Month: March 2024

Teachings from the Nova Music Festival

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

There are many dates that are significant in people’s lives.  December 7, 1941.  May 14, 1948.  November 22, 1963.  April 4, 1968.  June 6, 1968.  July 20, 1969.  March 28, 1979.  April 20, 1999.   September 11, 2001.  December 14, 2012.  February 14, 2018.  In Seattle, it was July 28, 2006. 

All the dates above are significant ones.  All have meaning in my life.  However, for me, October 7, 2023, is a date that changed who I am as a person.  Israel has always been an important part of my life and my identity.  I remember the stories of my grandparents listening on the transistor radio on November 25, 1947, as the UN voted on the partition plan to create a Jewish state.  My grandparents were passionate Zionists, and both sets of them went to visit Israel.  I am the rare American Jew who is the 3rd generation to visit Israel.  My first trip was the summer of 1989 and I have been a total of 20 times so far with my 21st planned for this year and hopefully my 22nd and 23rd as well. 

As I sat in my living room on October 7, 2023, watching the horrors on television and sending WhatsApp messages to my family and friends in Israel to check on them, I knew that I was different as a result.  I could tell that I was changed as a result of what was happening.  I will never forget the image shown over and over on television of a minivan on the side of the road.  The father was the driver and had been murdered, his head laying against the steering wheel.  His young daughter was laying on top of him, also murdered.  This was one vehicle among many that were shown. As more information and video came out, the horror increased.  I sat in my chair watching the reports and getting live info via WhatsApp from friends.  My friend Maor, the consul general from Israel to Florida reached out to check on me and told me to stop watching the news because it was bad for my mental health.  But I couldn’t.  Senator Rick Scott called me to check on how I was doing.  I was both shocked and grateful that he called.  I worked with some friends to put together a community gathering to express our pain and anger, to give the community an opportunity to grieve together and hopefully a chance to begin to heal.  We had US Representatives there, Florida Representatives there, members of the US Senate sent aides and so did members of the US Senate.  Mayor Jerry Demings and his wife, Representative Val Demings came.  I don’t remember what I said when I spoke but I remember is was passionate, direct, and was filled with emotion.

When it was announced there would be a rally in Washington, DC, on the mall, I knew I had to be there.  I knew that both for my own soul and to be able to answer with integrity what I did after October 7th by my future grandchildren, I had to show up.  Being there with 300,000 other people was an amazing experience.  We sang Hatikvah together, heard from amazing speakers, carried our signs, chanted “Bring them home” about the hostages.  It was a feeling I will never forget. 

Riding the Metro to the rally when we broke into song. Am Yisrael Chai!

As time moved on, I learned of 4 friends that had family members taken hostage.  Six people taken on October 7th by Hamas.  Ultimately, four of them have been released.  One turned 13 the day after she was released.  Her mom was released day after her birthday.  My friends and I put together a campaign to get her birthday and Hanukkah presidents.  The video of her with the presents is priceless.  It made my heart sign.  Even today, watching it brings joy to my heart and soul.  This precious child was kidnapped, held as a hostage, kept in tunnels, and was traumatized.  To see her smile with these presents warms my being.

I worked with the Israel consulate to host a showing of the 47-minute Hamas video for politicians, law enforcement, and some members of the community.  Many told me that they couldn’t watch it.  Many told me that I shouldn’t watch it.  It was painful to see but for me, bearing witness was essential.  There are images I saw that I will never forget.  The cries of two little boys after their father was murdered in front of them, one having lost the sight in one eye.  Their mother coming to site hours later and seeing her husband lying dead in the doorway of the safe room.  Beheadings.  Blood smeared all over a room where people were executed.  Terrorists calling their parents to brag about how many Jews they killed and hearing the excitement not just in their voice but the voice of their parents.  It was the same type of pride I felt with my children when they graduated high school and college except this pride was for the murder of Jews.  It was horrifying to see and yet, I can’t imagine having not seen what the terrorists of Hamas did to my Jewish mishpacha (family). 

A friend of mine in Israel was recalled into the IDF and was the head of operations in Gaza.  He told me about what he did on October 7th to try to save people.  He spent 120 days in Gaza, coordinating the efforts to eliminate Hamas and free the hostages.  I got occasional messages and worried about his safety every day.  After 4 months of service, he was released from service temporarily to decompress.  He came to the United States for work related projects and happened to be in Orlando.  We had a chance to get together and during that time he shared a bit of what it was like during those 120 days.  How many times he was nearly killed.  He told me that the flight from Israel to America was incredibly difficult for him because it was the first time he had experienced quiet in 120 days, and he finally had a chance to process what happened.  I showed him the video of the little girl opening her birthday and Hanukkah presents after being a hostage.  The look on his face is one I will never forget.  It’s why he does everything he does. 

I attended the AIPAC Policy Summit in Washington, DC, just a few weeks ago.  We heard from parents of a current hostage.  We heard from a young woman whose parents were murdered while her brother hid under the bed, lying in their blood and urine for hours.  We heard from a survivor from the Nova Music Festival.  It’s always powerful to hear from our national politicians however it was nothing compared to hearing from those who were impacted by October 7th.  On the last morning on the Summit, we learned that a US citizen who was taken hostage was murdered by Hamas.  We all gasped at the news and the room was filled with sorrow.

Later that day, I finally went to get the tattoos I had wanted for a few months.  One is the words of Mia Schem, a hostage taken from the Nova Music Festival.  She said, and then got tattooed on her arm, “We will dance again.  7.10.23”.  I proudly have that on the inside of my right forearm.  The other one is a tree and under the roots it says NOVA  7.10.23.  They are constant reminders to me of the horrors of October 7th, of the rise of antisemitism, how we will always be Jews first and foremost, and that there is no need to hide being Jewish, my pride in my Jewish identity, and the importance of Israel to me.

I felt like I had been through the ringer since October 7th.  Powerful emotions, loss, fear, concern, anger, frustration – you name it, I have felt it.  I have wanted to go to Israel since October 7th however my family has not wanted me to go yet, so I have waited.  It’s been incredibly difficult for me not to go, not to be there, not to take action to do my part for Israel and the Israeli people.  The concept of Shalom Bayit (peace in the home) has been more important however it hasn’t been easy.  Initially I was going in March 2024 that was postponed until May 2024.  That date may even be changed.

So having been through the ringer, when there was a showing this week of the new documentary about the Nova music festival, I wanted to go.  I had no expectations about the movie or the speaker afterwards.  I think that was good because if I had expected the experience to have the impact that it did, I may not have gone. 

The documentary was shown through the eyes of those who were attending the music festival.  It’s not what I expected.  I didn’t expect it to be quite so ‘first person’ view.  You could hear the music, see the dancing, and celebrate with joy the fun those who were there enjoyed.  It reminded me of many things I used to do with my friends at that age.  When the rockets started at sunrise, it was strange hearing them talk about ‘fireworks’ because we already know they were rockets, but those at the festival didn’t at first.  Then they saw Iron Dome taking them out and they still had no idea what was coming.  As somebody who knew what terror was about to happen, it was hard to watch them in real time, make assumptions that we all would have made at that time.  You begin to see the terrorists arrive on bikes, trucks, and gliders.  You hear their joy and excitement because they are about to murder and rape and kidnap Jews.  I saw that in the Hamas video, but this one was different as it contrasted with those attending the festival.  Flipping back and forth between the arriving terrorists and the festival goers who didn’t know what was happening truly felt like a horror movie. 

As they began to run and hide, the videos shown were more from those hiding.  You could feel their anxiety as they recorded messages.  Some send goodbye messages to their families.  Some spoke to their parents who begged them to hide, play dead, do anything to survive.  The one thing that really hit home was their expectation that the army and the police would come rescue them.  As Ambassador Michael Oren has said, it was part of the covenant between the State of Israel and the people.  The army, the IDF, would always be there to protect them.  On October 7th, they weren’t.  Not only could you feel the loss of trust from those hiding, I felt it personally.  I always had incredible support and admiration for the IDF.  High expectations.  We don’t know what happened or why they were so unprepared on October 7th but the reality is they were unprepared.  They weren’t there when they were needed.  That loss of trust is palpable.  It doesn’t surprise me that over 300,000 reservists returned to duty after October 7th, more than were recalled and far more than were expected. 

There is a saying in the Talmud, “Kol Arevim Ze LaZeh (or BaZeh depending)”.  It means “All of Israel (or all of the Jewish community) is responsible for each other.”  It’s commonly said by Rabbis during a sermon urging us to do a little bit more.  On October 7th, it showed me what it really means.  We are all one.  What happens to one of us happens to all of us.  If we don’t stand together to take care of each other, nobody will stand with us and we will all fall.  It’s why I have struggled with not going to Israel since October 7th.  In my heart, in my soul, I need to be there helping in any way that I can.  I also need to be here with my family.  It’s my own internal struggle that I face and deal with on a daily basis. 

The end of the movie is when the IDF does finally show up, approximately 7 hours after the attack began.  I have seen this footage before and in the movie, they chose to blur out the dead bodies lying around the festival.  The footage I saw showed the bodies.  It was horrific. You could hear the urgency in the IDF soldiers voices as they cried to out for any survivors.  Is there anybody alive?  And reporting to everybody else that everybody they found is dead.  It’s a sobering sight.  It reminded me of the pictures from US soldiers discovering the Nazi death camps but now in real time for me.  The first time I saw that footage, I was struck by the number of people who were murdered, who were lying there dead only because they were Jews.  This time it was the voices of the IDF soldiers, devastated that by the time they arrived, there was nobody to save.  I felt their failure through their voices.  The breaking of that covenant.  The change occurring for all Israelis and Jews in the diaspora.   The need to look deep within and ask, “What am I doing?  How can I help?  What’s my obligation?” 

WARNING – The video below is GRAPHIC. You may not want to watch it.

THIS IS GRAPHIC – THE IDF ARRIVES AT THE NOVA MUSIC FESTIVAL TO FIND EVERYBODY DEAD

The movie ended, the lights turned on, blinding us for a moment.  I think we needed that moment of blindness to return us from the horrors occurring at the Nova Festival on October 7th to the current day. 

Lee Sasi, a young woman from Los Angeles, who is a survivor of the Nova music festival massacre, took the podium and began to speak to us. 

Here is a video interview she did with Jake Tapper of CNN on October 11th.  The story she told us was similar to what she shares here, only with more detail.  The way Jake Tapper is stunned and doesn’t know what to say is how we felt listening to her months later.    Her pain, expressed days later, was no different when she spoke to us.

https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2023/10/11/the-lead-lee-sasi-jake-tapper-live.cnn

Here is her interview with Chris Cuomo.  It is hard to watch without tears coming to my eyes.  The brutality of Hamas.  The sacrifice of her uncle. 

https://www.newsnationnow.com/video/survivor-of-israel-festival-attack-was-saved-by-uncle-%e2%80%98he%e2%80%99s-a-legend%e2%80%99-cuomo/9075461

I get angry when I hear about Israel’s ‘indiscriminate killing’ of Gazan citizens, because it’s not true.  The data, even using the numbers provided by Hamas, shows that the civilian to military casualty rate is approximately 1:1, one of the lowest ever.  The UN reports that the normal rate is 9:1, meaning 90% of all casualties in war are civilians.  This means that Israel is 9 times better than the accepted ratio by the world.  War is awful and innocent people die.  It’s why we need to try to avoid war at all costs.  But when we can’t, we have to fight the evil.  Hamas is the evil that is involved with indiscriminate killings.  Listen to Lee’s description of how the terrorists fired into the bunker of civilians.  How they threw grenades into a mass of civilians.  How they executed a man in front of the bunker as he yelled to them in Arabic, “I am an Arab, I am an Arab.”

Listening to Lee speak about what happened at the Nova festival and the horrors and evil of Hamas impacted me deeply.  It became more personal than before.  It reinforced how essential it is that we fight against evil because if we don’t eliminate evil, if we allow evil to live, it will grow.  And evil will destroy all of us, just like Hamas executed the Bedouin man outside the shelter who was yelling to them that he was an Arab.  Evil doesn’t care. 

We see this in our own country as people are choosing to attack Jews in the name of Palestinian freedom.  How does a synagogue being attacked help the people of Gaza?  How does protesting a Jewish actor just for being Jewish, not for any statement or action, help get food to the people of Gaza?  How does blocking streets in America help stop the corruption of UNRWA who isn’t delivering the humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza and instead is giving it to Hamas who is keeping it or selling it on the back market?  Listen to what the people of Gaza are saying.  The humanitarian aid costs too much to buy.  IT’S FREE unless Hamas is stealing it.  The food packages don’t include any meat or protein.  That’s because HAMAS IS STEALING IT. 

I worry about not just the future of Israel but the future of the United States, of Europe and of the world.  We are allowing evil to win.  Hearing Lee Sasi share her story forces me to increase my efforts to fight evil.  After coming home from the event, I reached out to friends of mine who are Palestinians in Bethlehem, East Jerusalem, and Beit Jala.  I wanted to check on them, reaffirm our friendship, and set up a time for us to talk about what the future may look like and what we can do together, to fight evil and change the world.  I urge you to do the same with your friends, wherever they are.  Start in your local community.  Reach out to people who are different than you and get a cup of coffee.  Have a conversation.  Begin by agreeing that you want a better world and perhaps you disagree on how to get there.  Start the process.

We owe it to Lee Sasi, her uncle who sacrificed his life to save hers and others, and all those murdered on October 7th to make the world a better place.  We owe it to all those who have lost their lives as a result of the evil of Hamas to not let their deaths be in vain.  We can change the world but it takes our effort, our commitment, and our dedication to make it happen.  We need all of us to do our part. 

SUPERHEROES DON’T ALWAYS WEAR CAPES

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

I have hear this statement a great deal lately.  Most often it has related to the heroes of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) who are defending both Israel and the Jewish people in a war against evil.  The specific names today are Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iran.  It is an age old hatred that threatens not just the Jewish people but the civilized world.  This video expresses it well.

These aren’t the only superheroes that don’t wear capes.  They live among us and too often we don’t even realize it until they are gone.  On Sunday night, a childhood friend posted an update about one of them.  Unfortunately, it was the news of his death.  The gratifying part of seeing this post was that his impact had been so great for so long, that we didn’t just realize that we knew an actual superhero that didn’t wear a cape upon his passing.  So who was this amazing person?

Richard Rome was a middle school math teacher.  Let that sink in fully.  The superhero without a cape that I am talking about taught 6-8 grade children math.  He was my teacher somewhere between 1978-1981.  Middle school math.  That’s what he taught.  In the 1970s and 1980s.  40-50 years ago.  Or at least that was what he formally was tasked with educating us about. 

Even his obituary is teaching us something as it tells us to plant a tree.

Mr. Rome, as we all called him both in class and for the next 40-50 years, was so much more than a math teacher.  While we were formally his student, he was a human being, a leader, a role model, a friend, a mentor, and a person who made math important, understandable, and relatable.  While he cared about teaching us math and helping us understand the broader implications of it, he cared more about molding us into good human beings. 

Mr. Rome’s middle school math class in the late 70s
Mr. Rome’s ‘math humor’ was decades ahead of ‘dad jokes’ and always made us smile no matter how old we are.

