Over the past nearly two decades we have been witness to the battle for America. It is only in the past decade that it has been paid much attention to and even today, the battle is being reported poorly as each side wants to demonize the other in attempts to shame those in the middle to rejecting the other, forcing them to align with the lesser of two evils. This remains a losing proposition. When Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton ran for President the victims were America and the world. The nastiness in the campaign forced people into one camp or the other. It has only gotten worse since then.

I watch the divisiveness and wonder if we are going to end up with another civil war only this time I wonder if half the country will care if the other country says they want to leave. Each side so dislikes the other that I wonder instead of fighting for ‘our Union’ if the side remaining will simply say “good riddance, let them go.” We live in a time when half the country hates the other half of the country.

I was listening to music yesterday and the song, “Try that in a small town” came on. This was a highly controversial song when it came out due to the lyrics being seen by many as racist and promoting gun violence. Others thought that it represented the feelings of many who live in small town America.

I have listened to the song many times and have heard it both with the racist overtones and the gun violence as well has how Jason Aldean defends the song as one that is reporting on the status, not advocating for anything. I heard the song even differently this time.

When I listened to the song this time I heard a plea for a return to common sense. Rather than advocating for gun violence, I heard a warning from people who feel unheard and unrepresented. I heard people who were crying out that their basic needs, their American dream of hard work, success, and freedom were being ignored and minimized. I heard a cry for help and a cry to be included.

In American politics today there appear to be three distinct groups. There is the group who is looking at including everybody by making the government all powerful and making decisions for parents, for individuals all in the name of equality. There is another group who wants to go back to the ‘good old days of Beaver Cleaver and Father Knows Best’. They forget that those were TV shows and reality meant terrible prejudice against minorities, especially African Americans. They forget how women didn’t have individual rights and terrible treatment LGBTQ people faced.

Then there is the third group, where there is no representation but is likely the largest group of all. This group wants people to have individual rights. They want the American dream and want a country ruled by laws. They condemn hatred of all types. Personal freedom and public safety matter. They don’t want to ‘defund the police’, they want to invest in giving law enforcement the training they need to meet our societal expectations. They want abortion to be, in the words of President Bill Clinton, “Safe, Legal, and Rare” but ultimately the choice of the pregnant person. They want reasonable gun control laws, a comprehensive immigration policy that we will follow, affordable access to healthcare for all that both the country and the individual can afford. They want a fair tax code that provides for the needs of the country. They want a solution to student loan debt that is both fair to all and that address the core problem, the cost of tuition. They want the return of trades taught in public high schools since college isn’t for everybody and there is an incredible need for tradespeople since we devalued them as a society with President Obama’s push for college for everyone. They want a balanced budget and for the government to live within it’s budget, not continuously spend more than they have. It is an indictment of our leadership that the last time that the Federal budget was balanced or had a surplus was the 2001 United States federal budget.

The third group is large enough to determine the election however does not have the economic power to determine who actually gets nominated and what the policies will actually be. Our Congress hasn’t worked for the people in decades. The last 16 years, at minimum, have been ruled by executive order and Supreme Court rulings, not by laws passed by Congress. The famous line from the Apollo 13 mission said by command module pilot John “Jack” Swigert, and then repeated by astronaut Jim Lovell, applies here. Houston, we have a problem.

One of my favorite comedians, Richard Pryor, made a movie in 1985 called Brewster’s Millions. In it, his character accepts a challenge to spend $30 million in 30 days in order to inherit $300 million from his great-uncle. In order to do this, he runs for NY Mayor under the banner None of the Above, since both candidates are not good. He ends up winning because the voters prefer None of the Above to the candidates. That is where we are today. The continued voting for the lesser of two evils continues to give us evil.

If either President Trump or Vice-President Harris has policies that inspire you, great. You should vote for them. You should support them. If you are voting for either of them because the other is much worse, I challenge you to think differently.

When I heard the song yesterday, I heard a cry for freedom. I heard a cry to let people live their lives. Be who you are. Elect people who truly inspire you based on your values and what they are going to do, not based on what you are told about the other candidate. If we want to live in a country without hate, without prejudice, with real freedom for all, then we need to actively make changes.

The United States pledge of allegience, as written, ends with the line, “and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” If we really want our nation to be indivisible, we have to make changes. If we really want liberty and justice for all, not just those who we like or agree with, then we must make changes. If we want our country to be a beacon of light, to live up to what Thomas Jefferson’s wrote, “The establishment of our new Government seemed to be the last great experiment, for promoting human happiness, by reasonable compact, in civil Society.” then we must have reasonable compact, a civil society, and be dedicated to human happiness.

I fear that in today’s world, we are not reasonable, not civil, and don’t care for human happiness, only for our own. I fear that we have declined to the point where we fit another one of Thomas Jefferson’s quotes.

We are at a critical time for self reflection. It may be too late for the election in November as the candidates are set. I hope we will all reflect on yet another quote from Thomas Jefferson about our government and in the elections that follow, remember that we the people have the power. The government only gets its power because we give our consent. We want better but until or unless we are going to demand better and take action to get what we want, we certainly are getting what we deserve. Jefferson painted a picture of an America that could be wonderful and alos one that could result in the taking away of the rights of 49% of our population. Which is the country you want to live in? Which is the country you are willing to fight for?

Right now I’m voting for ‘None of the Above’. This will be the third Presidential election in a row that I have voted this way. It’s time to take action. I don’t want to vote this way once again in 2028.

The massacre and kidnapping at the Nova Music Festival has had a great impact on me. Perhaps it is because my children are the age of those who were there. It easily could have been my children and I could have been there with them. Perhaps it is because I spent 15 years running Hillel at The University of Florida and worked with tens of thousands of college students. It may even be the horror of what happened there. Watching the documentary and hearing the story of a survivor and twice hearing from Rami Davidian about how he rescued 750 people that night and what he saw and experienced only drove home the horror even more.

We are now hearing about survivors of the Nova Festival who are committing suicide because they can’t live with themselves after what they saw, felt, and experienced. This makes it even worse This is a suicide letter of a Nova survivor, published by his family. After miraculously surviving the October 7 massacre, the young Israeli man (his name is being intentionally withheld to protect the family and his memory) decided to end his life after witnessing too many horrors, including the gang rape of a girl. The overwhelming weight of everything he saw, heard, and experienced, along with his inability to save the girl being assaulted nearby, made him feel incapable of continuing his life. Here is the letter translated from Hebrew. May he rest in peace

“Hey you, please forgive me! It all started on Thursday, we were dancing and having fun, and come Friday – so much fun all around, seeing friends we haven’t seen in years – we all met to dance and celebrate life. Come Saturday morning, the sun begins to rise, it’s so beautiful as it starts to shine all over everyone. We’re dancing and happy, hugging, and some of my friends start to leave.

Suddenly, rockets start flying over us, I know this, this is my life -I’m from the South. But then there are paragliders- I hope nothing happens to them… Then starts the gunfire – what is going on? We see the truck coming, paratroopers dressed in foreign uniforms – they are killing everyone. They just killed Shay, they killed Adi. They’re kidnapping that girl, who is sitting there hugging her murdered boyfriend.

