone of an Israeli at the festival, used his facial recognition to open it, and videoed their torture of him (I won’t write what they did but you can watch the video and learn) and the murder of 9 others at the festival. They then used his WhatsApp to send the video to all of his friends and then sent it to him mother. I can’t imagine what his mother thought when she got a message from him, knowing he was at the festival that was under attack, opened it, and saw her son being tortured, mutilated, and humiliated and other friends being murdered. The brutality is astounding. I went from being inspired and overwhelmed by love to pure anger and rage. This is why Israel can’t stop until Hamas is removed and their leadership eliminated. They are pure evil. Here is the video that I watched – remember there is graphic description of what happened so be prepared.

As my day came to a close, I read two more stories. The first was about 85-year-old Yaffa Adar, who shared her story of how she survived 49 days in Hamas captivity. “Every morning, I’d sing to myself Bocelli and say, ‘God, maybe this will bring a good day. Maybe today will bring [my release],’” she recalled, admitting that for a long time that day never came.

It reminded me of the story of Osama who I met in 2019 and was involved with Combatants for Peace. He life was changed when he was at his lowest point in prison and was ready to give up when he heard somebody humming a song. That music gave him hope. A few years later, at his first Shabbat dinner, they began by singing Shalom Aleichem. Osama broke down in tears because he realized this was the song that saved his life.

This story inspired Andrea Bocelli as well, who wrote to Yaffa. You can read about it and what Bocelli wrote to Yaffa here. It’s a powerful statement about the power of music and the understanding that our actions and what we give to the world may have much more power than we ever imagine at the time we are doing.

The final story comes from a friend of mine, Sherri Mandell. Her husband, Rabbi Seth Mandell, was the Hillel Director when I was at Penn State, but I didn’t go to Hillel and never met him there. He left to be the Hillel Director at University of Maryland, where one of my best friends worked for him. He later made Aliyah and lived in Tekoah. In May 2001, while living in Tekoah, his 13-year-old son, Koby Mandell, and his friend Yosef Ish Ran were murdered by terrorists near their home. They started the Koby Mandell Foundation and that’s how and when I met Sherri and Seth.

In the article today, she writes about how the Israeli government asked permission to show pictures of Koby and Yosef in 2001 and they declined, thinking it would be too hard on them and their family to have them public. In the aftermath of October 7^th, she questions the decision back then and grapples with the balance between personal need and the need for the world to see these atrocities because it didn’t take 30 days for people to begin denying they occurred. It’s a powerful piece by a mother who has unfortunately dealt with this personally. Sherri’s book, The Blessing of a Broken Heart , is the most painful book I have ever tried to read I say tried to read because as a father, I had to put it down about halfway through because my heart was breaking and I was crying. I tried to get through it out of a feeling of obligation, but I couldn’t. As I read the piece by Sherri, I found myself thinking of visiting them at their home, meeting their other children, listening to them speak about Koby and the work of the foundation, my own children, and the world we live in today

Two stories were uplifting. One was horrifying. One filled with sadness. All are emotional. As my day comes to a close, I find myself wondering both if and when we can all find the blessing of our broken hearts.

I think too much

Posted on December 21, 2023December 26, 2023 by Keith Dvorchik

Since October 7^th not a day goes by where I’m not thinking of Israel. Thinking of my friends who are on the front lines. Thinking of the children of my friends who are fighting in the IDF against Hamas. Thinking of my friends still running to their safe rooms due to the rockets. Thinking of my friends on the moshav who need help harvesting the crops. Thinking of the more than 260,000 Israeli refugees who fled their homes more than 2 months ago and have been living in one hotel room for an entire family since then. I think about what it’s like to share a hotel room with my 2 adult children for a night or two and can’t imagine more than 2 months of that being our home. Without our things. Without a kitchen.

I use the term Israeli refugees instead of evacuees because I have been an evacuee. In 1979 we lived in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania when the Three Mile Island (TMI) accident happened. We evacuated to my grandparents’ home in Connecticut for a week and then returned home. Living in Florida, we have evacuated to my in-laws in Gainesville when a hurricane is coming. We’re usually there for a day or two and then return home. Spending more than two months out of your home, with no return in sight, is not being an evacuee. It’s being a refugee.