People often talk about finding something you love to do, and you’ll never work a day in your life.  While I believe that Mr. Rome did truly enjoy teaching math, I don’t think that is what he loved to do.    I think he truly loved being able to have an impact on young people’s lives and help mold them into good citizens, good people.  I think over the years, his true joy came from hearing stories about our lives, our children, our spouses, and for many, our grandchildren.  What makes me think this?  It’s actually pretty easy to come to this assessment of Mr. Rome.  It’s because so many of us still kept in touch with him.  How many people in their mid to late 50s or early 60s keep in touch with their MIDDLE SCHOOL MATH TEACHER?  That’s exactly the point.  He wasn’t just a math teacher.  He knew it.  We knew it.  And all of us appreciated it. I went to his Facebook page today to see if there were any other updates.  What I saw was amazing.  It wasn’t a formal posting but rather that we had 63 friends in common.  This means that there are 64 of us from his class in 1978-1981 who were still connected to him.  What a legacy – that 45 years later, so many of your math students are still connected to you.  I promise you it wasn’t about math and any math questions we had for him were entirely so we could help our children or grandchildren with their math homework!

Mr Rome surrounded by students
More studnents with Mr. Rome.

Mr. Rome posted this exchange with permission from a former student a while ago.  It’s how we all feel about him which is why I want to share it with you.

I asked one of my former students if I could post this so everyone could read exactly what she wrote to me. She sent me this on FB messenger. I appreciate it so much:

“Let me tell you. You singlehandedly are responsible for the most positive experience with Math I’ve ever had. Through that experience, you are indirectly responsible for my career path and choices. It is my pleasure to help you in your time of need. I may not have been the best or most docile math student, but you let me conquer the obstacles in my path. Thank you sir for your dedication to all the students at Susquehanna. I’m so lucky to have been able to have you as my teacher. My thoughts and prayers for your improved health and recovery'”

“Kim, ahh, thank you so much for the kind words. I deeply appreciate it. <smiling>”

“Your teaching means a lot to your students.”

He liked to share his math humor with us as kids and as adults.  A few things that he said that make me smile and remember why his class was one we all liked are:

To My Former Math Students: In honor of 3/14, I will repeat what I told every one of my math classes. Pie R Round; Cake R Squared. <smiling>

Also, remember the formula for Circumference of a Circle C = Pie x D, or C = who ate D Pie!

I went back to our last Facebook messenger chat, regrettably too long ago.  There are two comments that jump out to me.  More than 40 years after being in his class, Mr. Rome stated,

“Keith, I was wondering why I did not hear from you. I trust you and your family are well. Take care, Keith.”

So 40+ years later, he honestly wondered why he hadn’t heard from me.  That’s the relationship he had with his students.  After I explained what had been going on in my life and why I hadn’t reached out in a bit, he replied,

“That’s ok. As long as you are healthy, that is what it is all about, Keith <smiling>”

So, he wasn’t so talented with the use of emojis, he knew how to communicate.  I updated him about my family and particularly my children and what they were doing, and he responded.

“Keith, congrats “big fella.” <smiling>”

I wonder how many of his other students he had similar conversations with on a regular basis.  More than I can imagine.  A superhero without a cape.

Over the last few years, Mr. Rome began have some health issues and related financial issues.  His MIDDLE SCHOOL MATH STUDENTS, now in their 50s and 60s, created a GoFundMe for him.  I see this happening when active teachers have family, health, or economic challenges.  I have never seen it for somebody who many of us haven’t seen in person for 30 or 40 years.  As Kim wrote to Mr. Rome, he changed not just her life but all of our lives.   And he continued to teach us throughout life. 

Mr. Rome math humor was years ahead of being a ‘dad joke’.

Every year near Christmas, Mr. Rome would post this story about his parents and his childhood.  Even though he had retired from teaching many years ago, he knew he could teach us how to be good people, good human beings, and to improve our portion of the world.  He always took advantage of the opportunities to help us to be better people.  At 56, Mr. Rome continues to teach me.  There are so many lessons that even though he won’t physically be here to teach, he has inspired others to teach on his behalf.  Here is his reminder every year about making a difference in your community.

There is one day of the year that I miss my mom and dad even more that the rest of the year My father, Earl Rome, along with his brother, Isadore Rome, owned and operated an independent supermarket, Rome’s Superette. Every Christmas Eve they would host a Christmas Eve informal get together. Usually, around 250 of his loyal customers would drop in and relax and unwind before mid-night Mass. My mother would make all kinds of little finger sandwiches, Mrs. Boyle would bring her famous chopped liver mold, and many of their customers would bring bottles of booze to share. My dad, being Jewish, had a customer base that was 95 percent Christian. Some of his bigger customers were Catholic Churches.

That was back in the day when churches had large rectories, including lots of priests and lots of nuns. St. Ignatius Church was my dad’s best customer. They had a large parish, and, at the annual Christmas Eve party, usually Monsignor Gagen, along with a few of his priests, would attend the party. It was my job to usher the Monsignor out the back door so that his parishioners would not see him stone cold drunk. What was funny was that all members of his church knew he drank like a fish, but we kept up the pretense. anyway. It was the one night of the year that my father, may he rest in peace, got loaded. His favorite line of the night he used at every party was “Open up your song books to hymn number 64. If you do not like hymn number 64, we can sing hymn number 32 twice.”

My dad, a Jewish businessman, had a great relationship with the Catholic community. When he died in 1976, at the age of 62, over 1500 people came to the Shiva, including the Monsignor and a number of priests and nuns. I often “hark back” to those days and smile. The true meaning of brotherhood and what most religions preach was evident on Christmas Eve, at Rome’s Superette, in Kingston, Pa, for 44 years, ending in 1976.

As I read this story once again, the day after gathering with friends for Purim, I wonder what the world would look like if we all gathered for these types of celebrations, regardless of our religion.  If we truly created local communities of people who got to know each other as people, could we put an end to the growing hate that poisons our world?  It’s a conversation I’d like to have with Mr. Rome.  It is one that I will have with my local community leaders to see how we can replicate what used to happen in Kingston, PA until 1976.

As I said, Mr. Rome was more than just a middle school math teacher.   He taught us his entire life.  Here is another lesson from Mr. Rome. Notice that even though we are in our 50s and 60s when he wrote this, we are still ‘boys and girls’ to him.

I chose this picture because I can imagine him sitting like this in front of us while telling us this story.

Good Morning Boys and Girls. Rather than teach a lesson involving grammar or math, I am going to tell you a story that is fitting during the holiday season.

1967 was my first year of teaching. I taught 6th grade at Sara Lindemuth Elementary School. The other 6th grade teacher was Mrs. Sollenberger. It was the last day before Christmas vacation. Both 6th grade classes had a combined Christmas party. The kids all brought a gift that cost 50 cents and each child got to pick out a present. The kids wanted Mrs. Sollenberger and me to open our presents. Mrs. Sollenberger went first. There were the usual assortment of gifts. She opened her gifts and thanked each kid as she read the card that accompanied each gift. The next gift she opened was wrapped in a small box. When she opened the box and read the card, there were chuckles and some of the kids were laughing. In the box was an old pin. It was ugly looking and some of the stones were missing. When she read the card, she realized that this gift was from Debbie. Debbie was the daughter of migrant workers. Her clothes were usually dirty, and her hair went often times, unwashed. Debbie was not a very good student and let’s just say she was not the most popular girl in 6th grade. It was at that moment when Mrs. Sollenberger did something I will never forget.

She told Debbie that her present was her favorite of all the presents she received. She made a point of asking Debbie to pin the pin on her dress. The smile on Debbie’s face said it all. She was so happy. It took a few minutes, but then the other kids got involved in the spirit of that moment and what I observed was like a transformative moment in time. One girl told Debbie that her pin was so pretty. Another girl said to Debbie that I can see why Mrs. Sollenberger liked her present best of all. Several kids asked Debbie if she wanted some extra Christmas cookies. Kids can be very cruel sometimes. But in this special moment, even some of the boys who often picked on Debbie and made fun of her, were actually nice and a few of the boys said some nice things to Debbie. For the first time in her life, Debbie was the “star of the show.” Almost every kid in class joined in the fun. Mrs. Sollenberger continued to make a “big deal” about Debbie’s pin. Debbie could not stop smiling.

When it was my turn to open my presents, in my mind I thought, how am I going to react when I open the present from Debbie? In a small box was an old rusty tie pin, shaped like an arrow. Following Mrs. Sollenberger’s example, I told Debbie that my father had a tie clip similar to this one and I always loved it. I wore the tie clip the rest of the day. I take no credit. Mrs. Sollenberger is the one that set the tone. Mrs. Sollenberger then did a special arts and crafts project with the kids. She told them they had to work in pairs. It was both heartwarming and amusing when the kids started fighting over who would be Debbie’s partner. Finally, the school day was over, and the kids were dismissed. I had a moment with Mrs. Sollenberger, and I said to her “Mary, you made one kid very happy today. She will never forget this day.” Mrs. Sollenberger just smiled and said thank you.

The kids returned from vacation and, for the most part, nothing out of the ordinary happened the rest of the school year. Occasionally, Mrs. Sollenberger and I wore our presents from Debbie, and she always smiled more than usual on that day. I would like to tell you that Debbie’s “one shining moment” continued, but that was not the case. Debbie’s grades did not really improve. Her clothes were still dirty, her hair went unwashed. She was usually quiet and did not have a lot of friends. Mrs. Sollenberger is long gone. May she rest in peace. Debbie’s family moved out of the school district, and I never heard from her again. I would like to think her life has been filled with moments that were more positive than negative. Debbie had a tough life as a child. But there was one moment in time when Debbie was a star. She had a huge smile on her face, and I have a feeling she will remember that day, always. Her teacher, with one simple heartfelt gesture and some kind words, made Debbie feel extra special. That day, Mrs. Sollenberger exemplified what it means to be a teacher.  I have never forgotten that moment that happened almost fifty years ago.  Take care.

I hope you can get a sense of how special a man Mr. Rome was.  How he impacted lives when we were in 6-8th grade and how that impact continued throughout our lives.  How it shaped us into being better people.  I look at some of my friends from that time and see how they have chosen to impact the world and it is all truly a tribute to Mr. Rome.  It doesn’t matter what their success in life has been, it seems they all find some way to give back.  They find some way to try to help a Debbie that they encounter or inspire a Kim in her life’s journey.

The world lost a legend at the end of last week when Mr. Rome died. Yet he continues to live on through all of his ‘kids’ that he invested in and that invested in him as well. He lives through our volunteer week, our charitable giving, the way each of us, in our way, does what Mr. Rome taught us. Not math. He taught us to be good human beings. He taught us to care about other people. He taught us that no matter what the seemingly reason we were together (in his case teaching math) we are really together to build relationships and to build friendships. We are there to better ourselves, better the lives of those around us, and better the world.

Thank you will never be enough Mr. Rome. While I only had you as a math teach for 2-3 years, I have had the privilege of having you as a life teacher for 45 years and as a friend for nearly 40 years. And although I am not a teacher in a school, I will do my best to honor you and what you invested in all of us to continue to invest in ‘my kids’ for the future as they have a piece of my heart just as you do. Rest in Peace Mr. Rome. Your memory will always be a blessing to so many people Baruch Dayan HaEmet. Your legacy is secure. I’m gonna go and be a little teary now because you taught us all that’s ok.

https://www.rosenbergfuneralchapel.com/obituary/RICHARD-ROME?fbclid=IwAR3DXjGYV8Nd7czTkqkaY-XWdH3EvbSIRRmI4SaowybpjVyxFacMbdWn5sg#tributewall

The butterfly effect – every choice knowingly or unknowingly made me who I am

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

In the early to mid 1990s, Hootie and the Blowfish hit the scene with some great music.  The lead singer was of course Hootie.  Except he wasn’t.  His name is Darius Rucker but even today, people still refer to him as Hootie.  Until he transitioned from rock/pop to country music.  It seemed to be a strange transition and as a fan of Hootie and the Blowfish’s music, I wondered if I would enjoy the new Country Music of Darius Rucker.  I didn’t expect that I would.  And I was wrong – I love it!  He takes the best of his music style and adds the country music twist to it to create a new sound that also has the deep lyrics and messages of country music.  This week, I decided to analyze the lyrics from his 2010 hit, This. 

The song begins:

Got a baby girl sleepin’ in my bedroom
And her momma laughing in my arms
There’s a sound of rain on the rooftop
And the game’s about to start
I don’t really know how I got here
But I’m so glad that I did
And it’s crazy to think that one little thing
Could have changed all of this.

I love that the song begins with such a normal setup.  A child asleep in the bedroom.  Her mother laughing in his arms.  It’s raining outside and he can hear the patter of rain hitting the roof.  So many of us have been in that exact situation in our lives many times.  I can’t think of the number of times I was sitting on the couch, the kids asleep in their rooms, my wife in arm on the couch, as it was raining outside, and we listened to the rain hitting the roof.  The only thing missing in the song, ironically for a country music song, is the dog laying on the floor by my feet!  The normalcy of the situation is comforting.  The game is about to start.  Such a beautiful image in the first 4 lines. 

I am sure most of us can related to the next line.  I don’t really know how I got here.  When I look back at my life, it’s hard to believe how much time has passed, where I am in my life, and how I got here.  It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was in middle and high school.  The big party I had at my house in Harrisburg that we still talk about seems recent, not 40 years ago.  How can anything in my life be 40 years ago?  Married for nearly 26 years?  Two kids in their 20s, one a college grad finishing his master’s degree while the other is about to start his senior year of college.  Friends from 30 and 40 and even 50 years ago that are grandparents now.  I remember being in high school and listening to the Talking Heads song Once in a Lifetime and singing out loud the famous line, “And you may ask yourself, “Well, how did I get here?” Now I find myself truly asking, “How did I get here?”

I love the last 3 lines.  First, I am so glad that I am where I am.  Truly grateful.  When I look back upon my life, there were many decision points that led me to this place at this time.  And in a vacuum, I might go back and change a number of them because in hindsight, by themselves, they may not seem like the best choice.  I look back and wish that I had spent a semester studying in Israel during college.  I wish that I had done a gap year after college in Israel and perhaps served in the IDF as a 21 year.  I made career decisions throughout my life that when I look back, I wonder what it may have been like had I chosen differently.  But in the end, I am grateful I am here and had I not made every one of the choices that I did, I wouldn’t be right where I am today.  Had I spent a semester abroad in college, maybe I would have done the gap year and served in the IDF.  Maybe I would have made Aliyah after that.  I’d have missed time with my grandparents and parents.  I’d never have met my wife or had the children that I have.  So yes, it would be meaningful to have had that experience, but I wouldn’t trade having that experience for the life I have today.  And that’s the reality of the end of the verse. It is crazy to think that one little thing could have changed everything.  Studying abroad for a semester in 1987 or 1988 may have led to me making Aliyah, having a completely different life, wife, and children.  Choosing to stay in accounting rather than go back to get my Master’s Degree in counseling would have led to a different career, not moving to Florida when I did, and another totally different life.  We make so many decisions every single day and never realize just how important and impactful each one is to the life we end up living.  And I love the life I have today and am grateful for every decision that has led me here, even when the results ended up not being what I wanted at that time, because the results ended up getting me here, where I am grateful to be. That is the butterfly effect – the idea that small things can have non-linear impacts on a complex system. The concept is imagined with a butterfly flapping its wings and causing a typhoon.

Maybe it didn’t turn out like I planned
Maybe that’s why I’m such, such a lucky man

For every stoplight I didn’t make
Every chance I did or I didn’t take
All the nights I went too far
All the girls that broke my heart
All the doors that I had to close
All the things I knew but I didn’t know
Thank God for all I missed
‘Cause it led me here to this

There is no question that it didn’t turn out like I planned. And no question that it is why I am such a lucky man.  I have learned over the years that my view of things tends to be very short term.  I can never really see the long-term impact of regular decisions until much later when life plays out.  Seemingly insignificant choices end up with huge, often life altering, results.