Suddenly you run to the bushes where I sit and hide, not uttering a sound from my lips. You’re in the bush next to me, so close, the cries gush out from within you. A terrorist is right above the bush I’m hiding in and I pray he won’t see me, I pray so hard, something I haven’t done my entire life… God can hear my prayer. But you won’t stop crying out loud because with every second, someone gets shot and murdered. They saw you, they’re dragging you out of the bushes. They’re four and you’re one. You scream for help. One of them punches you to silence you, and you try to fight them while looking towards my direction, for me to save you. But if I step out, we will both get murdered. I want to live! I sit there silently, they start undressing you! I’m crying, I feel like I need to scream but a hand silences me! Maybe it’s the hand of God, or I don’t know who… They turn you on your stomach and they start raping you, one by one. They turn you around again and they yell at you in English, they want you to see for yourself how they have defeated you. You try to crawl in my direction and I pray for something to happen, for someone to kill them so you can get out alive, but as you crawl towards me and they’re on top of you – the shot comes. They murdered you, but before they murdered your body they murdered your soul.

I sat there, in the bushes, for hours, I did not come out. I saw a bottle of water next to you and I was so incredibly thirsty, but I couldn’t bear the thought that I should have saved you, so how can I be so disrespectful and drink your water? I have reached rock bottom, I can’t live anymore. Your look follows me every single day – in the shower, in my sleep, in my room. I couldn’t go back to work, I wasn’t able to. I’ve been to your house. I didn’t tell your parents what you’ve been through, but they’ve been told that your body was abused.

I was a witness. I ask for your forgiveness. I am coming to you, to the next great world, I promise to save you there and protect you. Please forgive me! And don’t worry, I left a note for my family telling them how much I love them, and thanking them for the life they gave me. My sister is having a baby, I thought about sticking around to get to know my nephew, but I don’t think he should know the uncle that couldn’t save you. It’s okay, I’ll watch him from above.”

Each time I read this letter it hits a bit deeper and hurts a bit more. From those who deny any of it happened to those who share the horror, what happened on October 7th and at the Nova Festival is incomprehensible evil.

Rami Davidian, a farmer on a nearby Moshav, told his story to a group I was with on two different occasions. Near the end, he talks about what he did the day after. Listen as he talks about the women who were tied to the trees. Understand that they had been violated and when he mentions modesty, he is talking about covering up their naked bodies. Their naked bodies that were tied to trees, their legs spead open and left that way after being violated. You can hear the emotion in his voice, see it on his face, as he remembers the horror that he saw. I can’t imagine how many women he cut down from the trees, covered their naked bodies, said the Shema over their dead bodies, or how he sleeps at night after what he saw.

If you need more, watch the Sheryl Sandberg movie, Screams before Silence, You can see the pain in the women’s eyes. When the first responder shares the pictures he took to document the horrors he saw, watch Sheryl’s face and reactions.

I have been changed by October 7th. My tattoos on my forearms are dedicated to those murdered, kidnapped and who survived the massacre. It’s a visual change on my body and reminder to me of what happened to them and my responsibility to them and to make sure it never happens again.

The horrors of October 7th can never be forgotten. Having been to Kfar Aza twice, Nova twice, and meeting with families from Kibbutz Alumim as well as the people from the town of Shlomi in the north that have been living in a hotel in Jerusalem for nearly 11 months because of the bombing of Hezbollah, this is real for me. It needs to be real for you.

At the end of the day, there are lots of things that are important in life and in the world. But life is essential for any of them to have meaning. The Iranian regime, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and many others around the world have made it clear that our lives don’t matter. That they want our lives to end. Why build a world worth living in if part of that goal is for all of us to be murdered?

My heart breaks for the survivors of Nova and the pain they deal with every day. I can’t imagine the pain the family of the survivor who wrote that letter and then chose to end their life. We live a privileged life in the United States. Despite the rise of antisemitism and Jew hatred, the United States remains a place where Jews are safe most of the time (and that time is getting smaller). I saw a friend post that we are American Jews – American’s first. I disagree. We cannot be like the German Jews of the 1930s and think we are Americans first. We are always Jews first. Maybe not to our own identify but certainly to the rest of the world. We have historically forgotten that we are always Jews first. We thought we could be Germans first. We thought we could be Spanish first. We thought we could be accepted in whatever country we lived in as long as we dedicated ourselves to that country. Each and every time we have been proven wrong.

Every day I continue to say the Acheinu prayer for the hostages. After reading the suicide note, I also am now saying it for the survivors as well. While they may be physically free, it’s also clear that many of them are not mentally or emotionally free yet. I hope that every time I say the prayer, it will bring comfort and help in their recovery as well as the return of the hostages. As I wrote in my prior blog, we don’t need to stay in Mitzrayim, that narrow or dark place. May they and their families find comfort and relief and be released from distress and captivity, whether it is physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual.

I don’t remember when I first heard the saying, “If you tell a lie enough, people will believe it”. I do remember asking myself why somebody would want to do that. It didn’t make sense to me. Lying wasn’t something you strove to do and growing up, I got in more trouble for telling a lie than for what I actually did. I learned early that it was much better to just tell the truth.

As I got older, I learned about the Nazi’s and how their strategy was to tell big lies often so that people would believe it. The bigger the better.

I began to understand that you could actually shape people’s minds, beliefs, and actions, if you told a big enough lie often enough. It was a lesson that had incredibly painful consequences (the Holocaust/Shoah) and one I thought the world had learned from and wouldn’t repeat. Boy was I wrong.

Since October 7, 2023, the lies about Israel and the Jewish people have been big, constant, repeated, and far too many people now believe them. Facts don’t matter. The truth doesn’t matter. All that matters is the lie that has been told and people’s belief in it. For a while, I used to try to fight and argue with people who would say these lies. It got me nowhere other than being extremely frustrated. A few months ago, I began a new tactic.

When I see, hear, or read these lies, I simply call them out as liars. “You lie!” “Why are you lying?” “Liar!!” “This isn’t true!” Simple and powerful statements. The people who believe these lies aren’t going to listen to the long argument, the history, the truth, or the explanation. They will interrupt you with the lie again and ask if you are ok with it. If you support it. The only way to fight back is to call them out as what they are, liars.

You can’t only call them liars without knowing why what they are saying is a lie. It isn’t difficult to learn why claiming Israel is involved with “Genocide”, “Colonization”, or “Apartheid” are all lies. It is easy to debunk the claim that this is “Palestinian Land” since prior to 1967 it was Jordanian (West Bank/Judea and Samaria including Jerusalem) or Egyptian (Gaza). Prior to 1948 it was the British Mandate. Prior to the British Mandate in 1917 it was the Ottomon Empire. Prior to the Ottomon Empire in 1517 it was the Muslims. Prior to the Muslims in 638 it was the Sasanians. Prior to the Sasanian’s in 614 it was the Roman Empire. Prior to the Roman Empire in 64 BCE it was the Hasmonian Kingdom (think of the Hanukkah story and Judah Maccabee). Prior to the Hasmonians in 165 BCE it was the Greeks under Alexander the Great. Prior to the Greeks in 332 BCE it was the Babylonians. Prior to the Babylonians in 722 BCE, it was the Israelites with Judea and Samaria and before that Greater Israel. Before that it was the Canaanites that Joshua (who took over for Moses) conquered.