Israel is a small country, and everybody is family. I learn more about the cost of October 7^th all the time. I have two friends who have family members who were taken hostage by Hamas into Gaza. Thankfully they were all returned in the last ceasefire. I have a friend whose cousin was murdered at the music festival. I have a friend whose son was an IDF soldier that was killed in the fighting on October 7^th. Being Jewish isn’t about our religion, it’s about being part of a people. It’s being mishpacha, Hebrew for family. Every day when the names of the soldiers who were killed are released, I take a deep breath and then read the names, hoping and praying that they are not names that I know. And when they are not people that I know, I am deeply sad because they are people I will never get to know. People who paid the ultimate sacrifice to save Israel and fight for the Jewish people.

I learned today that there is currently a 60% dropout rate in Israeli high schools. Think about that – 60% of high school students have dropped out. Maybe they will return when the war is over. Maybe they won’t. How will this affect the IDF, where they normally join after graduation? What if they go back but are a year behind? That means that 60% of those who would normally be joining the IDF are not. How does this affect their long-term success, when military service and the unit you serve in is so integral to future opportunities?

A friend of mine is from Sderot, a town on the Gaza border that I have visited many times. The playgrounds are also bomb shelters. The movie theater is also a bomb shelter because why would anybody go to the movies if it wasn’t with the regular rockets fired by Hamas at Sderot. I’ve been to the police station there many times where they talk to us about the ongoing rocket attacks and show us the rockets that Hamas fired at Sderot. A friend who was in Sderot just a few weeks ago sent me a picture of the police station. It’s gone, completely leveled. My friend who lives there went back last week and told me that the town is empty. There is nobody there because it’s not safe. My heart breaks for my brothers and sisters who live on the border and are now refugees inside Israel.

My friends who live on moshav Bitzaron in southern Israel need help harvesting their crops. I think of how I can put together a mission to help them and how I can approach my wife and children about doing that since they don’t want me to go because they are in fear for my safety in a war. I haven’t figured out a way to bring that up in a way that wouldn’t get them angry at me for even talking about it, knowing how they feel.

I think about the rise of antisemitism that I have seen and been talking about for a decade. I wrote a piece with some colleagues in 2016 for the Seattle Times. That was more than 7 years ago and yet it has grown. And I think about the op-Ed disagreeing with me, saying that antisemitism wasn’t a problem and how frustrating it was then and how angry it makes me today. Over the past 75 years we have convinced ourselves in the United States that we are US citizens just like anybody else. That antisemitism was going away because of wonders of the United States and our freedom of religion. Our Jewish history is that we forget who we are due to assimilation. Here we are again.

In a piece by Daniel Gordis today, he wrote about how, as Jews, our history in the diaspora has always been based on the question, “How long are we going to be here until we get thrown out. Now, why would anybody think they were going to get thrown out? Because they always did.” Whether it was England in the 1200s, the Spanish Inquisition, the pogroms in Poland/Russia in the 1800s and 1900s, Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, or the many Arab states in the more recent past, this is our history. Once again, we are finding ourselves facing this hatred in the US and around the world. Only now we have Israel, our homeland.

I have had a number of people reach out to me to ask questions about what’s going on in Israel and to ask for clarity on many things that they are hearing, or friends are saying to them. It’s startling to me the lack of information that so many smart, well-educated people have. The number of people who don’t know that Gaza hasn’t been occupied since 2005 is shocking. Or that Gaza has a border with Egypt. Or that the blockade didn’t occur until after Hamas took over and started raining bombs and attacking through the tunnels they built. People don’t know that Israel has been sending in humanitarian aid and continues to increase it. There continue to be cries for Ceasefire Now, not understanding that what they are asking for is Israel to allow Hamas to restock, rebuild, and attack again, killing more Jews and resulting in the death of more Gazans. The lack of information is an incredible failure in Israel education. It’s why I volunteer my time as a board member for the Center for Israel Education. I’m proud of the work they do and we need much more of it. Check out the website – it’s worth it and the amount of information available is incredible.

I think about the word Zionism and how many people don’t know what it means. How many people think that it means you can’t criticize the government (I don’t know a single Israeli who doesn’t criticize the Israeli government!!). They think it means that only Jews get to live in Israel. They think it means that if you aren’t Jewish and are a citizen in Israel, you don’t have equal rights. They don’t know that it’s simply the right for Jews to have self determination and a state of their own.