When I was in Seattle, we came back to Florida to visit my parents in Tampa.  As it happens, one of my dear friends, Sandy, was in the hospital in Tampa because she was having problems they couldn’t figure out.  Her husband Ron, one of my best friends in the world, let me know where they were, so I went to see them.  During my visit to their room, the doctor came in with a devastating diagnosis.  Glioblastoma.  6 months to live was the normal expectation.  As we all stood there in shock as this vibrant, healthy woman received terrible information, I was able to be the one there for both Ron and Sandy to help them process this shocking information.  I had moved across the country to Seattle.  I just happened to be visiting Tampa when she went to the hospital, in Tampa (they lived in Winter Haven).  And I happened to be visiting at the exact time when they got the diagnosis.  What are the odds?  Nearly 5 years later, as Sandy way outlived expectations, I called to say my goodbyes.  She couldn’t speak to me but could hear me as I talked to her.  About 30 minutes later, she died.  Again, what are the odds?  If I had done an errand before calling, I would have been too late.  As the song states in this verse, “For every stoplight I didn’t make, every chance I did or I didn’t take, all the nights I went too far, all the girls that broke my heart, all the doors that I had to close, all the things I knew but I didn’t know.”  Every single choice we make in life takes us on the path we are supposed to be on and makes us who we are today. 

Ron and Sandy – love them both and the role I got to play in their lives

My senior year of college, my girlfriend and I were very serious.  We went looking at engagement rings together, found one she loved, and I almost bought it.  She wanted me to buy it.  The jewelry store owner wanted me to buy.  I even wanted to buy it.  And the owner of the store made it financially possible for me to buy it.  But for some reason I didn’t.  About two months later we ended up breaking up and my life went on a different path.  How different would my life be today if I had bought that ring?  Would we have gotten married?  Had kids?  I believe we would have ended up being divorced.  Would I ever have moved to Florida?  Certainly not in 1992 like I did.  My career path would have been different.  Everything about my life would have been different with that one different choice. 

So, like the song says, Thank God for all I missed, ‘cause it led me here to this.

For many, many years I have believed the life is a tapestry and we only see the back end as we move along.  We see the flaws.  We see the strings and the extra yard or wool or silk.  It isn’t until we reach the right point that it is turned over and we see the beauty that we have created by living through what we saw as the mess.  Darius Rucker hits it right on the head with this song – everything we have today is because of every single small decision point along the path of life.  There is no need to regret any of these decisions because we wouldn’t be who we are, we wouldn’t be where we are, without every single one of them.

This is the back of the tapestry and what we see most of the time. It isn’t until it’s flipped over that we see the real design and beauty. God knows what it really looks like all the time while we see the mess. Trust in God because he knows the real beauty all the time.

Like the girl that I loved in high school
Who said she could do better
Or the college I wanted to go to
Till I got that letter
All the fights and the tears and the heartache
I thought I’d never get through
And the moment I almost gave up
All led me here to you
I didn’t understand it way back when
But sittin’ here right now
It all makes perfect sense

This verse gives us more examples.  It’s as if he knows that we will struggle with accepting that every single choice along the way is what got us here.  And that by changing any single one of them, we won’t be who we are, where we are, today.  In high school, I fell in love with Duke University.  I had my heart set on going there.  I applied early decision and wore my sweatshirt that my mom and I bought on our campus visit every week at a minimum.  I was 100 percent sure that I was going to Duke for college.  I applied a few other places, but I knew I was going to Duke.  When I studied abroad in November 1984, I got my acceptance letter to Penn State.  My friends who were in England took me out to celebrate, but honestly, I didn’t care.  I wasn’t going to Penn State.  I was going to Duke.  What did it matter that I got in there?   Of course, as you have realized, I didn’t get in to Duke.  I ended up going to Penn State, where I met my best friends who are like brothers to me.  My life was completely altered for the better because I didn’t get what I wanted and got what I needed.  If I could go back and change things so that magically I would get into Duke and go there, I would not do it.  I would be a completely different person living a completely different life if I had a gone to Duke for college.  And I like who I am today and the life I have today.  I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Life has its ups and downs and plenty of challenges.  As the song says, there were plenty of times that I wasn’t sure that I would be able to get through whatever it was I was facing at that time.  I remember a number of them, as I sat alone, crying, and wondering what was going to happen now.  I almost gave up many times in many situations.  But I didn’t give up.  I did manage to make it through.  The same as many of you reading this were able to get through the things that, at the time, you thought were insurmountable.  In fact, as we look back, we may even find it silly that we thought we couldn’t get through these things, but that was who we were at that time.  As we sit here right now, it makes perfect sense.  Yet tomorrow, when we face the struggles and challenges that arise in our life, will we be able to remember that it really does all make sense, just not today?  Will we remember to thank God for all we miss, for the windows that open when the door we preferred gets shut?  Or will we be stuck looking at the back side of the tapestry, thinking that the mess we are looking at is really the art that will be final? 

Oh I cried when my momma passed away
And now I got an angel
Looking out for me today
So nothing’s a mistake

I have reached a point in my life where I know that I am closer to the end of it than the beginning.  It’s not as depressing a thought as I expected it to be.  As I look back, I am so lucky to have had so many amazing people in my life for the time that I had them.  Grandma Esther and Grandpa Si.  Grandma Ev and Grandpa Len.  Grandma Rose.  Grandma Florence and Grandpa Morris.  Grandma Cora and Grandpa Ralph.  They are my grandparents, my wife’s grandparents, and my great-grandmother.  My cousin Eric, who was my age and tragically died at the age of 27 in 1995.  My cousin Todd who died of an overdose in 2015 at the age of 42.  My niece Madeline, who died a few weeks after her birth.  My big brother in the fraternity, Jeff, who died young.  My Uncle Joe, who died at the ‘old’ age of 50 (I was 21 at the time and thought 50 was a good long life – how foolish we are when we are young.)  I wish this was the entire list but life doesn’t work that way.  We have the chance to build special relationships in our life and they end when they end. 

My cousin Eric – he looks so young and innocent
My cousin Todd. We spoke a few days before he died and I always wonder what if I had gotten on the plane to Florida that Monday. Would it have made a difference?

Of course, my father died in September 2022.  This has been the hardest of all for me, both because of the relationship we had and how much I was able to depend on him for guidance and advice.  I have cried a lot about my dad, both when it happened and ongoing since then.  I do believe he, and others, are my angels looking out for me.  I do believe that my dad and others continue to teach me as they were so influential in my life and development that it is as if I can ask them the question and they will answer. 

My dad just before my mom and I said goodnight and left his room. He died a few hours later. The sweet look on his face is one I will never forget.

I agree that nothing is a mistake.  It may not be what I wanted at the time.  It may not be what I would prefer.  It may not be enjoyable either at the moment it happens or ever.  Yet everything that happens in life shapes us into the person we are.  We have the things we have in our life today because of every one of these choices.  The ones we made and the ones we didn’t make.  The ones we knew we were making and the ones we never even noticed. 

The song ends with a repeat of the chorus and while I typically omit the chorus when it repeats, in this instance, I think it’s important to cite it one more time. 

Every stoplight I didn’t make
Every chance I did or I didn’t take
All the nights I went too far
All the girls that broke my heart
All the doors that I had to close
Everything I knew but I didn’t know
Thank God for all I missed
‘Cause it led me here to this

It led me here to this

It’s a reminder that we face so many decisions every day in our life.  It seems as if some matter and some don’t’.  They all matter.  They all help us become the person that we are today.  They give us the life that we have today.  Since my father died, I have faced a number of challenging life situations.  It has shown me who in my life really cares and who was really transactional.  It has also taught me that if I value people, it is MY obligation to reach out and tell them.  It is MY responsibility to call or text them, even if just to say hi and I was thinking of you.  I know first-hand how much those calls and texts mean.  I know that sometimes they are the difference in somebody else’s life.  I have the ability to take the chances, to act, and to not allow excuses of things that don’t really matter get in the way.  Or I can choose not to take that action and let people fade away from my life. 

This song makes me ask myself the following:

Who do I want to be?

What are my values?

What do I stand for?

How do I show my gratitude for being who I am today and for the life that I get to live today?

Am I happy with the person I am and the life that I have today?  When I answer this last question with a resounding YES, it means I am accepting of every little decision or choice I have made, knowingly or unknowingly, because without them, I would not be the person I am today nor would I have the life that I have.

Muhammad Ali, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and the 4 sons from the Seder.

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

I do a lot of reading these days to find both accurate and interesting information.  I use a lot of sources and enjoy reading differing viewpoints as I can always learn more.  One of the people I enjoy reading is former NBA all-star and Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul Jabbar.  While I don’t agree with every position he takes and think he misses many things in some of his analyses, he also makes me think and I would enjoy sitting down with him over a meal to discuss where we differ and why.

In his message today, he highlighted a quote by the great Muhammad Ali that resonated with me.

Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.

As Kareem Abdul Jabbar wrote, “That’s how he lived his whole life: Ignoring personal consequences to help others. He inspired millions across the world.  I was one of those millions.”

As a child, I loved watching Ali fight.  He was a master class in showmanship.  More than watching him fight, I loved listening to him talk and especially his interviews with the great sports journalist, Howard Cosell.  I could listen to them talk with each other for hours, if they would have continued that long.  Ali was a poet who fought.  Cosell was a brilliant foil doing sports journalism.  Together they defined sports in the 1970s. 

Howard Cosell roasting Muhammad Ali in 1974.  Their love and respect for each other is clear as they smile and laugh through the comments about each other

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zgHuEB59NY&ab_channel=Starlights

Some of the great highlights of Ali and Cosell during different interviews.  Two very different people from very different backgrounds who found common ground, respected each other, became friends, and appreciated their differences.

Despite having incredible relationships with Howard Cosell and Billy Crystal, Ali also had a challenging relationship with the Jewish community.  He had no problem speaking out loudly against Jewish promoters and slamming “Zionist control of the world”, but he also had a Jewish grandson and attended his bar mitzvah, allowing his grandson to show him the Torah and explore it together.  He went to Israel and lobbying for the release of terrorists yet also publicly appealed to Muslim extremists to release Jewish journalist Daniel Pearl and attended Pearl’s funeral. 

This imitation of Ali by Billy Crystal always makes me smile, both because of the talent of Crystal but also because I could imagine Ali laughing at it and wishing he had come up with the idea first.  When Ali turned 50, he had Crystal perform at his birthday party.

In 1996, before lighting the Olympic flame in Atlanta, Muhammad Ali publicly stated:

“My mother was a Baptist. She believed Jesus was the son of God, and I don’t believe that. But even though my mother had a religion different from me, I believe that, on Judgment Day, my mother will be in heaven.

“There are Jewish people who lead good lives. When they die, I believe they’re going to heaven. It doesn’t matter what religion you are if you’re a good person you’ll receive God’s blessing. Muslims, Christians, and Jews all serve the same God. We just serve him in different ways.

“Anyone who believes in One God should also believe that all people are part of one family. God created us all. And all people have to work to get along.”

We live in very challenging times.  Ali did as well, as a black man who converted to Islam, refused the draft, spoke his mind, lost everything, and earned it back based on his beliefs.  Despite his challenges with the Jewish community, there is much we can learn from Muhammad Ali in how we choose to speak, act, and behave in our own challenging times of today.

The attacks on October 7th in Israel have fundamentally altered who I am as a person.  I don’t live in Israel so how can it have done this?  I have always been a passionate Zionist.  Since there is so much confusion about what this means, I am going to be clearer and define this.  It means I believe that the Jewish people have a right to a homeland.  I believe the Jewish people have a right to self-determination.  I believe that Judea and Samaria are the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people.  And I believe that no matter your religion or lack of religion, if you want to be a citizen of Israel, you should be allowed to pursue citizenship.  I love that there are Arab-Israelis and Druze-Israelis.  It’s wonderful to visit the Baha’i Gardens in Haifa and learn about the Baha’i Israelis and their community and beliefs.  There are Christian-Israelis and Bedouin Israelis.  There are Ethiopian-Israelis and Palestinian-Israelis.  The common thing they all have in common is that they are Israeli.

Since October 7th, I have seen an incredible amount of antisemitism and hate in the world.  It fascinates me in so many ways.  In many ways, the 4 sons/children from the Passover Seder can be an appropriate analogy.  There are those who always have been antisemites and now don’t have to pretend.  These are the wicked son/child. They are easy to see and identify.  They are the ones who demand proof of Hamas raping women when they spoke out against Brett Cavanaugh.  They stood chanting ‘believe all women’ and then don’t believe Jewish women.  They present a challenge as I’m not sure there is anything anybody can do to about them.  The slight hope that I have for these people goes back to my experience with Combatants for Peace.  I became aware of them in 2019 during a trip to Israel where I spent 4 days meeting with leaders of Palestinian civil society.  The members I met were across the spectrum in terms of where they came from and where they were at that time.  All had begun from a place of hate.  Hatred of Palestinians or hatred of Jews.  All were on a quest to leave hate behind.  Some were more successful than others.  All were trying.  For those who live in hate and recent times are enabling them to express it freely, I can only hope that at some point they decide that perhaps there is a different way to live and are willing to try to find that path.

It is sad but true that Jewish women don’t count to those people

There are a larger group of people who are behaving as antisemites, but I don’t think really are.  They often begin from an honorable place, such as I don’t to see civilians die.  I have some friends who are like this.  As a result, they call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire to stop civilians dying in war.  However, they miss the entire context.  They don’t assign responsibility to Hamas, who not only began the war but also uses civilians as human shields, turns hospitals, schools, mosques, and homes into military targets.  They don’t listen to the people in the north of Gaza, finally free of Hamas, who encourage Israel to finish the war by destroying Hamas.  They cite the starvation and need for humanitarian aid without realizing that the aid is coming in, however UNRWA makes sure that Hamas gets it and Hamas then keeps what they need and put the rest of the black market at exorbitant prices.  I have from people on the ground in Gaza who acknowledge there is plenty of food there, it’s just either in the tunnels with Hamas or so grossly overpriced on the black market that the ordinary people can’t afford it.  Sending in more aid won’t solve this problem and this group of people simply isn’t looking at facts while leading with their heart.  We all want the war to end.  We all want the death to stop.  We all want peace.  It cannot and will not happen until the hostages are released and Hamas leadership surrenders.  Those who call for a ‘Ceasefire Now’ or an” Immediate and permanent ceasefire” or “an immediate 2 state solution” miss the basic facts that:

  1. A ceasefire has to be on both sides and Hamas has already said they will do more October 7th massacres.  Hamas has also violated every ceasefire that Israel has been agreed to with them.  
  2. Hamas will not agree to, nor will they adhere to a permanent cease fire.  They have said this publicly and many times.  Why would Israel agree to something that would only be binding on them?
  3. There can be no ceasefire, nor can there be anything permanent while the hostages remain in Gaza.  Their release must occur for any ceasefire to be considered. 
  4. If Hamas remains in power, the Palestinian people in Gaza, those that these people profess to care about, will suffer greatly.  The Gazans in the northern part, who are now free of Hamas, are crying for Israel to finish the job, eliminate Hamas, and grant them freedom. 
  5. You can’t give people who call for your destruction, who commit actual genocide, who are supported by Iran, who don’t respect borders, who are known to be corrupt and steal from their people, their own state as a reward for committing genocide. 

These people are the simple son/child, who does not know.  They are so ignorant they don’t even realize they don’t know.  They use words like genocide and apartheid without knowing the meaning and when they clearly don’t apply.  They say things like, “Ceasefire now, Intifada” not realizing that they are telling Israel to put down their weapons while telling the terrorists to pick their up and kill Jews.  They chant “from the River to the Sea” without knowing what river, what sea, or that what they are advocating for is the elimination of Israel.  They accuse Israel of genocide while they, themselves, are actually advocating for genocide!  If they are truly antisemitic, it’s often because this is the new, cool, hip thing their friends are doing.  They aren’t filled with hate; they are filled with stupidity.  If they are willing to learn, there is a chance for them to understand.  If they aren’t willing to learn, it is more likely they will end up like the wicked son/child. 