Simple history lesson. Facts. Never controlled by the Palestinians going back over 3,000 years to the time of Moses. Yes Arabs lived there. Bedouins lived there. Just like today when Arabs and Bedouins live in Israel.

I never like using the “God promised us the land” argument. Too many people have other beliefs and I don’t want to get into a debate about the factual accuracy of the Torah/Bible. The history of control of the land and applying the same rules to it as to every other country is enough. Those who want to treat Israel differently than the rest of the world are simply being antisemitic. When they do that, I call them out on it. Without the facts, without knowing history and the truth, we are unable to do so.

I went to the monthly Sunday minyan that I previously have written about today. One of the Rabbis there always encourage us to find one or two lines in different prayers and to focus on them, what they mean and what they mean to us. I find it a beautiful way to pray and connect with God. It is a way to take the traditional and make it personal. Today was no different.

One of the words in the prayers this morning that I fixated on was Mitzrayim. We often translate it to me Egypt, but that isn’t what it really means. It means narrow or constricted. It was applied to Egypt because that was the narrow place or constricted place for Jews. Today we have many narrow places in our world. Many of them are in our own minds. As we fight antisemitism and the libel against Israel, we are once again in a narrow or constricted place. It seems as if the world is against us. We watch what happens in Europe, what is happening all around the United States, what occurs on our college campuses, and it is easy to feel isolated. It is easy to mentally go into that narrow place. We cannot afford to this.

The lies above will be treated as the truth as long as we stay in Mitzrayim. It is when we work to leave Mitzrayim, that narrow place, that our lives improve. It is not easy but we don’t have to do it alone. The reason we tell the story of the Exodus from Egypt every year, why we recall the parting of the Red Sea every day in our prayers, is to remind us that our job is to do our part and God, Hashem, will do the rest. I’m doing some work with the IDF and as I was talking to Rabbi Atlas, who is part of the IDF Rabbinic leadership, he shared with me how all the IDF soldiers, Jewish and not, want to wear the IDF tzitzit. They want the protection that they offer. The Druze soldiers. The Muslim soldiers. The Christian soldiers. And of course all of Jewish soldiers. They understand there is a power with God that is inexplainable.

I am not a super religious person. It’s a much longer list of what I don’t do than what I do. However, the one thing that I do every single day is connect with God. I thank God for the wonderful life I get to live. I appreciate that everything I have in my life is because of God. I do my part each and every day. I rely of God to do God’s part and that never fails. This is the reminder the Rabbi told us about today in the morning service. As we pray, it’s that reminder that not only do we have our own part to do in life but God has God’s part as well. And when we do our part, God will do God’s part. Our part is the easier part too!

I don’t pray the traditional way or three times a day. I do pray every morning. I do remember that my life is what it is today only by the grace of God. The formal prayers say the same things I do, just in a different way. That’s the message I took from this morning. It is about what you are doing and why you are doing it, now how you do it. When Rabbi Ehrenkranz asks us to pick one or two lines and really pay attention to them, that’s what he is teaching us. Understand what you are doing and why you are doing it. Don’t worry that it isn’t the entire group of prayers. Don’t worry that it’s in English not Hebrew. Don’t worry that I am just a person, not a Rabbi, trying to interpret what it means to me. None of that matters, only that I am doing it. Only that I am building my relationship with God, with Hashem. It makes Judaism even more relevant to me.

As part of what he teaches us in this monthly service, he talks about the times when you put your tallis over your head during prayer. It gives you that special ‘alone time’ with God while still in a group setting with God. I have done something similar in my own prayers and meditation and I found it really interesting that what I have found to work is actually also what Judaism teaches. How I pray when my tallis is over my head is likely very different than everybody else in the room but it doesn’t matter. We are all praying together and yet, at that moment, we are also all connecting privately and personally with God. Once again, Judaism becomes more relevant as I understand not only why we do things but when it also matches with what I find personally meaningful.

I started talking about the lies people are telling about Israel and the Jewish people. About how we need to stand up and fight back against these lies. And how we need to know the facts in order to do effectively. Today, Rabbi Ehrenkranz made a comment near the end of the Amidah, the main prayer of the service, that stuck with me. We were about to sing the prayer, Sim Shalom, when he said, “It all comes down to peace. Sim Shalom. Oseh Shalom.” I thought to myself, Shalom Alecheim. Shalom Rav. How many prayers do we have that use the word Shalom, peace? It really is what everything boils down to. We want peace. We value life. Our goal isn’t to conquer anybody but rather to live freely as Jews, to worship God, study Torah, and to work on repairing the world. No matter what people who hate us say, no matter how they lie, we know our core values. I’ve had other teachers tell me that the reason the world hates the Jewish people is because we are the world’s conscience. We are the world’s Jiminy Cricket.

Or as George Steiner, a literary critic, a professor of comparative literature at Oxford and Cambridge, and one of the more original intellectuals in the contemporary cultural landscape said, “The Jew represents the uncompromising demand for universal morality, the intoxicating idea that human beings can overcome their selfish impulses.” The world doesn’t understand this. The world doesn’t like this. And the world will do whatever it takes to get rid of us because of this.

Since that’s our role, let’s play it. Let’s be Jiminy Cricket and hold the world accountable. Let’s continue to fight for universal morality. We need to speak up against these lies. We need to hold those accountable who say the lies and those who invest in Jew hatred. It takes courage but being Jewish is all about having courage. From Abraham leaving his father’s home to Isaac trusting God and his father as he is about to sacrificed. From Jacob wrestling with the Angel to Joseph explaining Pharoah’s dreams. From Moses and the burning bush, demanding Pharoah ‘let my people go’, receiving the Torah and leading the people of Israel for 40 years int he desert to David fighting Goliath. From biblical times to the creation of Zionism. From the War of Independence in 1948 to the 6 day war of 1967 to the Yom Kippur War of 1973. All the way to today and October 7th and seeing 360,000 reservists report for duty, more than the 300,000 that were recalled and far greater than the 250,000 that were expected to report.

Universal Morality. That means in everything that we do. Big or small. We tell the truth. We fight the lies. We value life and do what we can to save it. Even when they try to kill us. Even when they lie about us. No matter what. Our history shows us people who had it and those who struggled with it. It’s our goal so we try to be a little bit better each day. That’s all God asks. That’s all we can do. So lets speak out against the lies. Let’s make sure we know our own history. Let us use this universal morality to be the driving force as we are a light unto the nations.