Since October 7^th, I think too much. Yet if I don’t think about these things and do whatever I can to deal with them, who am I? What do I stand for? Each of us has a role to play. We can speak out. We can educate those who don’t know. We can learn more ourselves.

What are you going to do?

Trouble sleeping after the video so a (very) long post to discuss

Posted on December 16, 2023December 17, 2023 by Keith Dvorchik

I saw the video of the Hamas atrocities from October 7, 2023, this past Thursday, December 14, 2023. It was 47 minutes of horrifying video of the worst that people do to each other. It was evil incarnate. The Israel consulate shared with us that they have even worse video that they won’t share because it’s both too horrifying and because they don’t want to traumatize the families of the victims. After what I viewed, I completely understand and don’t want or need to see that footage.

A friend asked me the next day if I was able to sleep that night, having just witnessed these atrocities and I told them that I had slept ok and was still processing everything that I saw and that I felt and integrating it with conversations I have had with family and friends living in Israel, some actively serving in the IDF and in the middle of the war.

I appreciate the sleep I had the night of Thursday December 14 because I haven’t slept well since. The more I process, the more I think about it, the more I share with others about the experience, the more I feel my feelings, the worse I sleep. There is so much that disturbs me about October 7, about what I hear from my Israeli family and friends, about the news coverage and what is happening in our country, what some of our Representatives and Senators in Washington are saying and doing, the United Nations, The International Red Cross, the loss of life that is occurring, all juxtaposed on my own experiences in Israel, with Israeli-Arabs, with Israeli Druze families, and with Palestinians. My mind constantly spins with many thoughts that consume me.

On my 2019 Encounter trip to Israel, I spent 4 days meeting with leaders of Palestinian civil society and became friends with 4 amazing people. I have found myself thinking about them often since the video. They want peace with Israel. They are vocal about Israel’s right to exist. They are the people we need to have a larger voice.

One of them, Ali Abu-Awaad, came to Orlando and spoke to a crowd that was half Israeli just before the pandemic. The Israelis were blown away as they had never heard a Palestinian speak like that. I’ll never forget what he said in Ramallah and in Orlando. “The path to peace is not through Jewish blood. It is through Jewish hearts. We have to give the Jewish people a reason to trust us.” How are they doing? What are they feeling?

I think of Osama, who was taught to hate the ‘Yehuds’ from birth, found redemption in an Israeli jail, through Combatants for Peace, and at a Shabbat dinner. Does he still keep a kippah in his pocket because he never knows when he’ll be invited to Shabbat dinner? (A direct quote from him). Does he still believe in a better future or has this shaken his hope for the future.

I think of Mahmoud, the owner of the Palestinian bookstore in East Jerusalem, where the password for Wi-Fi was “JerusalemIsOurs” and yet his startling admission to us later that evening that “If Zionism means the Jews have a right to the land and we also have a right to the land, then I am a Zionist.” This came from somebody who a few years early thought Zionism was evil. I think of the former Hamas member and former member of the Al Aqsa Brigade that I had lunch with one day. Are they still on a path to peace or has this brought back their hatred and desire for violence?

I think about my friends and family in Israel. I check in regularly. My friends and family in Jerusalem are largely safe but also emotionally impacted. Most of them have family living elsewhere that are at risk or have children, relatives, and/or friends who are actively serving. Reading the names of the soldiers lost every day is a painful daily occurrence where we hope and pray not to know any of the names and then feeling guilty that we didn’t know the brave soldiers who paid the ultimate price for the Jewish people and the State of Israel.

I think about my friends who live on Bitzaron, a Moshav in the south of Israel. On October 7 we texted via WhatsApp as they hid in their safe room, hoping that terrorists wouldn’t come to their Moshav. We have kept in touch throughout the time since and I have shared the aching in my soul to be in Israel, volunteering, helping to cook, clean, harvest crops, or do whatever they need me to do. They have told me not to come yet, it wasn’t safe yet, wait a little longer. Last week they messaged me, asking if I could come to help them with harvesting the crops as many are reservists, called up to fight in this war, and they don’t have enough people to harvest the crops. It broke my heart telling them I couldn’t come now, as my family doesn’t want me to go because of their fears for my safety. My wife has been to Israel 5 times and knows the realities. My kids have seen me go to Israel most of their lives and know my love and passion for the country and the people. They know how much I want to go and yet, as of now, I won’t go in order to honor their needs. And yet I think of Irit and Avi and the Moshav and their crops and the need for food for the country and am left so conflicted.