They are so simple that they don’t even realize that Hamas would throw them from the roof of a building to their death for being in drag or being gay.

At the Seder table, we talk about the son/child who doesn’t know how to ask.  I remember thinking to myself for years, ‘how is this different from the simple son/child?’  What’s happened since October 7th has shown me the difference.  While the simple child doesn’t know enough to question what they are told and believe whatever they are old, the one who doesn’t know how to ask is oblivious to what’s going on around them.  These are the people who don’t say anything at all about the atrocities committed by Hamas.  They don’t comment or say anything about the incredible antisemitism we are seeing on college campuses or in major cities.  A hospital protested and vandalized because it has a Jewish name doesn’t raise their ire nor does it result in a comment.  People assaulted because they are Jewish or are wearing a kippah or a Jewish symbol isn’t even considered by them.  They live in a world where things like this don’t exist.  They aren’t antisemitic, they are totally disconnected from the reality of Jew hatred.  These are the people where we have the responsibility to show them what is happening, to engage them in conversation to educate them.  If we allow them to live in lala land, then we are responsible.  The actress and comedienne Tiffany Haddish who discovered she was Jewish later in life has taken an active role in this.  She isn’t afraid to talk about being Jewish and even publicly went to Israel recently to see and learn for herself.  She even had her own ‘Black Mitzvah’. She is the example to people who don’t even know how to ask about what they can do.  If she can do it, they can do it.

Since discovering that her mother was actually Jewish, Tiffany Haddish has embraced this part of her.

The final child is the wise one. This child asks for specific details about how to observe the holiday.  In the post October 7th world, these are the people that continue to seek truth and challenge what they are told.  They aren’t afraid to learn.  They understand the difference between Jews and the Israeli government.  They don’t take words like genocide, apartheid, and occupation at face value.  I want to be clear that this doesn’t mean they defend Israel no matter what.  They question.  They challenge.  They want to learn.  I urge us all to strive to be the wise child.  Don’t just believe what you hear or read.  Be open to conversations.  I had this happen regarding something it was reported that Turkish President Erdogan said.  A friend, who is actually in Turkey right now, let me know that this was a translation error/issue and that he would explain in detail this week.  I look forward to having him explain to me the translation issue and put it in another context. 

Muhammad Ali changed his name to mark his significant change upon converting to Islam.  The man named Cassius Clay ceased to exist and all that was left was a man named Muhammad Ali.  The me that existed before October 7th no longer exists.  The horrors of that day and what has followed has created a different version of me.  In order to mark that transition, I haven’t changed my name.  But I have marked my body.  I have wanted to get something that would mark that change for me and for everybody who saw it.  So last week, while in DC, I went with a friend to her tattoo artist and got two very personal and very meaningful tattoos.  One is the quote from Mia Schem, a hostage taken from the Nova music festival and released after 55 days.  She said, and then got tattooed on her arm, the words I will never forget.  “We will dance again.”  I now have those words on my right forearm.  I also saw a design memorializing the Nova music festival.  I can imagine being there listening to bands that I love.  I can imagine my children being at that music festival as they love concerts and live music.  So on my left forearm I got a tree with the word Nova and the date, 7-10-23 (written the Israeli way) tattooed.  They are forever reminders to me and those who see them both the horrors of October and the resilience of the Jewish people.  We will not go away.  We will continue to be Jewish and continue to thrive.  I am reminded of that every time I look at my arms.  Am Yisrael Chai!

Finally, in order to add some light to the darkness, I saw this in Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s writings today and after watching it, felt I had to share it.  In the Netherlands, cows are kept inside for 6 months of the year to protect them from the harsh weather.  On the day they are released to the outside, crowds show up to witness the ‘Cow Dance’

Try hard not to smile.  I will bet you can’t.

The content of our character gets an F

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

Terrorism is one of those things that as Americans, we have always thought of happening elsewhere.  Even when the Oklahoma City bombing occurred, it was by an American who many people made excuses for.  It didn’t feel like real terrorist.

September 11, 2001, was supposed to have changed everything.  Arab terrorists hijacked airplanes and flew two of them into the Twin Towers, one was crash landed in Shanksville, PA, and one crashed into the Pentagon.  Nearly 3,000 Americans were murdered that day by terrorists.  We felt what terrorism was like.  We engaged in a war in Iraq and then Afghanistan that lasted for 20 years.  But we were never hit again.  Despite the concern that more attacks were coming, the United States has been spared a second terrorist attack after 9/11.  And so, we have forgotten the horror of terrorism and terrorists.  We have forgotten the evil. 

Each September 11th, we remember in a lesser and lesser manner. It is not a national day of remembrance. It is not a sacred day. There isn’t a school assembly where all the names of the victims are read. Perhaps it’s the 20 years of war that came after that has us tired. Perhaps it is our lack of an attention span. Perhaps it is because we choose to get partisan and blame ‘the other party’ for either entering the war, not winning the war, or the way we finally exited the war. We paid a terrible price on September 11th and it’s a day that I will never forget. But as a country we remember it like we remember Pearl Harbor Day. “A day that will live in infamy” is no longer a recognizable quote to the millenial generation. I wonder if they would even recognize ‘Let’s Roll’ two decades after it was one of the most inspiring statements we heard.

Israel on the other hand, has had to deal with terrorist every day.  I have spoken with IDF leaders who have told me what they stop every single day.  And we see in the news what happens when a terrorist gets through.  The first and second intifada along with rockets from Gaza and Lebanon, stabbings, shootings, kidnappings, and more.

I’ve been in Israel for Yom HaZikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israeli Memorial Day and Israeli Independence Day) and they are days you won’t ever forget. The country shuts down on Yom HaZikaron. TV only shows stories of heroic soldiers. The sirens at 7 pm and then at 11 am are dramatic and unforgettable. The names of those lost are read in each community. It is a powerful experience. Yom Ha’atzmaut starts right at the end of Yom HaZikaron and the mood changes from sadness to joy in an instant. Freedom is celebrated, not sales on mattresses or appliances. You can literally join any party going on in the country whether you know the people there or not. Israel never forgets.

But even Israel never imagined the horrors of October 7, 2023.  Nobody, other than Hamas and Iran could imagined that occurring.  Having seen the 47-minute Hamas video from October 7th, it was horrifying.  And I know there is far worse that Israel has video of that they refuse to put into the public domain because of just how horrifying it is.  Rapes, murders of babies, women and the elderly.  Burning of people alive.  Cooking babies alive in the oven while their mother is forced to watch, sometimes while also being raped.  Seeing what the IDF soldiers saw, in real time, when they came upon the Nova Music Festival was haunting. I’ll never forget the bodies strewn everywhere, the anxiety in the voices of the IDF soldiers as they hoped to find anybody alive and the disappointment each time they realized that nobody was left alive.

The Nova music festival. I’ve seen the video of what the first responders of the IDF saw when they arrived and it’s horrifying.

In the United States, it is as if 9/11 never happened.  We blame Israel for it happening.  We hold Israel responsible for the evil of Hamas, using children, women, and the elderly as human shields.  We ignore the hostages, now taken over 160 days ago.  We excuse UNRWA for their participation in the horrors of October 7th, in hiding hostages after their abduction, and for their theft of humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza and diverted to Hamas.  When the people of Gaza riot because humanitarian aid is coming in and going to UNRWA to distribute and they know that means it goes to Hamas, we blame Israel.  When Hamas fires on the people of Gaza trying to get the humanitarian aid before Hamas can steal it, we blame Israel. We continue to fail to hold Hamas responsible or recognize that they are pure evil. 

We, and the world, have convinced ourselves, that this is between the Palestinians and the Israelis.  We have convinced ourselves that this is about the need for a Palestinian state or about Israeli construction in Judea and Samaria.  We fool ourselves into ignoring the influence of Iran and their goal of creating a new Caliphate, with the Iranians and radical Shiite Muslims in charge with everybody living under Sharia law.  We forget that we are the infidel they rail against, thinking it’s just Israel, it’s just the Jews.

We also forget that they hate anybody who isn’t like them, even other muslims. On October 7th, Hamas didn’t care if you were Jewish, Muslim, Christian, American, or Thai. They hated everybody. That’s what happens with evil. And if you don’t destroy evil, evil wins.

Hamas Also Slaughters Muslims

Even the people of Gaza are now holding Hamas responsible. Now that they don’t have to fear for their lives because Hamas killed any opposition and are not in charge any longer, they are speaking out loudly. While some of the people were involved with October 7th and many more support the hatred, there are plenty who want to live in peace with their neighbor Israel. I found the same thing in Judea and Samaria when, in 2019, I went to meet with leaders of Palestinian civil society. Take away the corrupt government and the evil of terrorists and there is a possibility for peace.

We choose to blame the government of Israel, Bibi Netanyahu, the far right fanatics in the government like Itamar Ben-Gvir, or the ultra-religious Jews in Israel for the hate coming from Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iran.  We choose to excuse barbaric behavior because it is against Jews.   Remember #BringBackOurGirls from 2014 after 276 high school girls were abducted from a government school in Chibok, Nigeria?  Remember the number of celebrities who stood out, loud and proud, that no woman or girl should be taken captive, raped and held against their will?  That only counts if you aren’t Jewish.

Julia Roberts is one of many celebrities who spoke out in 2014 that remain silent now. Shame on them.

Remember 1979 and the hostage crisis in Iran?  It spawned the TV show Nightline to keep everybody up to date on a daily basis.  Yet the hostages taken by Hamas – including Americans and Muslims – draw no attention.   Kfir Bibas, stolen when he was 8 months old, celebrated his first birthday in captivity.  His four-year-old brother Ariel was also kidnapped and remains in captivity.  What type of barbarism is this and better yet, what type of human beings are we that allow this happen and aren’t marching in the streets of every country to free these babies?

Kfir and Ariel Bibas. Babies. Hostages. How the world is not outraged is inexcusable. It’s only a matter of time before it happens here.

Noa Argmani and Naama Levi, two beautiful young women were attending a music festival, like many of our young adults do.  They were attacked by butchers who murdered young adults in cold blood, savagely raped them for the crime of being in Israel.  Noa and Naama were taken hostage.  Who knows what brutality they have faced since October 7th?  We can all imagine the worst after what we saw these Hamas terrorists do to girls, women, and the elderly. 

Noa Argmani and Naama Levi, taken hostage by Hamas on October 7th. We don’t know what brutality they have faced or if they remain alive. Where is the outrage?

They aren’t the only young women taken hostage and being brutalized in the tunnels beneath Gaza.  And if you think it’s only over there and only Jewish women so you are safe, look at the signs held by AMERICANS in NEW YORK CITY on Sunday.  “Rape is resistance”.  “Babies are occupiers too”.  After the killing of George Floyd, we had resistance in major cities like Seattle, Portland, and Minneapolis.  Today these people would tell you that raping your wife, daughter, or mother would be acceptable because it’s ‘resistance’.  I remember reading about how in Seattle people went to homes and told the owners that it wasn’t their house.  That they were occupying land and had no right to live in the houses they purchased.  These same people would say that kidnapping their children would be acceptable because they were ‘occupiers’.  Don’t fool yourself that it is only there and only for Jews. 

Remember these signs when your baby is taken or when your wife, sister, daughter, or mother is raped. This is in NYC this past weekend!

Jews have long been the ‘canary in the coal mine’.  What happens to Jews happens to others afterward.  Take a minute to do a search for “Jews canary in the coal mine”.  You will see articles going back years documenting this.  It’s not post-October 7th.  It’s history.  When we allow this to happen, we encourage it to happen to us.

Just last week, an illegal migrant from Lebanon was caught at border.  He admitted that he is a Hezbollah terrorist and was hoping ‘to make a bomb’ and was headed for NY.  Terrorism is in the United States.  It’s just a matter of when and where the event happens. Or events happen. We are worried about planes that have issues with maintenance and construction while nobody has died in a major airline plane crash since 2009. How will we reconcile our priorities when people die in America at the hands of terrorists? Who will we blame? One thing we know for sure is that nobody will take responsibility.

Two weeks ago, a grenade was found in the back seat of an Uber in New York. As the bomb squad tried to get to the car to assess the situation, defuse the grenade, and save lives, Anti-Israel protesters blocked the police from reaching grenade in the Uber during a Times Square march. Luckily the grenade was inert and nobody was harmed by it. The hatred for Israel and Jews was more important than saving the lives of people in the area from a possible live grenade. We were lucky this time that it was inert. Next time?

People climbing on the police care as officers try to address a grenade in a nearby Uber
Protesters climbing on the police car and blocking police from getting to a nearby Uber with a grenade in it.

Last night was the ZOA gala in Hollywood, Florida. Peopel who support the existance of a Jewish homeland gathering together to celebrate it. We have many nation states in the world for people of all backgrounds, faiths, cultures, etc. There is only one Jewish state and that’s what Zionism is – the belief that we should have. Zionism is not colonialism as there is no desire to expand beyond our historical homeland. There is no aparthaid. The declaration of independence speaks clearly about being a home for all peoples. Zionism isn’t about Bibi Netanyahu, merely the most recent elected Prime Minister. His time will end and there will be a new Prime Minister. And a new one after that. And so on and so on. At this wonderful event last night, in order to ‘help Palestinians’, people assaulted a Jewish person with an Israeli flag. How does that help Palestinians? How does that help the people of Gaza? We know they don’t care about the hostages because they are Jewish. Instead of listening to the people of Gaza about Hamas and working to create a place where Palestinians can live peacefully with their neighbor Israel, instead of building a country with hospitals that are not armories, schools that teach math and science, not hate, these people merely want to hate. Watch th video and see hatred, see evil. If they really wanted to help the Palestinians and the people of Gaza they would listen to them and push for an end to Hamas.

Violence outside the ZOA gala just because he has an Israeli flag

Last week, I heard Senator Chuck Schumer speak passionately about Israel and Israel’s right, as a sovereign nation, to defend herself. He spoke about the evil of Hamas and how they must be defeated. He spoke about the special relationship between the United States and Israel. He was animated. He was passionate. Three days later, he completely backtracked, calling for early elections in a sovereign country. He let partisan politics overtake his moral, ethics, and values. I was disgusted. Not just disappointed, not just angry, but disgusted. Here is one of our elected leaders, in one of the most high ranking positions in our government, a self identified Jew, talking out of both sides of his mouth without integrity. This isn’t about likeing or not liking Bibi. This isn’t about thinking he is the problem or the solution. This is a democratic country that has free elections and has a process for them. Unlike the Palestinian Authority, where Mahmoud Abbas is now in year 19 of his 4 year team. Let that sink in for a minute. No calls for elections in year 19 of his 4 year term. I’m not sure Senator Schumer can regain my trust. Our leaders continue to lose our trust based on their lack of integrity, lack of morals and values. When our leaders don’t have them, how much longer can we exist as a democracy (or a republic for those who want to be critical).

Beware of Dangerous Advice: An Urgent Letter to President Biden

A TikTok trend in 2023 asked women to ask men how often they think about the Roman Empire.  Women were shocked that men think about the Roman empire so often. I think men think about it so often because it was an amazing, powerful empire. It gave the world so much. When we look back on it, we don’t understand how it ever fell. It was so powerful. It covered all aspects of life. It was on the cutting edge of everything. It was simply the best of the best. How did it every disappear? How did the Roman Empire fall?