I remember the first time I really heard this phrase and what it really means. The incredible Robin Williams taught it to his poetry class in the wonderful movie, “Dead Poet’s Society”, a movie filled with life lessons. When he says, “because we are all food for worms, lads” I smiled as kid. I was invincible. I had my life ahead of me. I was about to graduate college. Start my career. I was going to make a lot of money, get married, have children, and live the 1980’s American Dream; extreme success. The 1980s was the ‘me, me, me’ generation and since that was high school and college for me, it was imbedded into my being. Robin William’s words struck something deep inside when I heard them for the first time and every time afterwards. Maybe that wasn’t the goal of life. Maybe winning at life was not being Gordon Gecko from the movie Wall Street, Maverick from Top Gun, or Tom Cruise in Risky Business, but instead being Tom Hanks in Big, Jake and Elwood Blues from the Blues Brothers (“We are on a mission from God”), or Reese from Terminator, who lived for much more than extreme success.

After changing careers and getting a master’s degree, I also changed my priorities. The quality of my life was much more important than the money in my pocket. I earned a nice salary and lived a nice life, but I didn’t compare to some of my friends who became extremely financially wealthy. Even today, I joke that I am one of the least successful of my friends as some of them have truly done incredible things and been incredibly financially successful. I have a number of them who have each sold their company for over a hundred million dollars. Generational wealth. A few of them have created products that we all know and use. Some of them more than one. Some are very successful attorneys, doctors, and in the financial world. It would be very easy to be jealous of their success. Yet I am not jealous at all. I wouldn’t trade places with any of them. Why? Because I made the decision many years ago to seize the day. To not miss out on living life. I never wanted to look back and regret the opportunities that I missed because of my quest for success and money. If we are all going to be food for worms, I wanted to make sure that before that happened, I experienced what life has to offer. That inspiration was also seen in the classic 1980’s movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

I didn’t want to miss it. I made sure I was able to spend time when my kids were little at the ball games, music recitals and concerts, class presentations, doctor appointments, and much more. I wanted to soak up every minute because I heard from enough people that the days are long but the years are short. Yet at some point, the career itch got to me and I began to look for the next big step. I took it. I spent ten years in the next big step. I still didn’t miss the sporting events or the music recitals and concerts. I did miss the doctor appointments. I did work much longer hours and dealt with much more stress and pressure. I made sure to do little things like getting season tickets to the Mariners, getting the Broadway season tickets in Seattle and Orlando, and finding time to go away as a family. But it felt different. I knew it felt different. I knew I was not getting what I truly valued. While it was Carpe Diem for my career, it was not Carpe Diem for my life.

About a year ago, things changed drastically for me. It wasn’t what I had planned and I was reminded of the old saying

With unexpected change come unexpected opportunity. I got to spend more time with my family. My new office is in my house meaning I was around most of the time. I had time to cook dinner. I had time to do more things with my family. God made sure that I had the opportunity to once again seize the day.

So I have. While my new job keeps me very busy, I make time for the things that are really important to me. Not work. Not career. Not money. Not status. Not titles. I meet my mom for lunch halfway between Orlando and Tampa once a month. I spend time with friends. My wife and I went to Red Rocks to see Carlos Santana.

My youngest son, his girlfriend and I took Brightline to Miami for a Marlins game (it was Spongebob Squarepants Jersey giveaway and he really wanted to get the jersey).

Yesterday we did the craziest trip I think I have done. We got up at 3:45 am, took a 6 am flght to San Francisco and went to the 12:40 pm Giants-White Sox game. We walked around the outside of the stadium to explore, walked around the inside of the stadium to explore, and had a great time.

After the game and a quick jersey change, we headed over to Oakland to see the A’s play the Rays. There isn’t much to explore in Oakland as it’s a terrible stadium (the A’s are leaving after this year because it’s so bad) but we sat in the 4th row behind home plate at a game with about 1,000 people attending and had a blast. We yelled at the players, the managers, and the umpires. We cheered for our favorite players and they could hear us and we saw their reactions.

When Kevin Cash, the Rays manager, got upset about a bad call by the umpire and got throw out of the game, we were having fun yelling at him and the umpire. We were close and there were so few people at the game, they had to hear us.

We left the A’s game and headed to the airport to take the redeye flight home. One day. 28 hours. Orlando-SF-Oakland-Orlando. Two stadiums. Two ballgames. My son, a friend of mine, and me. What a great day.

Next week I head to Raleigh on Thursday to watch my older son coach college football against NC State. A week later, my younger son and I head to his first home game to watch him coach. I have many other games on the calendar to head up to North Carolina and watch him coach.

In May, I went to Israel for 11 days. Near the end of the trip, I took advantage of an opportunity to go the top of Temple Mount. I had never been there in my 20 prior trips. It was powerful and amazing. We said the shema, sang Am Yisrael Chai, and even did the Gator chomp!

In July I went back to Israel for 14 days with a group of 19-26 year olds as they participated in a leadership trip. I’ve been involved with the program for 26 years but have never been able to actually go on the trip. Man plans, God laughs, so now I had the opportunity. What an incredible two weeks. Not only did I meet some incredible future leaders, I got to have an impact on their lives and help change their lives. What a gift. During some of our free time, I did some work. I got to meet an MK in the Knesset where I had never been before. Work the land. Met with a Brigadier General in the IDF. Pay respects to an IDF medic, killed leaving Gaza, who was a friend of one of the participants and then meet his parents who told us all about their son who gave his life for the Jewish people.

Now, in September, I go back to Israel once again for 8 days to work with a client. I’m arriving a little early so I don’t have jetlag and can enjoy a little weekend time on the beach in Tel Aviv. I’ll have Shabbat dinner with friends of mine in Modi’in and another friend who is visiting Israel is going to join us. As it turns out, he is on the same flights there and back that I am! Only Israel.

The final scene in Dead Poets Society is one of my favorites. Every time I watch it, my heart catches and it brings tears to my eyes. In the beginning of the movie, on his first day, Professor John Keating (Robin Williams) playfully asks his students to address him as “O Captain, My Captain”, as a tribute to his favourite poet. At the end of the movie, after he has been fired and is clearing out his office and the students are being forced back into expectations, they find a way to stand up to power. To show that they have learned something. That they will seize the day. They will live life to its fullest. Every one who participates is risking their spot in the school and their future. Watch and be inspired. It’s never too late to make the changes you want. It’s never too late to seize the day.

October 7, 2023 was a terrible day. I sat in my living room, captivated and horrified by what I was seeing on television. Hamas terrorists had attacked Israel and murdered innocent civilians. Women, children, infants, teens, seniors, Jewish and non-Jewish, it didn’t matter. They were bloodthirsty and out to murder. The reports came in about the rapes and the kidnappings. The taking of hostages. I remember 1978 and 1979 and the Iranian hostage crisis. I remembered how I felt as an American when they were taken and held as hostages for 444 days. I was angry at our government. I was angry at President Carter. I stayed up as an 11 and 12 year old boy to watch the new TV show, Nightline, that updated us every day on the hostage crisis. I hoped every night to hear something positive but didn’t.