I think of my friends and their children who are currently serving on the front lines. I think of their bravery. Some close to my age yet still on the front lines. Others are 18, 19, 20, 21 – younger than my own children – who are doing what is needed for the Jewish people and the State of Israel. I worry about them every single day, those serving in the South and in Gaza as well as those in the north dealing with Hezbollah. I pray for their safety and that this war ends successfully soon so they can return to their lives.

I think of my friends who have family members that were either murdered on October 7 or were taken hostage. The two that I know were hostages have thankfully been released. I have previously written about Hila, kidnapped at 12 years old and released the day before her 13^th birthday. I’m so grateful to everybody who went to the Amazon page we set up to buy her birthday and Hanukkah gifts so she would feel the love from the worldwide Jewish and non-Jewish community. Everything we listed and added and added was purchased and sent to her. Her mother was released just after Hila’s birthday, so they are together but how are they doing? How shattered are they? How will they recover? I have a little relief knowing that all of us joined together to help in our small way for her birthday and for Hanukkah to bring some light to their darkness.

I think about those who are still hostages. Are they alive? Do they believe we haven’t forgotten them? What about the infant and the children? What about the women who were raped and taken captive? Are they still being raped? Are some of them now pregnant with their rapist’s baby? Will they ever be released? We are now getting daily reports of hostages murdered in captivity by Hamas. Are they all dead and we are just waiting to hear the news day by day? What about the tragic shooting of 3 escaped hostages by the IDF? Are there more hostages that escaped? What about the IDF soldiers who shot them – they were trying to keep safe and alive and now have to live with this for the rest of their lives.

I think about those in Gaza who will remain after Hamas is removed. How do we take care of them so that they believe in peace and in a future without violence, with prosperity and freedom? How and who will rebuild Gaza? I pray it will be the Abraham Accord countries who have the resources and can help put in a new government that will benefit the people of Gaza and give them a chance for a meaningful and fulfilling life that occurs peacefully next to their neighbor, Israel. Is there hope? Will we lose focus and leave them to be ‘saved’ by Iranian money once again?

I think about all those calling for a “Ceasefire Now” because it sounds wonderful and their believe it will save lives, not understanding that Hamas has said they will commit the same atrocities or worse again and again and again. Their leadership has said this publicly, on video, multiple times. “Ceasefire now” means let Hamas regroup, rearm, and begin to murder Israelis once again, continuing the cycle of violence and ensuring more die. How do we help them see that evil must be eradicated. That there is no diplomacy with evil. The only trust that exists with evil is that they aren’t trustworthly.

I think about the International Red Cross and how they haven’t seen a single hostage in captivity in Gaza. Their only role has been to serve as a taxi service for those being released. How they refuse to ensure needed medication gets to the hostages. The abject failure of this organization haunts me and angers me.

I think about UNRWA and how ineffective they are and how they are actively keeping Hamas going and harming the citizens of Gaza. The Gazan people are rioting and stealing the aid from the warehouses because they know Hamas will steal it from UNRWA and they won’t get the food and medicine and water being supplied daily. I think about the UNRWA employees who kept hostages in their homes. About the doctor at a hospital who kept a hostage in his home. These are the ‘innocent civilians’ we hear about and they are not innocent, they are complicit.

I think about being safe in the United States and around the world. I haven’t felt safe in a year and have taken steps and continue to take steps to ensure my safety and the safety of my family. I wait for the violence against Jewish people in the United States to increase significantly. I wait for the first of what I fear will be many Jewish mass casualties in the United States.

I’m sorry this is so long but now you know why I have trouble sleeping since watching the video. You know what I think about when I am awake and when I close my eyes.

Watching the Hamas video from October 7, 2023

Posted on December 15, 2023December 17, 2023 by Keith Dvorchik

As a passionate Zionist who has been to Israel 20 times, October 7, 2023 impacted me greatly. I have family and friends that live in Israel, some who live in the south. Luckily, none of my friends who live in the south were attacked by the terrorists although family of friends were at K’far Aza, and I have since met somebody from Moshav Ein Habasor who was there on October 7th. An Israeli friend from one of my Momentum trips lost his son on October 7th. Another friend’s cousin and her 13-year-old daughter were hostages taken by Hamas into Gaza (both have since been released, although at separate times). I have friends who are now on the front lines in Gaza and in the north. I have friends whose children are currently serving in the IDF and fighting the war with Hamas. I am in daily contact with friends and family in Israel, checking in on them and making sure they are ok. Israel and October 7th is very personal for me. So, when I heard that the Israel Consulate in Florida was hosting briefings and showing the 47-minute video of the Hamas atrocities around the State of Florida, I knew we had to do it in Central Florida. I reached out to the consulate, and we scheduled it for Thursday December 14, 2023 at 9 am.