I think we are seeing it firsthand now in both Europe and the United States. We are so full of ourselves that we have lost all common sense. Instead of striving to look at people as people, to find our similarities and focus on them instead of our differences, we now highlight our differences and minimize our similarities. We fill ourselves with hatred towards those that are different. We allow babies to be hostages. We allow women to be raped if it supports a cause. There is no right and wrong any longer. In the words of the Presidents of Penn, MIT, and Harvard, ‘it depends on the context’. It never depends on the context. Evil is bad. Period. You cannot justify evil. There is good and evil and there is a difference. The world is now attempting to justify evil. The world is ignoring the definitions of words like genocide and apartheid to make them into catch phrases that sound powerful and allows people who use them incorrectly to feel superior.

Rome fell for many reasons. The three most common reasons cited are corruption, the division of the empire, and invasion by Germanic tribes. We are filled with corruption in our world today and in our country. We are as divided as we have been since the civil war. All that is missing is the invasion. As we saw last week when a Hezbollah terrorist was caught with the intention to set off a bomb in NY, the invasion has begun.

Can the fall of the United States be that far away? Will future generations study us and the Roman empire and see the pattern and do better? Do we have a chance to save our country and our world? I don’t know but I get less optimistic each day as we sink further and further into the abyss of hate, divisiveness, and stupidity.

May the hostages come home safely and soon. May the war in Gaza end soon with the surrender of Hamas. May we wake up from this bizzaro world and return to one of sanity where, in the words of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:

“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.”

The great Dr. King. We need him now more than ever.

Right now, our nation and the world is getting a failing grade on the content of our character. And I fear for our future.

Humble and Kind with a side of Meatloaf

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

This week is another Tim McGraw song.  This one, “Humble and Kind”, is from 2016, once again highlighting how far behind I am in discovering country music legends.  I chose this for many reasons, as you will see below.  If you want to watch the video, I have included it.

The lyrics begin:

You know there’s a light that glows by the front door
Don’t forget the key’s under the mat
When childhood stars shine
Always stay humble and kind

Growing up, the key was always under the mat.  At my house or at my friends’ homes.  Everybody knew it, nobody took advantage.  It was a different time.  More than just having a key under the mat, the door was always open if you needed a place to go.  Many times, I had friends who needed to get out of their house and a safe place to hang out and sleep over.  My house was that place.  My parents would often joke that they didn’t know who was staying for dinner or who was gonna be there for breakfast.  They cared only to the extent that they wanted our house to always be a safe place for our friends.

It was a great lesson growing up.  Treat everybody the same.  It doesn’t matter what their home life is like, how much money they have, what type of prestige their family may or may not have.  People are people, friends are friends.  It was one of my first lessons in kindness and has left a deep impact on me and my siblings.  It was also a lesson in humility, one that I didn’t really understand until much later in life.  My parents didn’t do this for recognition.  It wasn’t something that was publicized amongst their peers in the neighborhood.  It was private.  It was personal.  It was about taking care of the kids, our friends, and making sure they had what they needed.  It was truly them being humble and kind.  It is why my childhood friends all have such strong respect and love for my parents to this day.


Go to church ’cause your mamma says to
Visit grandpa every chance that you can
It won’t be wasted time
Always stay humble and kind

This verse highlights three very important things.  First, listen to your parents.  When I reached my teens, all of a sudden I was brilliant and knew everything.  My parents knew nothing.  Listening to their guidance became optional for me and they had to force me to listen with threats of being grounded, losing access to a car, money, or the ability to go and do the things I wanted to do.  So, in this little, throw-away addition to the first line, the lesson is provided.   Listen to your parents.  They may seem old, boring, and not up to date with what’s happening in the world today.  And they may be.  But they also have the wisdom of life’s experiences and can help you avoid many pitfalls.  I often ask myself what my parents would say to me and when I am not sure, I call my mom for her guidance.  I always wish I could still call my dad.

Charles Barkely, one of my favorite commentators on life, puts his own spin on this

The second lesson is the importance of spirituality in our lives.  It doesn’t matter if you prefer church, synagogue, the mosque, temple, nature, the beach, or anything else.  Finding spirituality in your life provides a grounding base for life.  Life is filled with ups and downs, risks, and consequences.  Having that spiritual base provides comfort.  It opens the door to supportive relationships with others on that spiritual journey.  As we go on the journey of life, having a spiritual base anchors us, and provides us stability.  So, listen to your mamma, go to church (or synagogue or the mosque or the temple or experience nature or the beach), and build a spiritual base.  As you get older you can pick your own spiritual journey if the one you started on with your family doesn’t resonate. 

Finally, visit grandpa.  It’s not just grandpa.  It is grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins, and all your relatives.  The time spent with family isn’t wasted time.  As I think of my childhood, growing up spending significant time with all four of my grandparents, my great grandmother Rose, my aunts and uncles, and my cousins, I am so grateful for it.  I think of going with my grandpa Si to visit his father, my ‘Poppy’.  Poppy was already in his 90s when I remember him.  He didn’t move well, he didn’t speak much.  We would go over to see him, for my grandpa to give him a shave, and for me to sit on his lap as his great grandson.  I remember the day he died and how sad I was to not be able to see him any longer.  I was only six years old and when I talk about him with my brother, who is three years younger than me, he doesn’t even remember visiting him. 

With my Grandpa Si. I have great pictures and memories with all my grandparents.

I think of the many lessons all of my grandparents taught me.  Their love, guidance and support is something that I treasure.  I watched my parents with my children emulate them.  I watched the way my in-laws interact as their parents did with my wife and her sisters.  It becomes a generational connection with the lessons of family, love, respect, honor, humility, and kindness being transmitted from one generation to another.  I look forward to the day when I become a grandfather and have that opportunity to fulfill that role.  I know that my great-grandparents, my grandparents, and my parents will be on my shoulders guiding me, helping to ensure that my grandchildren are also humble and kind people as they grow up and enter the world.

My sister called me today to talk about our Grandma Esther, who died more than 25 years ago. That’s a true legacy.


Hold the door, say “please”, say “thank you”
Don’t steal, don’t cheat, and don’t lie
I know you got mountains to climb
But always stay humble and kind

My Grandma Ev and my mom, her daughter, were always on us about manners.  Holding the door.  Saying please and thank you.  Writing thank you notes.  Helping to clean up after meals.  If we ever referred to my mom as ‘she’, we were told that is the cat (we never had a cat) and were to use proper names.  I can still hear them saying, “What’s the magic word?” (the answer is please),   I remember in middle school when we took home economics, the issue of manners was an easy one for me because it was drilled into me at home.  It’s something that I have endeavored to do with my children as well.  It doesn’t take much to have manners, just some effort.

Grandpa Len, Grandma Ev, Grandma Esther and Grandpa Si. That’s me with the big grin. I’m so lucky to have had the relationship with them that I did.

The other lesson this part of the song highlights for me is to have morals and ethics.  My grandparents would emphasize this all the time.  Who you are when nobody is looking is who you are.  What you do when nobody sees is what shows your morals, values, and ethics.  If you want to be a good person, then you do it all the time, not just when people are watching.   The future is unlimited, and we were taught not to take shortcuts to get there.  No stealing, cheating, or lying.  We learned early on that we got in much more trouble for lying than telling the truth.  I remember getting caught cheating on a test in high school and getting in much more trouble for that than failing the exam and getting a bad grade that marking period.   As kids, when we would take something from a store without paying, we were made to not just return it but to apologize to the store owner.  Raising my children, I have done the same thing and shared the same messages.  I’m proud of the people my sons are.  How they live their lives and live their values.   And I know my grandparents are looking down and smiling, knowing it was their influence.

We have bright and exciting futures ahead of us, no matter where we are in life.  It’s important to remember that throughout the journey we must remain humble and kind.

When the dreams you’re dreamin’ come to you
When the work you put in is realized
Let yourself feel the pride
But always stay humble and kind

As I just wrote, we have bright and exciting futures.  In the words of Theodore Herzl, “If you will it, it is no dream.”  So, the dreams we have require work to realize.  My grandparents and parents always taught me that.  The effort was more important than the results since the only thing we can control is our own effort.  When I got an A but didn’t study, it didn’t impress my parents.  If I worked really hard and ended up with a B, they were incredibly proud.  The same was true in sports.  Working hard to improve was more important than being the star.  It’s the work you put in that means everything.  It also may result in achieving your dreams.

The full Theodore Herzl Quote

I remember my first semester in grad school, I got 2 A’s and 2 B’s.  My advisor called me to his office and told me that serious graduate students didn’t get B’s.   I took that to heart and for the rest of that degree, I worked harder and got all A’s.  It was the effort that mattered.

This lyric reminds us of that.  We can be proud of our results.  Graduating high school, college, graduate school, law school, medical school, or building a successful business are all wonderful achievements.  The important part is the work we put in.  So go ahead and feel the pride of the accomplishment but more importantly, recognize the effort that went into achieving the goal.  That’s what really matters.  So don’t be full our ourselves for the accomplishment.  Instead, be humble and kind, because it’s the effort that really matters, not the accomplishment.  Celebrate the effort, appreciate the gift of the accomplishment.


Don’t expect a free ride from no one
Don’t hold a grudge or a chip and here’s why
Bitterness keeps you from flyin’
Always stay humble and kind

I love how these lyrics build off each other.  Just as I finish writing about how it’s the effort that matters, not the outcome, the song emphasizes this with stating there is no free ride.  Nobody gives you anything, it’s all earned.  So if you are going to have to earn what you get, don’t hold grudges or live with a chip on your shoulder.  Living with bitterness only diminishes ourselves.  It doesn’t hurt the other person.  It’s like being angry at somebody and punching yourself in the face.  They don’t feel a thing, but we sure do. 

If our goal in life is to enjoy every minute, why would we want to limit ourself because of other people?  Why would we want to let other people rent space in our heads without paying for it?  That’s why the song reminds us to stay humble and kind.  By doing that, we aren’t letting somebody else control our lives.  We aren’t giving our power away to somebody we don’t even like.  It’s an important life lesson for happiness.  Often we think that our ego will make us feel good when in reality, it’s being humble and kind, focusing on our own part and not worrying about other people’s behavior.


Know the difference between sleeping with someone
And sleeping with someone you love
“I love you” ain’t no pick-up line
So always stay humble and kind

‘”I love you” ain’t no pick-up line’ is such a powerful statement.   In today’s world, love becomes a word that is thrown around too often and recklessly.  It was the key word to use when you were trying to sleep with somebody.  Telling them you loved them was the key statement.  If you were able to throw that out there, sex was the likely outcome.  But then you were stuck with the impact of your words.

It reminds me of one of my favorite songs, Paradise by the Dashboard Light by Meatloaf. 

How often do I get to use a song as I analyze the lyrics of another song?  In Paradise, the end of the song is the perfect example of this.

I couldn’t take it any longer
Lord I was crazed
And when the feeling came upon me
Like a tidal wave
I started swearing to my god and on my mother’s grave
That I would love you to the end of time
I swore that I would love you to the end of time!
So now I’m praying for the end of time
To hurry up and arrive
‘Cause if I gotta spend another minute with you
I don’t think that I can really survive
I’ll never break my promise or forget my vow
But God only knows what I can do right now
I’m praying for the end of time
It’s all that I can do
Praying for the end of time,
So I can end my time with you!

The risk of throwing the phrase ‘I love you’ out there recklessly is that if you have morals and ethics, you get stuck.  Meatloaf said it to get what he wanted and now is ‘praying for the end of time.”  Our desires to sleep with someone instead of sleeping with someone you love can be compared to many of our choices where we go against our morals, ethics, and values.   When we stick to them, when we remain humble and kind, we don’t have to worry about praying for the end of time.  Kindness and humility doesn’t just help others, it helps us.


When it’s hot, eat a root beer popsicle
Shut off the AC and roll the windows down
Let that summer sun shine
Always stay humble and kind

As the song begins to conclude, the lyrics get more general about life itself  Appreciate what we have when we have it.  When its hot, have something cool.  Enjoy the moment.  Don’t worry about what we don’t have, focus on what we have.  Grab the opportunity with two hands and enjoy every moment of it.

I remember growing up and spending summers at my grandparents’ house.  The ice cream (or Good Humor as my grandfather would say) man would come every day and getting that popsicle or ice cream on a hot afternoon was everything.  It was simple.  It was delicious.  It was special.  Asking for that dime (and then quarter as I got older, and prices went up) was a big deal.  Running after the truck, catching it, and walking away satisfied made the entire day.  It’s hard to believe today, but AC wasn’t a given back then.  Fans would be moving the air, windows would be open, and we would wear shorts and t-shirts.  TV was only on at night, starting with the news.  That summer sun shone and we took advantage of it and enjoyed every moment.

It’s a life lesson for today.  Forget about video games, screens, monitors, and staying inside.  Sit outside and read a book.  Go for a walk.  Play outside with friends.  Go for a swim.  Be with other people in person.  Don’t use zoom or facetime or internet and headphones with a video game.  Be in person.  Interact with other people.  Pay attention to their nonverbal communication because you are really ‘with’ them, not just in the same place virtually. 

Be humble about the toys and the technology.  Be kind with your time.  There is nothing like being together in person with people.  Don’t ever forget that.


Don’t take for granted the love this life gives you
When you get where you’re going don’t forget turn back around
And help the next one in line
Always stay humble and kind

The closes with an important reminder.  Don’t take things for granted.  Don’t expect there will always be time to say what you want to people.  To get together with people.  Don’t take for granted the people who love you and who go out of their way to help in any way they can. 

When you reach new status in life, don’t forget the people who were there along the way.  If you move to a nicer house, in a different neighborhood, don’t forget your friends who were there for you during the times you lived in your old house in your old neighborhood.  If your life changes to where you are now traveling to exotic places where some of your old friends can’t go, don’t leave them behind.  Make the time to be with them and enjoy every minute in the places you can both be at.  The one thing we know is that life will change.  Our circumstances will change and be different from our friends and loved ones.  The question is will we change?  Will we still talk to the people we talked to every day before things changed?  Will we judge them for the difference in status or accept and love them for who they are?  We may not notice our behavior, but they will.  And when we need them in the future, they won’t forget that we forgot them.  People are not disposable. 

The final two lines focus on three things, two of which we have repeatedly discussed and will close with.  Humble and Kind.  The other is helping others.  It often takes very little to help somebody else.  Holding a door, sharing an umbrella, giving somebody a ride, letting them use your phone.  So many little things happen every single day where we have the opportunity to lighten up somebody else’s day with a little kindness and humility.  The three go together to make the type of world we all want to live in.  Don’t shirk your responsibility.  Remember to help.  Remember to be humble.  And remember to be kind.

Thoughts after the AIPAC Policy Summit

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

In a Bari Weiss piece for the Free Press after their recent visit to Israel, she said,

“There was not a single conversation that I had in the week I spent in Israel where the person did not say a version of the following: There was an October 6 version of me and an October 7 version of me. I am forever changed. I am a different person.“

That hits home for me as there is no question that October 7th changed me forever.  I have always been a passionate Zionist.  My grandparents and parents raised me that way.  They were passionate about have a Jewish homeland, my grandparents living in America during the Shoah and my parents being born at the end of it.  I will never forget my grandfather telling how they listened to the UN vote on a transistor radio and how they celebrated when the vote came in that ensured a Jewish state would be created.  It was dream to visit Israel and after I graduated college, my present was a 4 week trip to Israel.

I have been back to Israel 19 more times since then (total of 20 visits) and can never get another or stay long enough.  There is something in the air, on the ground, that is special.  The food is amazing, and I love the people, the beaches, the green of the north, the beauty of the desert.  My favorite place changes all the time.  Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, the Galil.    On my last visit I fell in love with Ir Yamim, a southern suburb of Netanya.  Suffice it to say that I love Israel and am a proud Zionist.