On October 7th, my friend Maor Elbaz-Starinsky, who is also the Consul General for Israel to Florida (and other states) called me, begging me to turn off the TV as it wasn’t healthy to keep watching this horror. I told him I couldn’t. October 8th, Florida Senator Rick Scott called me to check on me and make sure I was doing ok. I wasn’t and told him so. He asked what he could do to help and I didn’t have an answer for him at that time, only thanks for calling. He posts on social media about the hostages every single day. Every day. Without fail.

Since October 7th, the hostages have been on my mind daily. I can’t imagine what they are going through. A friend of mine had two cousins that were hostages. The daughter was released the day before she turned 13 and we made sure to get her birthday and Hanukkah presents. It mattered. The videos of her getting them are priceless. The other was released two days after her daughter.

I have been to Hostage Square in Tel Aviv. I have been to the Hostage Center in Tel Aviv and heard two fathers speak about their sons who were, and are, hostages. I have heard Rachel Goldberg Polin speak in Washington DC at the rally on the National Mall in October 2023. I have twice visited both the Nova site and K’far Aza where hostages were taken. I say the Acheinu prayer for the hostages every day. They are never out of my mind. So when I read this piece by Jon Polin, it hit home. We all need to remember the hostages every day. Read his thoughts and I hope you take action.

Below is the op-ed written by Jon Polin, Hersh Goldberg Polin’s father, published last week in Makor Rishon.

An Appeal to My Religious Zionist Brothers by Jonathan Polin

Two years ago, my son Hersh told my wife Rachel and me that he respects us very much, but  he was not going to be observing Shabbat as we do. Despite this, every time he was home, he continued to come with me to synagogue, both on Shabbat evening and morning.

Last summer, shortly before he was kidnapped on October 7, Rachel asked Hersh, “Why do you keep going to synagogue if Shabbat is not speaking to you at this time?” and he answered, “I don’t want Dad to sit alone.”

It has been 308 days, and now Hersh, the son who didn’t want me to sit alone in synagogue, sits alone, held captive, in Gaza. It has been 308 days that Rachel and I fight, day after day, minute after minute, so that Hersh will no longer be alone, and he will come home to us. As Rabbi Kook said, I am writing here, on the eve of Shabbat Hazon [the Shabbat before Tisha B’Av], not because I have the strength to write, but because I no longer have the strength to stand.

It is not only Hersh who is alone. In a way, we, his parents, also feel alone. True, the people of Israel embrace us, love us and support us. They send messages and letters. They stop us in the street to say “We are with you.” This love gives us enormous strength and the ability to endure this terrible year. But the gap between the support and the voices heard from all over the country and the world, in contrast to the silence coming specifically from large parts of the national religious public, is challenging.

These are people like me, who are close to me, with a knitted kippa on their head. They send their children to the same institutions and the same youth movements; they recite the same prayers, and yet, when the subject is Hersh and the other hostages, the conversation is complicated. People are silent, and we find ourselves alone. How can that be? How is it that our value-based sector is silent in the face of this terrible moral injustice?

I understand that people are hesitant to write about the hostages. I have met with people who  sat with me, promising to do everything, but in action, they hesitate to do anything. And those from the religious sector who write about the hostages—mostly write only against a deal, without even knowing its details. I see that people don’t talk about the issue of these innocent human souls being held hostage, as if it doesn’t exist. There is war, there are reserves, there is Lebanon and there is Iran. The hostages? “It’s complicated,” and they choose not to speak. Even people I know, who support us personally. They hug us. Maybe they read tehillim [psalms] at home. We are grateful to them for their quiet prayers. But this is a silent support that disappears. Dissolves. In public, people are afraid to talk about the hostages.

For varying reasons, the hostages have become a matter of right and left. As if they are part of the package you get when you choose a political identity. Together with the basket of values ​​and opinions we have regarding the economy and leadership, there is suddenly a line determining what we would want to happen here if our citizens are taken hostage.

But the value of life, arvut hadadit [mutual responsibility], ransom of captives, or in the lexicon of today – the “chatufim (kidnapped)” are not a political issue and they never were. They are not about the division into right and left; the hostages are part of us. They are real people, men and women, young and old, with faces and families, people who worked and fought and dreamed and loved together with us and you, shoulder to shoulder. Part of this great thing called the nation and state of Israel.

I am Hersh’s father. We are already 308 days into this nightmare. I am calling for a deal, because I, personally, feel that beyond my desire as a father to save my son and bring him home, the price of NOT returning them will be an unbearable blow to our national identity and will tear Israeli society apart from the inside.

But you, the readers, are not Hersh’s father. You may have different opinions than me. You clearly don’t have to support everything I say, but I expect, and ask, that you speak up. You don’t need to take a public stance for or against, you do not need to yell. But you need to stop denying the existence of the hostages. It is impossible to talk about the war without talking about the hostages. You can’t talk about victory without talking about the hostages.

This framing, as if the “return of the hostages” is somehow in opposition to “victory in the war”, is wrong. There really is no victory without the return of the hostages. Imagine it for yourself: can you declare victory when more than a hundred people are still in Gaza? Will you be able to celebrate in the streets when the war is over? Continue your life as if things are behind us? Certainly not. “The flesh of your flesh” is not here. You will not be able to ignore it. What will you say after your 120 years in this world, when you face your maker and are asked, “Where were you when your brother’s blood cried out to you from the ground?” Where were all of us?

I beseech you: speak. At the Shabbat table or on the steps outside the synagogue. It doesn’t matter if you are young or old. Even now, as you read this article on the sofa, say to the person next to you, ‘Jon, Hersh’s father, asked us to talk about the hostages.’ Write on social networks. Talk. Are you rabbis? Public leaders? Talk about it. Come and learn mishnayot with us. Sit and read tehillim.

It matters less how, it matters more what. Show your presence. Don’t be afraid.

Like my son, Hersh, who came with me to the synagogue even though he no longer observed Shabbat. He did not come with me to the synagogue because he agreed with me, and he did not come with me to the synagogue to pray; he came with me to the synagogue so that I would not be alone. Please don’t be silent. Let your voice be heard! Speak up!

You cannot ignore it because “it is complex”, or because “my political camp does not support it.”

I ask you now, do not leave us alone.

———————————————–

There are many ways to remember the hostages. Here are two easy ones.

At your Shabbat table, when you say Kiddush, or even anytime you drink wine, use the wine from the Wines of Hope Collection that is done in partnership with the families of hostages. You are inviting the hostages and their families into your home whether they know it or not.

When I was in Israel in July, I met with the parents of a Itamar, IDF medic who was murdered leaving Gaza. His father, Asaf, said that when he says kiddush each week, it is no longer for his family. It is now for the hostages and will be until they are released. You can do that too.

The other thing you can do is say the Acheinu prayer. It’s very simple and you can say it in English or Hebrew. It’s a reminder of the hostages. It does what Jon asked and helps us with our humanity.