Our target was legislators, media, law enforcement, University Presidents, local Rabbis, and targeted community members. Our local state representatives showed up, law enforcement showed, and the targeted community members showed. We had some media but no University Presidents. The nearly 40 people in attendance were a good cross section of our targeted audience.

I was apprehensive about watching the video. I had read plenty about it and knew it was going to be awful. A true representation of people’s inhumanity to people. I also knew that for me, I had an obligation to bear witness to what Hamas terrorists did and owed it to the victims to watch. As the video started, the room was eerily silent. This silence continued through the entire video.

I don’t want to get into the details of the entire video. Others have done that. For me, there were a few things that struck me deep and will remain with me forever.

I want to warn you that these are graphic descriptions.

The Hamas terrorist calling his parents to brag about having killed “10” or “at least 10” Jews. The excitement in his voice was bone chilling. Yet, for me, what was worse was listening to his mother’s response. “Kill, Kill, Kill” is what she told him. This was a recording made by Hamas to document the excitement of murdering Jews.

The Hamas terrorist, reporting to his superior, about the Jews that he had decapitated. He brags about cutting off their heads and shooting them in the head. And the Hamas supervisor telling him to bring the heads back to Gaza so they could ‘play with them’. Another recording made by Hamas.

The dog at a Kibbutz – you see him in the distance barking and running towards the terrorists. You know what is going to happen before it does. And then it does – the terrorist shoots the dog three times, killing it.

A father and his two sons racing through their house in their underwear to get to the safe room ahead of the terrorists. They get there but the Hamas terrorists throw a grenade into the room before they can shut the door. The father jumps on the grenade to save his sons, sacrificing himself in the process. The children are taken by Hamas back to the kitchen where the Hamas terrorist opens the fridge, takes a drink, then grabs a bottle of Diet Coke and starts drinking it. The boys are distraught. One has lost the vision in one eye and as you look closely you can see it is clearly damaged. They cry for their father who they know is dead. And they wail, “why am I still alive?”. They end up being left alone and run away. Their sadness and cries are something I will never forget.

A dead Israeli lies on the floor while a Hamas terrorist take a hoe and tries to decapitate him. His body bounces with each blow towards his neck. The terrorist gives up as it’s not happening easily. The hoe hitting his head and neck and his body bouncing is something I will always remember.

Watching a Hamas video as the terrorist takes a knife to the neck of a dead IDF soldier and begins to carve away, finally removing the soldier’s head from his body. You see him slice through the neck. You see the graphic detail of a beheading. Then, holding it by the top of his helmet, he walks out of the room, leaving the headless body lying on the floor.

Hamas terrorists bringing dead Israeli bodies back to Gaza. The Gazan people in the streets celebrating as the bodies are rolled into the street. The people of Gaza kicking and punching the dead bodies of Israelis, spitting on them. The cheers and joy in their faces as they assault the dead bodies of Israeli citizens. The pure hatred coming from the people of Gaza, the ‘innocent civilians’, as they celebrate the murder of Israeli citizens.

The Hamas terrorists capture a room full of women. The video cuts to the women being led out of the room, clearly after a period of time. As you watch their reactions, you can tell that they were abused. Some can’t look up. Some have blood on their pants in the crotch and their backside. We were later told by the consulate that there are graphic rape scenes that out of respect for the women, are not shown or included in the video. Hearing that made watching these women even more painful.

IDF soldiers going into a home in a Kibbutz. As they enter, the floor is covered in blood. The walls are splattered with blood. The deeper they go into the house, the more blood that is on the floor. It’s literally a red floor painted with blood. Huge pools in some places. The brutality that must have occurred for that much blood to be in the entire house.

A number of houses where the bodies were burned beyond recognition, some mainly being ash. Some decapitated and then burned. Some barely recognizable as human. And the sheer number of them that were burned alive.