Horseback riding with my friend Remo Eyal in Netanya on the beach of the Mediterranean Sea in Netanaya.

As a proud Zionist, I got involved with AIPAC (The American Israel Public Affairs Committee) more than 25 years ago.  I was awarded the campus ally one year and been to many conferences.  With the shift away from the big 20,000-person policy conference to the much smaller 1,400 Policy Summits, I have still been invited and have attended the first two that have been held.  This week was the second and it was truly incredible.

AIPAC gets important politicians to address the summit.  As a non-partisan organization that works in a bi-partisan manner, that means we hear from leaders of both parties as well as leaders of Israel.  This year was no exception. 

We heard from all four leaders of the House and Senate.  Representative Leader Hakim Jeffries and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson as well as Senators Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell.  All were powerfully pro-Israel.  It made Thursday’s speech by Senator Schumer hurt even more as he was so positive when he spoke on Monday night.  To call on Israel to replace their democratically elected leader in a country that has had more elections in the past few years than we can count and not call on the Palestinian Authority to have elections to end the 19 years that Mahmoud Abbas has served in his 4 year elected term is offensive. To meddle publicly in the politics of a key ally in the middle of an existential war is unacceptable. It is a reminder of why we have the challenges we do. Israel remains held to a different standard than anybody else in the world. Compared, to House Minority Leader Jeffries, who doubled down on Israel needing to eliminate Hamas, it was quite a contrast. 

Representative Hakim Jeffries, Minority Leader in the House
Senator Mitch McConnell, Minority Leader in the Senate
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson
Senator Chuck Schumer, majority leader in the Senate

Senators Rick Scott and John Fetterman were two of the leaders who attended the special dinner on Monday night, each holding court with attendees to talk, answer questions and support Israel.  Representatives Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Brian Mast were also there, and I am sure there were many others that I didn’t get to see.

Representatives Don Davis (D-NC) and Rep Young Kim (R-CA) spoke together with incredible passion.  Rep Davis is African American and Rep Kim is an Asian American.  They showed that Israel is not just a Jewish issue and I hope many others follow their lead.  It was inspiring to hear them speak.

Representative Young Kim and Representative Don Davis

Brett McGuirk, Deputy Assistant to the President and National Security Council Coordinator for the Middle East and North African gave us incredible insight into what’s going on.  It was incredible to hear directly from him and we learned a great deal. 

Israeli Opposition party leader Yair Lapid spoke to use by satellite from Israel.  He was powerful and inspired us all.  Israeli Ambassador Michael Herzog spoke to us in person, inspiring us as the Israeli Ambassador.  At the end of the conference, Prime Minister Netanyahu also addressed the crowd by satellite, although I had to leave before then as I had lobbying appointments on Capitol Hill to get to. 

Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid
Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Herzog

Two of the best we heard from were Wesley Bell, running against Rep Cori Bush, a vile antisemite, and George Latimer, running against Jamal Bowman, another vile antisemite.  Both members of the squad are behind in the polls and hearing Bell and Latimer speak gave great hope for a different Congress in 2025 that is more pro-Israel and one that is more educated on the issues and the realities. 

George Latimer and Wesley Bell – hopefully they defeat Jamal Bowman and Cori Bush, two vile antisemites.

Senators Kirstin Gillibrand and Joni Ernst were on a panel with Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz.  They each spoke powerfully and beautifully about Israel, the evil of Hamas, and the need for Israel to destroy Hamas. 

As you can see, it was a powerful group of leaders who spoke to us.  But that wasn’t the most powerful part of the conference.  The most powerful part of the conference were the Israeli’s we heard from who were there on October 7th.  Who experienced the terror, who lost loved ones, and parents whose dual citizen son, Omer Neutra, remains a hostage.  Omer graduated high school and decided to spend a gap year in Israel.  While spending his gap year in Israel, he decided that rather than return to the US for college, he wanted to enlist in the IDF and serve Israel.  On October 7th he was taken hostage and has not been heard from since.  Omer is all our children.  We can all related to a child taking a gap year and being inspired while doing so.  He could be in college right now, but instead chose to serve the Jewish people in the IDF.  He has not been a hostage for nearly 160 days.  As we listened to his parents, all we could think of was that Omer could be our child and he quickly became our child and our cause.  When we heard a dual citizen hostage was found to have been murdered on October 7th and Hamas still has his body, we were all horrified and fearful it was Omer.  Our hearts broke for the family of Itai Chen, who learned of his death FIVE MONTHS after it happened.  Who don’t have his body to bury and the ability for closure. 

Omer Neutra’s picture as his parents spoke to us. It was heartbreaking. Bring them home NOW!

We heard from a young woman named Or Tzuk who lives in Kfar Aza.  I want to warn you that this story is graphic.  She and her husband were away on holiday the weekend of October 7th.  Hamas terrorists broke into her house and murdered her father, mother, and their dog.  Her brother, who in her words is like a ‘big American’, hid under the bed and wasn’t found.  Hamas shot bullets all around the house with a number of them grazing him.  He laid in his parents and their dog’s blood and urine for 7 hours before being rescued.  7 hours lying in his parent’s blood and urine, looking at their dead bodies and the dead body of his dog.  When rescued, he took off his shirt to be examined and they found that his mother’s teeth were embedded in his skin.  I can’t even imagine.  She now wears combat boots all the time.  She has to have an exit strategy in every room she is in.  She has difficulty sleeping.  Listening to her talk was heartbreaking. 

Or Tzuk speaking on the Israeli news 10 days after the Hamas massacre of October 7th. Her pain wasn’t any less when she spoke to us 5 months later.

We heard from a Nehoray Levy, a young man who was at the Nova Music Festival.  He ran and was able to escape.  He hid for hours alone.  When things got quiet, he got up and ran to where he saw others who had escaped the music festival and hid together with them until they were rescued. 

Nehoray recorded a farewell message to his parents and family during the Hamas attack. It’s painful to watch as he says his goodbyes, not sure if he will survive.

Daniel Waiss, who sang Hatikvah, lost both his parents on October 7th, part of the time lying between the dead bodies of his friends.  I can’t imagine spending hours lying between the dead bodies of my friends, hoping and praying that the terrorists don’t come find me and kill me too.  He had decided to use his music as a way to heal not only himself but others who have been traumatized.  He has gone back to the area where the terrorists murdered his family and performed a concert for them.  He sang beautifully and while Hatikvah is always powerful and meaningful when I sing it, this one was the most meaningful I have ever sung. 

Daniel Wais singing on YouTube

After this, filled with energy and passion on behalf of the American-Israel relationship and Israel itself, we went to the Hill to lobby our Central Florida Senators and Representatives.  All support Israel.  Almost all agreed that Israel must do whatever it takes to defeat Hamas.  They all listened to us and heard our message.  I hope they all support the aid package to Israel.  I hope they all understand what Israel faces.  Most do, but not all.  I spent Tuesday on the Hill, doing my part to advocate for Israel and the American Israeli relationship.  When my future grandchildren ask me what I did after October 7, 2023, I have an answer for them.  I didn’t sit silently.  I didn’t hide.  I became more publicly Jewish.  I worked with our legislators.  I attended the rally in DC.  I took action.  I hope that you will have answer for your grandchildren as well. 

Representative Darren Soto
Representative Daniel Webster
Representative Maxwell Frost – I did a bad job taking the picture

As a proud Jew and a proud Zionist, I have struggled greatly since October 7th.  One image I will never forget was on the news that day.  It was a minivan on the side of the road.  The driver, the father of family, had been murdered and was slumped over the steering wheel.  His young daughter was also murdered, slumped over him.  It’s an image that will never leave my mind.  I saw the Hamas 47-minute video and there are many images there that I will never forget and that will never leave my mind.

Since October 7th I have ordered a special Magen David (star of David) from Israel that I wear daily.  I got my ‘Bring Them Home Now’ and ‘We will Dance Again’ dog tags from Israel that I wear every day. I got a new “Am Yisrael Chai’” pendant.  As requested by Rachel Goldberg, the mother of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, the American Israeli who lost an arm at the Nova Music Festival and was taken hostage, I put the masking tape over my heart and use a sharpie to chronicle how many days the hostages have been in captivity.  I get asked about that more than anything else. 

My newest necklace

This AIPAC Policy Summit was powerful for me as it wasn’t just an opportunity to learn about policy, hear from politicians, lobby on the hill, and see some cool Israeli things.  It was a chance to hear from Israeli’s personally impacted by October 7th.  To hear their stories from their own mouths, in their own words.  I’ll never forget their faces, their voices, or their stories. 

When he was Hillel International President, Avraham Infeld used to say all the time that ‘Judaism is NOT a religion.’   He would step back, say it again, and then say, ‘See, I wasn’t struck by lightning.   Judaism is a mishpacha (family) who share a common religion.’  Ambassador Michael Oren reiterated this in his column today. As a mishpacha, the people murdered on October 7th are my family.  The people taken hostage on October 7th are my family.  The people currently still being held hostage are my family.  The IDF soldiers fighting and dying to eliminate the evil that is Hamas are my family.  The civilians attacked in the streets in Israel and stabbed are my family.  I stand with my family.  I stand with Israel.   Am Yisrael Chai.

With Michael Oren at the Orlando JNF event. He is truly a brilliant man and worth following his writings.
Am Yisrael Chai – The people of Israel live!

Sunday Song – what if we really could write a letter to a younger self?

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

Today’s song is “Letter to Me” by Brad Paisley from 2015.  I find it very inspirational and thoughtful as I’m sure most of us have often thought about what we might tell the 17-year-old version of ourselves if we had the ability to go back and give some advice. 

The song begins:

If I could write a letter to me and send it back in time to myself at 17
First I’d prove it’s me by saying
“Look under your bed, there’s a Skoal can and a Playboy no one else would know you hid.”

We all have said to ourselves, “If I only knew then what I know now” about something.  How would we even know it was us from the future to know to listen?  The beginning of the song is that connection point between the us of today and the us of then.  We all had things hidden, secrets we kept from others when we were teenagers.  The connection here reminds us that we are still the person we were in the past, just changed by experiences and time.  And we can connect with that person from the past anytime we want by channeling those things that meant a lot to us and we didn’t share.

I spent this past weekend with my mom, brother and sister for a family Bat Mitzvah.  As we talked about our kids and lessons they have learned or are learning, my brother brought up how he always uses me as the example to his kids.  He does this, not because I was a pillar of virtue but actually because I wasn’t.  I’m the cautionary tale because I pushed the boundaries and took silly risks and did risky things.  The me of today wouldn’t be recognized by the 17-year-old version of myself and I would need to provide some sort of ‘street cred’ to convince that 17 year old version of myself that I really was the same person, just grown up. 

We don’t have to be embarrassed by the person we were.  We can identify with them and appreciate them for who they were and grateful that we are who we are today.  We don’t have to be trapped by our past and can look forward to the present and the future. 

And then I’d say I know it’s tough
When you break up after seven months
And, yeah, I know you really liked her, and it just don’t seem fair
But all I can say is pain like that is fast and it’s rare.

It’s funny how our world view changes as we get older.  As a teenager, a month was forever.  As an adult, a month disappears so quickly it’s hard to believe.  A seven-month relationship at 17 seems like forever.  Having been married almost 26 years, seven months is the blink of an eye.  Being able to put context to time only happens with maturity.  That 17-year-old version of myself would be devastated losing a relationship after seven months.  That was an eternity.  The song reminds us of a few things.

First, life isn’t fair.  Life is life.  It comes how it comes and it is all about how we deal with the things that come.  Sometimes that means we have to deal with pain.  The good news is the pain will pass or lessen.  But it takes time.  And at 17, time isn’t something we understand.  My senior year of high school I had a relationship that ended after around 8-9 months.  I was devastated.  I thought she was the one.  We’d been together such a long time.  When I look back, I can appreciate the pain and can appreciate how time is completely relative.  And while it felt like the pain lasted a long time, it really didn’t.  It was fast.  I moved on.  I haven’t seen or talked to her in nearly 40 years.  What was so incredibly painful at 17 passed quickly, even though at the time it felt slow.  It’s critical to remember that time is precious and goes too fast.  At 17 it didn’t seem that way.  Now it seems to go far too fast.

And, oh, you got so much going for you, going right
But I know at 17 it’s hard to see past Friday night
She wasn’t right for you and still you feel like there’s a knife sticking out of your back and you’re wondering if you’ll survive it
You’ll make it through this and you’ll see you’re still around to write this letter to me

Perspective is one of those things we all need and struggle with.  The song continues by pointing out to the 17-year-old version that so much is going right yet the focus is on the one thing that isn’t.  And even though she wasn’t right for him, and he probably knew it at 17, it still hurts.  Pain is a part of life.  If we are going to live life, we are going to experience pain.  People will disappoint us.  People will leave us.  Things won’t always go the way we want them to.  Yet we move forward and get beyond the immediate hurt into a better future.

My friend and spiritual advisor, Mickey Singer, always talks about preference.  It’s preference that gets us into trouble.  We prefer something go a certain way because of our limited view.  He reminds me that things happen the way they are supposed to happen.  Our job is to get rid of preference and understand that.  It’s the short-term view vs. the long-term view.  When I look back at the life my 17-year-old self wanted and expected, mine is very different.  It’s better.  More fulfilling.  More successful in almost every way possible.  If I had stuck with what I wanted at 17, I would have shorted myself an incredible amount.

Like the song says, in the moment we may wonder if we’ll ever get through the pain but we always will if we keep moving forward.  And at some point we will be able to look back, appreciate what we went through for what it taught us and what we learned, and be incredibly grateful we are where we are and not back where we would have been.

At the stop sign at Tomlinson and 8th, I always stop completely, don’t just tap your brakes
And when you get a date with Bridget, make sure the tank is full
On second thought, forget it, hat one turns out kinda cool.

This verse makes me laugh.  It’s the older version trying to give basic advice to the younger version.  Stop completely at the stop sign.  I think back to the younger version of myself and what advice I’d give myself like this.  The girls I didn’t realize liked me and in hindsight saw they did.  The opportunities I missed that I could have taken advantage of.  The small things that my younger self would have appreciated but really don’t mean anything.  The older version realizes this when he starts saying to make sure the tank is full of gas.  That’s the adult thing to do.  The younger version ended up with a great experience and story.  Our older selves don’t always know best. 

I think about appreciating the challenges that I had growing up.  My older self could give advice that would let me avoid lots of mistakes and awkward situations.  But then I would not be the person that I am.  I would not be able to do the things I can do.  I wouldn’t have learned the lessons I did to become who I am.  So as much as the older me thinks it would be nice to save the younger version of me some pain, grief, and embarrassment, just like in the song, the realization that it really was for the best is critical. 

It’s another reminder that we aren’t in charge.  As Mickey would tell me regularly, we are here to experience life and everything that comes with it.  Each experience we have in life is a gift, even the things we don’t prefer (there is that preference again).  They shape who we are, who we will become, and how we will impact and change the world.  It gives us a chance to be grateful for every experience because even the painful ones will pass.  I am who I am today because of the experiences of my life to this point.  Why would I want a younger me to miss those experiences when it would mean I wouldn’t be who I am? 

Each and every time you have a fight, just assume you’re wrong and dad is right
And you should really thank Ms. Brinkman
She spends so much extra time, it’s like she sees a diamond underneath
And she’s polishing you ’til you shine.