The one thing we cannot do is forget the hostages. They are family. They are mishpacha. They were stolen away and must be returned. I think of the Bibas kids often. Kfir has now spent most of his life as a hostage. How, as a society, we tolerate that is unaccepatable. It was unacceptable to an 11 and 12 year old me in 1978-80 and it remains unacceptable to me as a 55-56 year old man today. I held President Carter in contempt back then and President Biden in contempt today. If whoever wins the election in November doesn’t take action, I will hold them in contempt as well. These are people. Human beings. They did nothing wrong and we have done very little right to get them home. We must Bring Them Home Now.

Today is day 317 of the hostages captivity. 317 days of horror, of abuse, of terror. Most of them have now celebrated a birthday in captivity. For those who are married they may have celebrated their anniversary in captivity. Those with children have missed their birthdays. The horror of Hamas and the hostages is real. Yet the Red Cross still has not visited the hostages once. The UN and UNRWA have not visited the hostages once (unless you count the UNRWA employees who helped take the hostages and hid/housed the hostages).

Back in November/December, I helped get birthday and Hanukkah presents for a 13 year old girl who was released as part of the ceasefire and otherwise would not have had any. The Jewish world stepped up and she knew she was remembered and loved by the entire Jewish world. I wonder what the hostages that are still alive think about the Jewish world and the world in general. Do they have any idea how present they are in many of our daily lives? Can they imagine that most of the world doesn’t think or talk about them?

The horror of the hostages and the world’s failure to address them is startling. The hostages are not all Jewish. There are still 8 American hostages taken by Hamas.There are Thai hostages. There are Druze hostages. There are muslim hostages. It shows the evil of Hamas – whoever they could take, they took. Yet the world remains silent about the hostages except when they choose to attack Israel for not agreeing to deals with Hamas that would be like commiting suicide.

It amazes me how so many people choose to criticize Israel for her actions that have never been to the region. Who know nothing about the realities on the ground. Who think that it is a simple solution – Palestinian statehood – and then the hatred and violence goes away. They don’t know the history of the peace deals offered and the opportunities that have been available for a Palestinian state that were rejected because as my friend Fleur Hassan Nahoum says, “The problem of the conflict is not that there isn’t a Palestinian State. The problem of the conflict is that there IS a Jewish State.”

I have been to Israel twice this summer and am going back again next month. It is a different country than before October 7th. My two trips this summer have been very different than the 20 that came before then. I was there during the first intifada. I was there during the second intifada. I was there just before the country reopened because of Covid and the worldwide pandemic. I have been there in some of the most challenging times yet nothing like what it is like after October 7th.

People are in and out of the reserves. They try to plan their lives and then they get called up and everything goes on hold. The rockets continue to be fired by Hezbollah in the north and Hamas in the south. Fewer from Hamas with the IDF winning the war but more from Hezbollah. On my last trip we went to the lower Galillee but couldn’t go to the upper Galillee. One of my favorite places in Israel, Tzfat, is too far north to visit in groups. Hostage Square is powerful to visit and listening to the family members of hostages speak is heartbreaking. In Hostage Square, they have a mock tunnel that I walked through. It was hard to walk through it. I can’t imagine living in one for 317 days. Perhaps these leaders who don’t hold Hamas accountable should have to live in the mock tunnel in Hostage Square for a week with the ends covered so it’s dark and there is no natural light. Maybe then they would change their minds and speak out.

My friend Adam Bellos started The Israel Innovation Fund (TIIF) a few years back. One of the things they do is work with vineyards in Israel and promote Israeli wine. After October 7th, he began working the families of hostages to create Wines of Hope, a special collection of wines where different bottles of wine are dedicated to different hostages. When a hostage is released, their date of freedom is added to the label. When we learn that one has been murdered, it becomes a memorial bottle. It’s a beautiful tribute and reminder of the hostages and those we lost. On my last trip, we stopped at the grave of a friend of one of our partipants. He was a medic who was murdered leaving Gaza when a rocket landed on their emergency vehicle. The media doesn’t cover this because it was Jewish lives that were lost. After visiting his grave, we went to meet his parents who spoke to us about their amazing son and the state of Israel. I’ll never forget his father telling us that every Friday night when he says Kiddush, he is not saying it for his family. He is saying it for the hostages. It’s a reminder that we must remember the hostages. Consider buying some of this wine, supporting Israeli vineyards and the families of the hostages. Use it in your home to remind you, your family, and your friends, of the hostages.

As we get closer and closer to the 1 year anniversary of October 7th, we have a chance to remember who and what we lost that day. I have been struck by a few stories recently and wanted to share them.

Margarita Gusak dreamed of becoming a doctor. She studied day and night and promised everyone that she would be one.

She went to the tests and they told her, “You will get an answer in a week.”

Margarita bit her nails, counted the minutes until she receivd the answer, and when she could no longer wait, she went to the Nova music festival and was murdered there.

Two days later, the test results arrived. She didn’t get to find out that she got the grade needed to get into medical school.

I think of my sons. My oldest, waiting to hear if he got the college football coaching job he wanted. There were plenty of places he went and things he did before he got the answer he was hoping and work towards. He was not different than Margarita Gusak, except he didn’t have to deal with bloodthirsty terrorists who killed him before he found out he got his dream. Margarita did. My youngest, working hard to get the internship he wanted to hopefully open doors after he graduates college in May. He was waiting and waiting. He also went lots of places and did lots of things while he waited. Like his brother, he didn’t have to deal with bloodthirsty terrorists who wanted him dead before he found out he achieved his dream. Margarita wasn’t that lucky. The only thing different between my children and Margarita was bloodthirsty terrorists. We need to remember that it could be our children. It could be us.

In Judaism we don’t celebrate Valentines Day (spoiler alert, we do in my house). For Jews, the day we celebrate is called Tu B’Av, the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Av. Tu B’Av, the Jewish Day of Love, is a beautiful holiday and a great opportunity to focus on those in our lives who we love and who are important to us. I spent time today on the phone with my mom, we talked about my dad (z’). I get to spend tonight with my wife and youngest son and his girlfriend. I’ll call my oldest son to check on him. Yet this year Tu B’Av is also different. Many people lost the love of their life on October 7th or in the war that has followed. There are people who’s loved ones are still hostages and they don’t know if they are alive or dead.

I saw this online and it broke my heart. In Israel, everybody knows this feeling of loss. So as this beautiful Israeli woman sits alone at her romantic dinner with a picture of her fiance, a hostage in Gaza, on the chair across from her, she gets hugs and love from strangers because in Israel, everybody is family.

I saw some posts online that used pictures of Israeli’s at the beach or living their lives. The people posting them were critical, claiming that they didn’t care about what is happening in Gaza (they used words I won’t repeat). It is clear they don’t know what they are talking about and don’t know the Israeli spirit. Israeli’s of all religions – Jews, Druze, Christians, Arabs, B’hai, etc. all know the pain of loss. They choose to live rather than be consumed by it. They choose life and joy even when it is the hardest and most difficult. When we visited the grave of the IDF medic, his parents requested we meet with them. Despite all the pain they are dealing with, they wanted to talk to us. They even brought us food. We share our sorrow and we share our joy. Judaism is always about choosing life which is what makes what is happening in Gaza that much more difficult.