The desperation in the voices of the responders to the music festival massacre as they arrive and try to see if anybody is alive there. As they walk through, they call ‘is anybody there’ and get no reply. They begin by counting the number of dead people and reporting it but they stop quickly as there simply are too many dead bodies. “Everybody on the stage is dead” they report. “Everybody in the concessions is dead” they report. The camera shows the massive number of dead bodies that were massacred by the Hamas terrorists while they were at a music festival. I had seen the video before but never heard the desperation in the voices of those responding to the massacre.

The faces of the terrorists after each person they murder. The smiles. The joy. The happiness. Once proclaims, “This is my first kill!” with such joy and excitement it burned inside me. I’ll never forget the faces of the terrorists and the joy they had in murdering Jews. The celebration. The clear rush of adrenaline they had and their desire to kill more and more and more. I don’t like to hate. It’s a powerful and negative emotion that only causes harm, however with each of these faces I found myself hating them, wanting them to be hunted down like the animals they showed themselves to be. It’s not who I am yet it is who they are.

The video was 47 minutes long and there were 35-40 people in the room. It was completely silent for the entire 47 minutes. Watching the footage was difficult and painful. It tore at my insides. I found myself clenching my teeth throughout much of it as the anger and sadness and pain overwhelmed me.

I’m still processing what I watched. I’m still processing the horrors of the Hamas terrorists. I know there is a sadness and hole inside me because of October 7th that after seeing it is bigger than it was before. The urge to do something and make a difference is far greater than it was just 12 hours ago.

Hamas is evil. And we must fight evil with everything that we have. If we allow evil to live, it only grows, it never dies of its own accord. War is terrible and nobody wants it, however Hamas must be eliminated. The evil that was done on October 7th is just the beginning if we don’t stop it now. The leadership of Hamas have told us this directly. Watching this video showed just how evil they are and that we need to believe them when they say they will do what they did on October 7th over and over and over and over again. And that they will bring it to Europe, America, and Canada.

The sacrifice of the father, the faces and cries of his sons, the faces of the women captured by Hamas, and the joy on the faces of these evil men will never leave me.

Am Yisrael Chai

Ein Habesor and the impact of October 7

Posted on December 8, 2023December 17, 2023 by Keith Dvorchik

Thursday morning, I went to an early breakfast with people from City Serve, an organization that is doing great work in Israel. They are particularly focused on Ein Habesor, a Moshav near the Gaza border. On October 7, 2023, the terrorists of Hamas attacked Ein Habesor and thanks to the bravery of some members of the Moshav, there were no casualties and no hostages taken from the Moshav. However, nearly 60% of Israel’s produce comes from the area and the Thai workers returning to Thailand, many other workers being recalled to serve in the IDF during the war, and the members of the Moshav being relocated to the Dead Sea for safety, there aren’t enough workers to harvest the fields. City Serve is working to help with getting the fields harvested and raising money to help take care of the needs of the members of the Moshav while they are living in hotel rooms at the Dead Sea. These are all worthy and important causes, however that isn’t what I found most impactful from the conversation.

One of the people at breakfast was Dr. Yftach Gepner who lives on the Ein Habesor moshav. On the morning of October 7, his brother, with one M-16, defended the moshav from the terrorists, getting the gates closed and keeping them from getting inside to murder, rape, and kidnap the Israelis who live and work there. In the process of defending the moshav, he was shot in the shoulder and the bullet remained inside him. As a physician, Dr Gepner knew he needed to get him to a hospital as the bullet could have gone anywhere and could have damaged internal organs. You may have heard and read about the rest of the story. Dr Gepner put his brother in the passenger seat of their Tesla, laid it flat, and began racing on back roads to get his brother to the hospital, which normally is 20 minutes away. His Tesla was attacked by the terrorists and shot more than 100 times, yet he was able to keep driving, sometimes in reverse to get away from them. It took him two hours to get to the hospital while escaping the hostages. During the escape, his brother was shot again in the hip, breaking it. He needed surgery and this hospital couldn’t provide it so Dr Gepner hot-wired an ambulance and stole it, giving his brother an IV to ensure his survival during the drive. Not only did his brother get the surgery he needed, but merely weeks later he was back on the moshav, patrolling the grounds to keep it safe. The story was inspiring on so many levels and made me want to go to Israel to volunteer even more – helping pick vegetables, cooking meals, or cleaning – doing anything that is needed from a 50+ year old.