This reminds me of a famous Mark Twain saying that I heard years ago.  “The older we get, the smarter my parents become.”  As a teen, I was sure that my dad didn’t get it.  He was a child of the 50s and 60s.  I was a child of the 70s and 80s.  It was a different time.  What did he know about modern times?  And yet, the older I got, the more I realized his wisdom.  The more I understood that he did know what he was talking about and the more I sought his advice.  Now that he isn’t here any longer, I miss his wisdom and advice.  I often find myself wanting to ask him for that guidance, to share his wisdom.  I’m glad that I got smarter as I got older and had a chance to learn from him.  It allows me the opportunity to imagine what he would say.  The messages that he would tell me.  It’s because I had a chance to learn from him that I can apply that knowledge to imagine what he’d say and how he’d guide me. 

The second line is the reminder to appreciate all the other teachers and influencers in our lives.  Often times we don’t appreciate those who give us that guidance as mentors, role models, friends, and teachers.  As I think back, there are many people I would like to say thank you to.  People who believed in me and encouraged me to try a little harder, show up a little more, put in that extra effort.  They saw the diamond in the rough and were willing to invest their time, energy, and effort into polishing it (me).

It also reminds me that I have that same responsibility today.  I find that there are so many amazing people out there that just need some encouragement, somebody who will invest time in them, somebody who believes in them.  I am proud of the people who I have been able to serve that role for.  One of them recently said to me:

“My time at UF was shaped by talking with you and others who taught me more than I ever would have done in a classroom.“

It’s nice to know that I have been paying it forward on behalf of those who did the same for me.  I believe it’s our responsibility to both realize and recognize those who provided that mentorship and guidance to us and to pay it forward with others.  It’s what makes the world better.  I have a number of people that I have been able to play that role for and as they achieve success and do amazing things to change the world, I know I had a small part in it.  It’s very gratifying.  If I could go back to my 17-year-old self, I would want to encourage that kid to say thank you and recognize those people.  A thank you means the world and from personal experience, just makes me want to help more people.  I wonder how many other people would be impacted if that 17 year old version of me recognized and thanked all those people who saw potential and invested in me?

Oh, you got so much going for ya, going right
But I know, at 17 it’s hard to see past Friday night
Tonight’s the bonfire rally but you’re staying home insteadBecause if you fail algebra, mom and dad’ll kill you dead
But trust me, you’ll squeak by and get a C
And you’re still around to write this letter to me

Once again, the song focuses on perspective.  The end of the week and the weekend was everything.  A week was a long time.  The events and choices we made seemed so critical, so essential.  Algebra and grades.  SAT scores.  Who to take to prom.  The things that seem so important at the time that in hindsight really weren’t.

It’s also a lesson that sometimes good enough is good enough.  It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive for excellence.  Nobody can be excellent in everything all the time.  Nobody can know everything about everything.  It’s simply not a realistic expectation yet as teenagers we often think it is what we need to do.  There are times when being perfect or the best isn’t what is needed.  Sometimes we just need to get by.  Sometimes success is simply accomplishing the goal, passing the class, doing what it takes. 

Expectations, often unrealistic ones, cause us much harm.  They are usually not based on fact or on what we really can accomplish.  They tend to come from other people or from societal expectations.  As we get older, we have the ability to choose to accept them or not.  As a teen, our parents, teachers, and peers have undue influence.  The song reminds us that we don’t have to accept the expectations put upon us by others.  We can choose to if we want, but it’s a choice.  We are not doomed to fail because we didn’t meet the expectations of others. 

You’ve got so much up ahead
You’ll make new friends
You should see your kids and wife

The future is bright.  We can get the things we really want.  More is ahead than behind.  These are all messages our 17-year-old self needs to hear.  The person we thought was “the one” at 17 may or may not be.  That relationship not working out doesn’t mean we’ll never be married, never have kids. 

We can look to the future with excitement no matter our age.  There is always so much ahead, even the older we get.  The length of time to experience thing may be shorter than at 17 but that doesn’t mean there are not new adventures and experiences ahead.

Life is a journey.  We make new friends.  We have new experiences.  Things continue to change in our lives.  We don’t have to worry if it will or won’t change – it will!  We don’t have to wonder if it will be good.  It may not be what we want.  It may not be what we hoped.  Iti s what is on our journey.

I love the line, “you should see your kids and wife.”  There isn’t any detail added to the statement.  It doesn’t say they are amazing or incredible.  Yet that is what is inferred.  It reminds us that we don’t need all the detail to know something is good.  And as we look towards the future, we don’t know what will be.  When we look back, we can be filed with gratitude for what we got.

And I’ll end by saying have no fear
These are nowhere near the best years of your life
I guess I’ll see you in the mirror when you’re a grown man.

We often think of times in the past as being the best years of our lives.  Especially when we are looking at times when we didn’t have significant responsibilities.  It’s also easy to think that our high school years are the best years of our life and perhaps we are wasting them. Or our college years.  Or our 20s or 30s.  The reality is that today is the best year of our life all the time.  It’s about what we do with our time, not when or where we are in life.  Our job is to seize the day.  Make the most of the day, of the time, of the life that we have rather than thinking about the life we used to have. 

P.S. go hug Aunt Rita every chance you can.

And oh, you got so much going for you going right
But I know, at 17 it’s hard to see past Friday night

I love the P.S.  This is the reminder to tell the ones we love that we love them.  To appreciate those in our lives while we still can.  I was blessed to have my Great Grandma Rose in my life into my 20s.  All four grandparents into my 20s.  Two grandfathers into my early 30s.  My dad into my mid 50s.  My mom today.  My in-laws today.  I would love to have them all today, but I also don’t have any regrets for not hugging them, telling them I love them, or spending time with them.  I took advantage of every chance I had.  One of my favorite stories about my Great Grandma Rose happened near the end of her life.  I had sent her a card just because I loved her and was thinking of her.  My Grandpa Si was visiting her and she was so excited.  She kept telling him, “I got a letter from Keith, I got a letter from Keith.”   Grandpa Si asked her, “Well what did it say?”  She responded, “I don’t know, I can’t read it.  But I got a letter from Keith.”  Just thinking about it makes me smile. 

We are all limited by time.  Don’t miss the time you have with the ones you love.  Another day is never promised.  Make sure they know how you feel about them and spend the time with them while you can.  My mom, brother, sister, and I all just spent the weekend in Chicago for a family Bat Mitzvah.  It was a wonderful time being with family and even more special to have the four of us together.  I never want to wish I had spent more time with them or told them I loved them.  That’s the lesson in this song. 

Dancing with my mom. All 3 of us took a turn.

I wish you’d study Spanish, I wish you’d take a typing class
I wish you wouldn’t worry and let it be
Hey, I’d say have a little faith and you’ll see

If I could write a letter to me

The last line of the song has a bit of irony.  It’s the little things you don’t think about as a teen that can have a long-term benefit as an adult.  Learning Spanish, a language that helps a career.  Typing to make computer use easier.  There are so many mundane choices we make as kids that seem unimportant but in hindsight we’d change.  My son took French, a great language.  Spanish would have been more helpful.  When I was in middle school we had to take Cooking, Sewing, Metal Shop, Wood shop, Drafting, and more.  I learned how to cook.  I learned how to sew.  I learned to use power tools.  I learned that I didn’t have the skills to be an architect.  Usable skills that helped me in life.  It’s sad to me that kids today don’t have those same life skills as courses in school.  It also tells us that we can still learn Spanish, typing, cooking, sewing, etc.  It’s never too late to learn the things we want.  And just because we missed an earlier window doesn’t mean we can’t revisit it in the future.

The song resonates with me because the letter ends up being something entirely different than what most of us think we would right.  It’s not a lecture nor is directions to avoid the mistakes we think we made.  It’s advice and guidance to enjoy the time in high school and all the time ahead until the age we are when we write the letter.  It’s validation and suggestions to help appreciate all that we have.  It’s a reminder that no matter how young or old we are, we have the ability to enjoy the moment for what it is and not be fixated on what we think it should be. 

My life has had ups and down.  Good times and bad.  Challenges and rewards.  When I stop, take a deep breath, and truly look at what I have in my life, it doesn’t matter what stage I am in, it’s a good life.  It’s filled with meaning.  I can appreciate my family and all the wonder in my life even when it isn’t perfect.  And I don’t have to worry, I can let it be, and have a little faith, because I will end up looking at the same self in the mirror either way.   I can choosee to enjoy the journey.

PS – Since the song has a PS, so does this blog.  My last post was about friendship and what is a friend.  One of my friends sent me this, which totally resonates with me.  In fact, many of my friends and I have basically said the same thing to each other many times.

The value of real friends

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

Friendship is an interesting thing.  It’s based on mutual respect and trust.  It’s something that is based in faith and belief.  There is no way to ‘prove’ that somebody is your friend.  There are plenty of times when one person thinks they are friends, and the other person thinks they are acquaintances.  Or you say ‘friends’ but don’t really mean you have depth of friendship; it is just easier than saying acquaintances.

Over the past 1 ½ years, I have had the opportunity to learn first-hand about friendship and what it really means to me.   When my dad died in September 2022, I saw who reached out, who showed up, and who really cared.  When these things happen, it’s always a surprise, as people who I think will show up don’t, and people I never imagined would show up, do.  Friendship is about showing up.  It’s about being there because you are care about the other person. 

Over the last 18 months, my life has taken many twists and turns.  There have been ups and downs, challenges, and successes.  As life has shown up, so have my real friends.  Those who I thought were friends and didn’t show up, indicated that I was wrong.  We were merely acquaintances, people with a shared interest, but not friends.  It’s been amazing to see the character of different people through this process and it has allowed me to make changes in who I want in my life and who really matters.

This week alone has had a number of instances that highlight true friendship.  A good friend of mine’s husband died 3 weeks ago.  I knew him as well and while he wasn’t in good health, nobody expected him to die when he did. I reached out when I heard and then called her yesterday to connect and talk.  Despite all that she is going through, she wanted to know about me.  We connected on a deep level and finished by telling each other “I love you’.  It’s a deep and wonderful friendship that I treasure. 

Another friend reached out because he is being interviewed for a PBS special and wanted to both tell me he is talking about me and also ask for a picture as they want one to show during the documentary.  I was blown away and humbled when he shared this with me.  We have been friends since he was an undergraduate student at The University of Florida (UF), and I was running UF Hillel.  I made sure he went to Israel as a student and served as a reference for him to do his master’s internship in Israel.  We have remained close over the past 20 years, and I let him know exactly what it meant to me that he chose to talk about me.  I’ve followed his career and been proud to call him a friend.  We check in with each other and check on each other.

I have a few friends that I speak with a few times a week and have done so for decades.  We support each other through challenging times and have been there during the good times and the bad.  Despite talking 3-4 times per week, it’s always a joy when their name pops up on my phone.  I know that I can call them and talk about anything, and they know the same about me.  When I think about how important that is, I am astounded that I have so many of them.  I always thought I’d be lucky to have one friend like that and I have half a dozen. They truly are like family.

I have my friend who is like a brother – his mom was my mom, his Aunt Jean was my Aunt Jean, my mom is his mom, and my dad was his dad.  My brother and sister are his siblings.  His wife is like my sister.  His kids call me Uncle Keith and mine call him Uncle Aric.  It’s a 35-year friendship that goes deep.  Either of us will drop anything if needed.  We have been through all of life’s challenges together. Getting married, having children, losing parents, career changes, parenthood issues, and so much more.

Aric and me back in the day when we were roommates at Penn State. Can you guess our favorite baseball team?

My friend Todd has been in my life for more than 36 years. We went through the death of his mother and two brother, my dad, both of us meeting our future wives and getting married, having and raising children, two of his kids getting married, our professional journey, and much more. We talk all the time and even have our special guys only cruise each year now to hang out without interruptions. He’s my best friend and completely dependable. We make fun of each other, have lots of incriminating stories about each other we laugh about privately, and are each other’s sounding board. I can’t imagine life without him as a key part of it. How lucky am I?

Todd and I on our guys cruise. His brother Eddie joined us on this one.

My dear friend Ron has been a sounding board and confidante for 30 years.  I was there when his wife was diagnosed with terminal cancer, I spoke to her just before she died.  When he had major surgery, I spent the day at the hospital with his family to support them and him.  He has been there for me in some of the most challenging times of my life and has been a rock when I need a calm head to process things.  A number of months ago he had a stroke.  While he is recovering, he still has aphasia so it’s very difficult to talk, a drastic change in our relationship.  We text daily and when I call and hear his voice, it brings a big smile to my face.  We have already proven to each other there is nothing we won’t do to help each other and I treasure that friendship. Our morning texts are always the best way to start the day.

With my friend Ron. We’ve been through it all together.

My friend Harriet and I zoom or talk every week for the past 4 ½ years.  We started as part of a formal process in a program we were a part of.  We enjoyed each other’s company and insights so much we never stopped.  I know she is always just a call away for support and guidance and she knows I am there for her.  It’s amazing to have this type of friend, somebody to share personal and professional challenges, excitements, opportunities, happy times, sad times, and challenging times.  Sometimes, when things get a bit too crazy, we cut it short to 15 or 30 minutes, just to hear each other’s voice and do a quick check in.  It’s a friendship I treasure and the bonus is I got to discover her author husband and his amazing books!!

My friend Harriet and her husband Howie. Check out his books, especially the Jonah Geller series!

What do all of these people have in common?  When the chips were down for either of us, they were there for me, and I was there for them.  It didn’t matter what else was going on, our relationship and friendship came first.   The friendships have been through tough life experiences and proved themselves.  They have stood the test and survived and thrived.

The last 18 months have highlighted friendships, both real and imagined.  I have seen who my friends really are by their actions.  And I have learned who I thought were friends but really aren’t.  Those who didn’t show up in a time of need.  Those where the relationship did not stand the test and have not survived.  These are often sad to realize and can hurt my heart.  People who I thought I was close with.  People where we shared and provided support in the good times, absent when I faced the challenging ones. 

I have learned that life is too short to be caught up and invest time in people, careers, organizations, and other things that don’t provide value.  I’ll never forget the first time I learned this with who I thought was a friend.  I was sitting on the front porch of a camp bunk while somebody I thought was a good friend started talking bad about me.  I was stunned to hear a ‘friend’ talking behind my back this way.  It showed me that we really weren’t friends, and I chose not to invest any more time in that relationship.  It was incredibly painful but also incredibly impactful. 

Most of the time I feel like a kid.  It’s hard to reconcile thinking and feeling like I am in my 20s and really being in my mid 50s.  The realization that more of my life is behind me than ahead of me was a stark one and truly life changing.  It was also incredibly freeing as it meant that I could release the societal expectations of work, career, status, title and look at what I really value.  Family, friends, mental and physical health.  As I sit in the airport, traveling to Chicago for a family Bat Mitzvah that I might have missed in the past, I am so grateful to my friends who have showed up and been there over the last 18 months.  And I’m even grateful for the people who I thought were friends and have learned really aren’t, because they haven’t showed up.  They have given me a gift as well. 

It makes me think of the lyrics of one of my favorite songs that we used to sing when I was in BBYO, You’ve got a Friend by James Taylor.