Daniel Lubitzky, the founder of KIND Snacks, posted this picture of his father, his brother and himself with the following story.

Laughter helped my father survive the Dachau concentration camp.

A long time ago, I was on a date and we were watching the movie Life is Beautiful. if you’ve never seen the movie, it’s about a family using humor to endure a concentration camp. The whole movie, I couldn’t stop laughing … which led to me feeling really guilty. I told my date that I needed to go call my dad.

When he picked up, I said, “It never crossed my mind that when you were in those barracks in Dachau, did you laugh?”

My father said, “Not only did I laugh it is what helped me survive.”

My father would tell jokes to the inmates to make them laugh AND to the soldiers to make them see the humanity of the prisoners.

When my dad was rescued, he was 6 ft tall and weighed 70 pounds. The prisoners didn’t look human, but, through humor, my dad tried to build those bonds of humanity.

Every day, I remember my father’s attempts at bringing light to those around him. We all need to do the same. We need to related to each other – human to human.

The story and the picture reminded me that as Jews, we chose life. We choose humanity. We choose laughter. Yes, life is difficult. Yes there is plenty of sadness in life. In the immortal words of the prophet Forrest Gump, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get.” Notice he said chocolates – something sweet. Something that brings joy. Think about the Jewish comedians – why are Jews overrepresented in comedy? It is because we always try to find the light in life. We always try to find the humor. It’s about living. After October 7th, the Israeli sketch comedy/satire TV show Eretz Nehederet, struggled with what to do. After a short period of time, they began doing what they do best. If you haven’t seen these, they are worth watching. I’d say enjoy but………

I’m going back to Israel in September to work with a client. I’m excited to go again. I am arriving early so I dont’t have to deal with jetlag before spending 4 days working. I can’t wait to spend some time on the beach in Tel Aviv. I’m having Shabbat dinner with friends in Modi’in. Another friend happens to be coming at the same time and we are on the same flight. He is joining us. Yet another friend from college will be there volunteering with his wife for the third time since October 7th. He had never been to Israel before October 7th. We will overlap for a few days and get together.

In the middle of a war, with rockets coming from the north and the south, with an ongoing threat from Iran, I’m not the only one going to Israel. Like my friend who is now going for his third time since October 7th, this is my 3rd time since May. My 23rd trip overall. There are a lot of arguments about Jews. Are we a race? Are we a religion? Are we a culture? Are we white? Are we European? Are we indiginous to the Levant? The answer to all of this is yes, because what we really are is a Mishpacha, a family. We are 12 tribes created by 12 siblings, the sons of our patriarch Jacob and our matriarchs Leah and Rachel. We were disbursed among the nations, so we have European/Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardic Jews (from Spain and Portugal), Mizrahi Jews (from the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia), and Ethiopian Jews (obviously from Ethiopia). Those who hate us want to make us whatever they need for them to hate. Don’t let them define us. We are Mishapacha, family, with family members who spent two centuries or more living in various parts of the world. It is why we remember Margarita – she is our daughter, sister, granddaughter, cousin. It’s why we remember the hostages – they are our brothers and our sisters. It is why we remember those lost in the Holocaust – they are our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, and uncles. It is why when you go to Israel you will be invited to Shabbat dinner at the homes of random people that you just met. They may have just met you, but you are their family.

These are challnenging times and most expect the challenges to increase in the short term. It is ok. Why? Because we are all family. We are all mishpacha. Together we have surivived for over 3,000 years and we aren’t going anywhere now. Our family is strong because we stand together.

Who knew Sister Sledge was really singing about the Jewish people?

Am Yisrael Chai (The people of Israel live).

Ever since my dream the other night when I was being castigated by victims of the Holocaust about nothing mattering if you aren’t living, I have been struggling with my emotions and waking up in the middle of the night as a result. It was a powerful dream that deeply impacted me. Yes, there are many things that matter in terms of behavior, in terms of how we treat others, in terms of values, ethics, and morals. These only matter when you are among the living. As a country and as a Jewish community, we have gotten so far away from Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs that it is scary. We forget the commandment that we are to “Live By Them, Not Die By Them”. Rabbi Yitz Greenberg wrote a great piece on this. We forget that all the laws of the Torah apply AFTER saving a life. Health concerns mean you don’t have to fast. Or keep Pesach. Or keep Shabbat. Being alive is THE most important thing

I have friends all over the political spectrum. Some are far left. Some are left. Some are center. Some are center right. Some are far right. They are my friends because of who they are as people and we have managed to stay friends even though most of them differ from me politically. Most of us still can talk about politics because we value our friendship more than dogma. We understand that by and large, we want the same things, it is more about how to get there. I’ve been ok with this for many, many years. This dream is changing that for me. I am not ok with any political stance that puts my life at risk. That has become my top priority – making sure that as a Jew I am not at risk of being killed. Many people may say that I am overreacting. Yet on Saturday in New York, outside a Chabad, a Jewish man was stabbed multiple times while his attacker was yelling, “Free Palestine”.

We see the Jew hatred and call to kill Jews not just from Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. This video is from a mosque and Imam in New Jersey. Watch and listen as he praises dying a shahid (martyr). I am not condemning Islam as many do. I am condemning extremism. This extremism threatens our lives here in the United States. Just as the Jewish man was stabbed on Shabbat outside Chabad in New York, it could happen to any of us wherever we live. Here in the United States, extremists are advocating for the death of Jews. We can’t ignore this and focus on other issues when our lives are literally at risk and being threatened.

If you want to see what happens when you teach hate, listen to these children. Hate isn’t born, hate is taught. This is the evil we face. When children talk about not just Jihad but martyrdom, there is a serious problem.

The lies that are being told about the war in Gaza with Hamas have gotten worse. Per the UN/Hamas/Gaza Ministry of Health (they are all the same but I use all their names) there have been approximately 40,000 people killed. This includes those from natural causes and terrorists. In the same period of time, they state that 50,000 babies were born. So anybody who calls it a genocide is doing so when the population is INCREASING. The Lancet article, written by an anti-Israel, Jew hater, stated that the end result of the war could be 186,000 dead. People cite this as the real number without reading the article because they believe the lies. The article is including all sorts of hypotheticals and long term impact, not the actual number. Even just the other day, Israel bombed a terrorist headquarters in a former school. Instantly the report was 100 or more killed and mostly civilians. Hamas quickly reduced the number to 40 killed but no media covered it. Israel has now documented at least 36 of those killed were terrorists and shares their names publicly. No apology. No retraction. No correction.

I often tell people that they need to listen to what the people of Gaza are saying, now that they feel safe enough to say it publicly. They hate Hamas. They actually want Israel to finish the job and free them from Hamas. Instead of listening to the people of Gaza, the Jew haters in the US and Europe think they know best. Here are two videos of people speaking out in Gaza. Unfortunately, they were not safe from Hamas and both were quickly found by Hamas and murdered. Their words are powerful and we need to listen to them to honor their willingness to speak out.