Another of the people at the breakfast flew to Israel immediately after October 7 and was taken to Kibbutz Nir Oz. As he spoke, his voice increased in volume, and you could feel his pain. He shared that he had to step over dead bodies and personally saw decapitated babies, babies with limbs cut off, and true heinous crimes. My heart broke listening to his personal experience of the horror of this Hamas attack.

City Serve is raising money to help the people of Ein Habesor. If you are moved to give, 100% of your gift will go to the people, and there is a $150,000 match so every dollar becomes two. You can give by clicking here.

In America, we often like to think that everybody is like us. That everybody has the same values and morals that we do. That it is common and normal to value human life and that we do anything to protect and safe it. It is one of our most endearing qualities and one of our most dangerous, and many other cultures do NOT hold the same values and morals. Their behavior shows us who they are and too often we refuse to believe them. Hamas has shown true evil. They have shown who they are and what they believe and value. They do not value human life, shown through the use of human shields and turning schools, hospitals, private homes, and mosques into military bases. They have shown they don’t value human life through the attacks on October 7^th when they murdered, raped, kidnapped, and decapitated innocent civilians. There is no moral equivalency and there is nothing to do but to eliminate them.

Yesterday, listening to Dr Gepner describe October 7 at Ein Habesor and hearing the other person speak about what they saw at Nir Oz, was powerful and painful. As a proud Zionist and Jew, it strengthened my resolve to continue advocating for Israel and to embrace and express Judaism. October 7 was a wakeup call not just to Israel but to all Jews around the world. Hiding doesn’t get us anywhere. Rallying as a community, like they have done in Israel, is the answer.

Robert Frost’s poetry and antisemitism

Posted on December 7, 2023December 17, 2023 by Keith Dvorchik

Since October 7^th, I have found myself thinking very differently about life in general, the world we live in, values, morals, and ethics. I no longer wonder how the Holocaust/Shoah could have happened, how people could stay quiet, turn a blind eye, or even defend what the Nazis were doing. I see it daily.

I have been reading things that before October 7 I didn’t. I have been exploring different writers and topics to broaden my mind and to keep my heart open in a time when it is broken daily. I was struck by this line of poetry from Robert Frost’s, “After Apple-Picking”.

I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.

With the rise of antisemitism over the past decade and what we have seen in the past two months, I have found myself exhausted dealing with all the hate. My family is scared of being publicly Jewish and won’t let me put out an Israeli flag, inflatable Hanukkah decorations, and don’t like me wearing my Israel or IDF hoodie or my new Israeli soccer jersey. I want to go to Israel to volunteer in the fields or at a hospital and they don’t want me to do that either. So, I think of Robert Frost’s words above.

What a great harvest we have had as American Jews over the past 75 years. We wanted to be accepted and we were. We wanted to be publicly Jewish, and we were able to be publicly Jewish. Mezuzahs on our doors with no fear of reprisal. Hanukkiahs in our windows with no fear of vandalism. Wearing our Chai’s or Magen David’s around our necks, outside our shirts, proclaiming our Judaism. Wearing IDF t-shirts or hoodies in public, flying Israeli flags from our flagpoles, big signs identifying our Jewish organizations and synagogues. What a great harvest. Everything we could have desired.

And I am overtired of what it is like today. The growing public hate. The nastiness, antisemitism and Jew hatred on social media. The threat of physical violence because we are Jewish. The fear of having public statements of being on Jewish on our homes or outside our homes or in our windows. Feeling the need to hide a necklace in public with a Jewish symbol. Wondering if it’s safe to wear a hoodie supporting Israel or a t-shirt that says Israel on it.

Throughout history, the Jewish people have lived mostly in exile and have become part of the societies in which we lived. And yet we had pogroms. We had the Shoah. And we have this growing antisemitism and Jew hate in America and around the world. The Presidents of MIT, Harvard, and The University of Pennsylvania could not state, in front of Congress, that threatening a genocide of Jews on campus would violate their policies.

In today’s world, it’s critical that we do two things. First, invest in our Jewish community. This means our time, talent, and treasure. It’s how we have survived for thousands of years. This is not a time to abandon being Jewish, but rather to invest in being Jewish. Secondly, we much reach out to our non-Jewish friends and colleagues and ensure we have their support. The growing hate is not limited to Jew hatred and together we can stand up to hate.

As Robert Frost so eloquently stated,