When you’re down and troubled
And you need some lovin’ care
And nothin’, nothin’ is goin’ right
Close your eyes and think of me
And soon I will be there
To brighten up even your darkest night

You just call out my name
And you know, wherever I am
I’ll come runnin’
To see you again
Winter, spring, summer or fall
All you have to do is call
And I’ll be there
You’ve got a friend

If the sky above you
Grows dark and full of clouds
And that old north wind begins to blow
Keep your head together
And call my name out loud
Soon you’ll hear me knockin’ at your door

You just call out my name
And you know, wherever I am
I’ll come runnin’, runnin’, yeah, yeah
To see you again
Winter, spring, summer or fall
All you have to do is call
And I’ll be there, yes, I will

Now, ain’t it good to know that you’ve got a friend
When people can be so cold?
They’ll hurt you, yes, and desert you
And take your soul if you let them
Oh, but don’t you let them

You just call out my name
And you know, wherever I am
I’ll come runnin’, runnin’, yeah, yeah
To see you again
Winter, spring, summer or fall
All you have to do is call
And I’ll be there, yes, I will


You’ve got a friend
You’ve got a friend

Ain’t it good to know you’ve got a friend
Ain’t it good to know, ain’t it good to know
Ain’t it good to know
You’ve got a friend


Oh, yeah, now, you’ve got a friend
Yeah baby, you’ve got a friend
Oh, yeah, you’ve got a friend

That’s the best definition of friendship I have ever found.  Whatever the need, whatever is going on, you are always there for each other.  I’ve written a lot about morals, ethics, and values.  Friendship is all about this.  It’s all about understanding what is important and what isn’t.  My family and friends come first.  Always.  I can get another job, find a way to make money, get a different car or house.  People are indispensable.  As the song I wrote about previously said so beautifully, “You can’t get new, old friends”. 

I know who my real friends are.  Some surprised me in how they stepped up.  Some surprised me in how they didn’t.  At the end of the day, all we really have is people and time.  I have chosen to value them over everything else.  In a world dominated by money, power, prestige, titles, and divisiveness, the lesson I have learned is that it is ok to reject those as important principles and put people first.  To live an ethical life is worth more than any amount of money.  As I was talking to Harriet today on our weekly call, she commented at how nice it was that I could go to this family Bat Mitzvah and do all the things I have been doing recently.  And she was right.  The change in attitude and in understanding what is important has given me the gift of freedom that I didn’t even know I was missing. 

Friends do that for you.  Friends are the lifeblood we all need.  Real friends.  True friends.  Ones that don’t just talk the talk, but those who walk the walk.  2024 is a year all about investing in the people who show they are friends through their actions.  I’m so appreciative of those who have shown me they are my real friends and just as appreciative of those who have shown me that they are not.  Life is whole lot better when you have the right people in it. 

I’m grateful for all the right people I have in my life.  You know who you are.

What is the definition of a friend? How do you know who your real friends are? Today’s blog talks about that.

As a Jew, I don’t feel safe in the United States

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

America has always been a beacon of hope.  A melting pot or a salad bowl, depending on which analogy fits you best.  As a Jew in America, I always felt different but also felt safe.  We are a country who follows the rule of law.  We strive to do better and to treat people better.  While America has a troubling history with slavery and the incarceration of Japanese during World War 2, I always felt we tried to recognize our errors and do better.  While racism is real, I also saw strong efforts to combat and eliminate it.  Marriage equality was a big step towards recognizing people are people.

After October 7th, I realized I was living in a bubble, in a dreamworld that doesn’t exist.  I understand my African American friend and my LGBTQ+ friends much better.  The America I thought existed doesn’t.  Hate is encouraged and allowed.  Far too many people, especially ones who call themselves leaders, are more interested in being re-elected than in doing what is right.  I am embarrassed by my naivety when it comes to the struggles of other minorities as my worldview was simply wrong.

I was impacted this weekend with the story of a horrific murder of a Jew in San Diego and the attempted murder of a Jew in Switzerland.  Their offense?  Being Jewish. 

Jewish dentist Dr. Benjamin Harouni was killed and two other people were wounded in a shooting at a dental office in El Cajon, California on Thursday.  The killer was Mohammed Abdul Kareem.  Immediately it was decried that it had nothing to do with Dr Harouni being Jewish or Mohammed Abdul Kareem being Muslim.  Violent attacks on Jews are typically immediately denied being because they are Jews.  Unlike similar attacks against other minorities, attacks on Jews are excused and minimized.  How can be expected to feel safe in America when this type of violence occurs against Jews and is immediately minimized?

On Saturday night, as Shabbat ended, a 62-year-old Orthodox Jew was stabbed outside the Agudas Achim synagogue in Zurich, Switzerland, by a 15-year-old Swiss citizen who shouted ‘death to Jews’.  The man was critically injured.  The rise in Jew hatred is astounding and the lack of response by leaders around the world is frightening.  How are Jews expected to feel safe in this type of environment?

On Saturday, in Times Square, an Uber driver found a grenade in the back seat of his car.  The bomb squad was called to make sure it didn’t go off.  There was a large Israel protest mob there and they wouldn’t let the bomb squad through.  Their hatred of Israel and Jews was so great that they would rather have a grenade go off in Times Square, around them, and have loss of life, than allow the police and the bomb squad through. 

The Uber with a grenade it – anti-Israel and anti-Jewish protesters wouldn’t let the bomb squad get there

As I began to spend a little more time reading about both of these incidents, I noticed a trend occurring.  More and more stories of Jew hatred have been occurring.  And the response to them is absurdly inadequate and being allowed by leaders of organizations, schools, City, State, and the Federal government.

For example, Origins High School in Brooklyn has become a haven for Hitler-loving hooligans who terrorize Jewish teachers and classmates.  On Oct. 26, just three weeks after the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre of 1,200 Israelis, 40 to 50 teens marched through Origins HS in Sheepshead Bay waving a Palestinian flag and chanting “Death to Israel!” and “Kill the Jews!” That is horrific by itself, yet school, city, and state leadership failed to but a stop to it. 

Origins High School Global History teacher Danielle Kaminsky has publicly stated how afraid she is to go to work due to being targeted as a Jew by students, yet the school has done nothing.  How do we know for sure?  Here are few examples of other things that have happened at the school:

  • A student painted a mustache on his face to look like Hitler and banged on classroom doors. When someone opened, he clicked his heels and raised his arm in the Nazi gesture, security footage shows.
  • Three swastikas in one week were drawn on teachers’ walls and other objects.
  • A 10th-grader told Kaminsky, 33, who is Jewish, “I wish you were killed.”
  • Another student called her “a dirty Jew” and said he wished Hitler could have “hit more Jews,” including her.
  • Students pasted drawings of the Palestinian flag and notes saying “Free Palestine” on Kaminsky’s classroom door. One scribbled note that said simply, “Die.”
  • A Jewish sophomore found three swastikas scribbled on his laptop charger when he returned from the restroom.
The door of Danielle Kaminsky’s classroom

The school, the City Government, and the State Government are failing to do anything about this.  No suspensions.  No expulsions.  No disciplinary action.  No protection for Jewish students or teachers. 

At Berkeley, a pro-Palestinian mob surrounded a campus auditorium, broke a window, and harassed Jewish students trying to enter the building.  Israeli lawyer Ran Bar-Yoshafat was invited by a Jewish student group to address the subject of Israel and international law. This included “the rules of wartime conduct and how the [Israel Defense Forces] can better protect civilians.”  An estimated 200 protesters chanted “intifada” and “free Palestine” and banged on windows.  Three Jewish students were injured.  What has happened to freedom of speech on college campuses?  Is it only freedom of speech if you aren’t Jewish?  Doesn’t the University have an obligation to protect the students and speakers who are exercising their right to free speech and sharing information that an educational institution is supposed to value for debate and deep thinking?

It gets worse, however.  The leaders of Bears for Israel, the pro-Israel group that organized the event, had been seeking a meeting with Berkeley’s chancellor since October 2023. Nearly 5 months and the chancellor hasn’t made the time for Jewish students with concerns about Jew hatred, antisemitism, and the safety of Jews.  They reached out again last week but have not heard back. They have been told the chancellor would “absolutely” consider a meeting with them but declined to say more.  Think about that.  Absolutely consider.  Not that the chancellor would meet with them, but that the chancellor would CONSIDER a meeting.  It’s clear that the safety and security of Jewish students don’t matter at Berkeley.

A few weeks ago, on February 19, the Jewish studies director at California State University at Long Beach, Jeffrey Blutinger, was invited to San José State to give a talk on “how to achieve peace between Israel and Palestine.” Pro-Palestinian protesters showed up outside the classroom. A San José State history professor and supporter of Israel, Jonathan Roth, got into an altercation with some of them, grabbing a person’s hand after they tried to block him from recording with his phone. Blutinger was escorted out of the classroom by police.  Once again, freedom of speech doesn’t apply to Jews.  Ensuring there is an opportunity to listen and learn on a college campus used to be sacrosanct. In today’s world that happens for everybody but the Jews.

If that wasn’t enough, the next weekend, signs were found on the walls of UCSB’s multicultural center attacking the student-body president, Tessa Veksler, who is Jewish. The signs said, among other things: “You can run but you can’t hide Tessa Veksler,” “Tessa Veksler supports genocide! You cannot hide,” and “Zionists are not welcomed!”  The signs were removed, and the multicultural center is temporarily closed.  The students who did this will not be held accountable and Veksler has to live in fear of being targeted at her university because she is Jewish.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has filed a federal complaint against the Berkeley Unified School District, alleging officials ignored the bullying and harassment of their Jewish students. The harassment has led some families to decide to move out of the district.  One parent publicly stated:

“What drove me to leave the district was a pervasive bullying, as well as an antisemitism and the inability of the district to educate my child while keeping her safe.” 

Jewish children are not being kept safe in public schools in America.  I think about the stories my Uncle Ralph talks about being in elementary school in Berlin in the late 1930s and I don’t see much of a difference between what is happening in the world today and what happened to him as a child.  It’s frightening. 

In Canada, it might even be worse.  The Canadian International Women’s Day (INSPIRE) cancelled its keynote speaker because she had previously served in the IDF more than 30 years ago!   INSPIRE had rescinded its speaking invitation to Leah Goldstein, a Jewish motivational speaker and the first woman to win a grueling 3,000- mile bicycle race across the United States, citing as the reason “a small but growing and extremely vocal group” that took issue with Goldstein’s IDF service more than 30 years ago.

It gets worse.  I am not old enough to have seen the ‘No dogs, no blacks, no Jews’ signs on stores and restaurants.  Yet in 2024 here is a sign in Toronto saying, “No service for Jews.”

Sign from the days of Jim Crow
Sign in Toronto March 2024 – not that different

The college campuses aren’t just antisemitic in the US.  At Toronto’s Ontario College of Art & Design University (OCAD) a Jewish student said she feels unsafe returning to class after antisemitic messages, including death threats, were scribbled on the walls of her school.

She stated, “I had never felt so sad in my life.  They were all like horrible things about me, horrible things about Jews.”  She is the former president of the university’s Jewish Club and reported that the messages were found in the school’s so-called “yellow staircase” – a six-story space where students are encouraged to express themselves freely on the blank wall space.

She tried to combat the hate with painted words of peace, but those, too, were covered up by messages like “F U Zionists.” 

“I started getting death threats. There was even sexual connotations relating to my mother and Hamas.”

And in shocking news, she has not received an adequate response from the school following the incident and has missed more than two weeks’ worth of class due to concerns about her safety.

“There were talks about a meeting three weeks ago and they still haven’t followed up about that.  It took them forever. It took them days to shut down and paint over the stairwell.”

I wish this was everything but unfortunately, it’s not.  Before winter break in a public school in Toronto, there was antisemitic graffiti drawn on the walls.

The graffiti included an X drawn through a sketch of an Israeli flag and the Star of David, the words “Free Palestine,” “get rid of the k-kes” and “Hitler was right,” plus a sketch of a Palestinian flag and a sloppily drawn swastika. There was also the hashtag “KillTheJews.”

Antisemitic and Jew hatred graffiti in a Toronto school.

The school didn’t even inform parents for more than a month.  Nothing was done to address the hateful graffiti or ensure the safety of Jewish students. 

Let’s not leave out our federal government.  The Houthi’s are still not designated as a terrorist organization.  Iran continues to fund Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis and has instructed Hezbollah to increase attacks on Israel and they will send rockets and money to them to do it.  We continue to think we can use diplomacy with Iran.  Congress can’t pass the financial aid package for Israel to defend herself.  Just the other day, Vice President Kamala Harris called for Israel and Hamas to accept immediate six-week cease-fire, stating that the ‘Deal is on the table’.  The challenge is that Israel has been ready and its Hamas that refuses.  Yet there is no criticism of Hamas.  Reports have come out that Sinwar wants to incite violence during Ramadan and won’t accept a ceasefire because of that.  Yet no outrage from our government about this.  No outrage at the Red Cross for failing to see the hostages and deliver medication.  The hostages have now gone 150 days without ANY medication.  As a son with Type 1 diabetes, I know that if he didn’t get insulin for 150 days, he wouldn’t survive.  Where is the outrage? 

I never thought I wouldn’t feel safe as a Jew in the United States.  Yet here in 2024, I do.  I refuse to let fear dominate my life.  I wear my new, special Magen David (star of David) proudly outside my shirt.  I have two dog tags I wear, one ‘Bring them home now’ and the other ‘We will dance again’.  I put a piece of tape on my shirt, over my heart, with the number of days the hostages have been in captivity.  I won’t hide but I don’t feel safe. 

A friend of mine in Israel recently asked how many of his friends have changed their last name on their Uber account due to fears of safety.  It was a sad question, and the answers were sadder.  My younger son still wears his Chai necklace but no longer wears it outside his shirt when he is on campus.  My family is concerned when I wear my Israel sweatshirt, t-shirt, or soccer jersey.  I want to fly an Israeli flag but don’t due to safety concerns for my family.  This is the world we live in today and this is the America we live in today.  Jew hatred is not just on the rise, it is here.  In June 2016, I wrote an op-Ed in the Seattle Times about the rise of antisemitism and there was real pushback by many that it wasn’t really happening.  I wish that they were right.  What was happening nearly 8 years ago has only gotten worse. 

We’ve seen the hate groups locally, most recently in Winter Park just 2 weeks ago.  We see it happening nationally and internationally.  We see it with the anti-Israel and Jew hating mobs.  It’s why I chose to write this blog today.  And as I was finishing writing it, my wife sent me this article from The Atlantic about how The Golden Age of American Jews is ending.  Some of what I have written about is included.  There is much more involved and it’s a long read but well worth it. 

We live in scary times.  Unlike the 1930s in Germany, we now have Israel and Jews aren’t afraid to stand up and speak out.  I know many Jews who have gotten their conceal carry permits and who now are gun owners and practice at the range.  I have to admit that I am one of them.  America today isn’t safe for Jews.  We are being attacked everywhere we go.  Public schools, Universities, Synagogues, restaurants, and in the streets. 

For those of you who have previously stood up against hatred against other groups, thank you.  Hate is not acceptable PERIOD.  I ask you now to stand up against Jew hatred.  You can dislike the Israeli Government and Bibi Netanyahu.  You can want the war to end and no more innocent civilians on both sides to be killed.  That happens when the hostages are released and Hamas surrenders.  Put the pressure on Hamas to release the hostages.  Put the pressure on Hamas to surrender.  If you pay attention, you will see that the people of Gaza, particularly in the north where Hamas is no longer in control, and publicly condemning Hamas for creating all the problems they face. 

Everybody in the United States is supposed to feel safe.  It’s clear from the past few years that there are many groups who do not feel safe.  I don’t know that I truly understood what they faced until now.  I stand with them and their right to live in safety and security.  I hope they, and you, will stand with me and the Jewish community as we only want the same thing.

I’m going to finish with an ask. JOIN Orlando, a group I am involved with and get much value from and have much gratitude for, is doing a 36 hour fundraiser where all gifts are matched 3X. So your gift of $100 is really $300 to JOIN. I agreed to be a champion and help raise money for their programs. I personally have been to Israel with JOIN, I learn with a Rabbi from JOIN, I am friends with leaders of JOIN. During these challenging times that I just wrote about, JOIN helps keep me grounded. So if you would consider making a gift, not only does it get matched 3X, it would be a personally meaningful thing to me. Click on the link to donate. And you can watch the video below to see the work that JOIN Orlando does. Thank you for considering making a gift.

Enjoy the video from JOIN ORLANDO