Since that dream, I have been filled with an overwhelming desire to be in Israel right now. Despite the risks, despite the stress, it’s a deep feeling that I need to be with my people. I have friends in the IDF reserves who have been called up. I have friends who have children in the IDF. When I talk to my friends in Israel, the topic of what they are putting in their safe room always comes up. The country is different since October 7 and it continues to change every day. My connection with Israel is strong, and while I won’t go there today because of my family, the desire is strong. They are struggling on so many levels and I want to be there with them, struggling with them, being a part of the Jewish people in Israel.

Daniel Gordis, a wonderful educator and Rabbi, put out this video blog yesterday. With it being Tisha B’Av, the saddest day in the Jewish calendar, it was very poignent and powerful. It is hard to listen to him talk about the current state of affairs. I think what really got me was when he said, “This country is broken”. It’s about 3 minutes and worth watching and listening to.

Israel is the heart of the Jewish people. We pray towards Jerusalem. We end the Passover Seder by saying, “Next year in Jerusalem”. It is a literal history of the Jews, from the graves of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, Leah, and Rachel to King David to the first and second temples, to today. My desire to be there, with my people, is because I feel that connection in my kishkas (yiddish for intestines and used as my insides). It is core to who I am as a person and as a Jew. As Jews, we are a mishpacha, a family. When the Vietnamese, Buddist Bachelorette, Jenn Tran, used the word mishpacha with the Jewish guy this week, I smiled. She got that it means far more than biological family.

I read Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s substack and am a paid subscriber to it. While I disagree with many things he writes, they are thought provoking and worth reading. He usually includes some inspirational video. This one made me think of Israel and the IDF soldiers. Every time they come home safely, I imagine this happening. Every time somebody in the reserves is released and goes back to their regular life, I imagine this happening. I imagine the sadness and longing every time they are recalled to the reserves or for those in the IDF, each time they must go into Gaza or defend the north. I was on a zoom call with somebody last week who’s daughter is an IDF soldier that lives in a bunker underground in the north, right near Kiryat Shmona. It’s not safe to live above ground because of the rockets and bombs from Hezbollah. It sounds like a movie but it is real life. I knew what the end of this video was going to be and yet it still brought tears to my eyes.

These are challenging times to be Jewish in the world. The Jew hatred is real and growing. People are not afraid to say things that are incredibly offensive and not long ago would have them as pariahs. This man, in London, praises Hitler.

In these challenging times, the only way out is through. The only way to stay safe is to stick together. We cannot afford to fight amongst ourselves. It is ok to have different views on many issues. Arguing is the nature of Jewish learning. What we can’t argue about is our survival. What we can’t argue about is that survival, life, is the most important. If we are dead, none of the other things matter. We must remember the immortal words of the prophet Benjamin Franklin.

The Jewish people are not monolithic. We have many different views about social and economic issues. We pray in many different ways, from Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, Renewel, Just Jewish, meditative, JewBu’s (Jewish buddists), and many more. At the end of the day, we are all Jews. At the end of the day, they will kill all of us. We must remember the joke about the Zionist and Anti-Zionist because at the end of the day, the world just sees us as Jews. And when they want to see dead Jews, they don’t care what type of Jew you are. Just that you are a Jew.

The future is scary. Jews are being attacked all over the world just for being Jewish. Jewish buildings are being vandalized. We are being called colonialists, supporters of Genocide, and much more. The old blood libels are returning. I wish that I was filled with optimism. I wish that the victims of the Holocaust weren’t visiting me in my dreams to remind me what happens if we don’t fight back and if we don’t prioritize our lives. What I do know is that Israel is always there and always will be there. My spiritual home. A part of my being. Am Yisrael Chai.

I spent close to 2 hours the other day talking with a candidate for elected office.  We discussed his positions on many things including education, vocational education, student loans and student loan debt, the rising cost of college, the stock market and how that only helps those who have the funds to invest and how most people are struggling with the high cost of food and gas, as well as the housing concerns with the cost of rent and buying a house.  When we got to the topic of Israel, he was supportive of State of Israel and believes that Israel has the right to defend herself, but he didn’t know much about the history or the facts of what is going on since October 7^th,

I had an opportunity to give him real information about Israel. About the history of Israel. About the politics in Israel in the past and currently. I could discuss with him the many challenges related to the conflict and various things that have been tried to resolve it and unfortunately not worked. I had a chance to share information with him about October 7th, about the war with Hamas in Gaza, about Hezbollah attacking in the north, the Houthi’s, and how it’s all coming from Iran. We discussed the Abraham Accords and the future opportunities for peace.

It’s why education about Israel is so important.  Not just Hasbarah.  Not just the talking points.  Real Israel education.  Knowledge of the history.  Knowledge of the geography.  Knowledge of how the government works, the fact that Israel does not have a constitution, and how Israel is a democracy but isn’t exactly the same at the US in how things are run. If all I knew was the talking points, if all I knew was hasbarah, the conversation would have been short and he would have known that I only knew the talking points. It’s why finding sources of real information is so critical, especially in a time when getting real information is challenging and not easy.

Knowledge and education about the history of both ancient and modern Israel is critical. But where can you find reliable information? Information that you can depend on? Information that has citations and source documents? Information that isn’t filled with misinformation? In today’s world, it takes some real effort to identify those resources. I’ve done a lot of the work for myself so now I’m going to share it with you to make your life a little easier.

The Center for Israel Education (CIE) is the premier source destination for reliable content about modern Israel. CIE’s robust website provides informed access through multiple innovative learning platforms to curriculum materials, online courses, workshops, source compilations, webinars, and curated readings. They are an organization I have been very involved with and for full transparency, I am also the Vice-President of their Board of Directors. I chose to do this because of the quality of the content they provide. It is not hasbara. They do not gloss over the challenges of the modern state of Israel. Rather, through the use of source documents, with an academic focus, they provide amazing resources. If you want to explore the website, you can get lost for hours in different sections. If you want information sent to your email to review, they offer emails that focus on the following areas:

• Today in Israeli History (weekly)
• Contemporary Readings (monthly)
• CIE Newsletter (quarterly)
• The Chalk (biweekly updates)
• The Israel-Hamas War 2023

In addition, they have all sorts of programs to teach Israel to different constituencies. From youth, teens, college students, adults, and seniors, CIE is the content provider for factual, accurate, and historic information. None of this is enough however. Because of this reality, CIE just created 6 online courses you can purchase.

• How Did the Zionists Create the State of Israel?
• How Anti-Zionism Is Antisemitism
• Israel’s Democratic Origins and Its Pluralistic Political System
• Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Pre-State to 1973
• Arab-Israeli Conflict: Quest for Normalization, 1973-Present
• Israeli Identity and Society Through Music and Pop Culture

Although they are incredibly affordable, through the end of August 2024 there is a 30% discount!! If you want information, use the website, get the emails sent to you, think about the programs they offer and possibly even take the online course. You will learn. You will talk differently about Israel. People will notice and won’t be able to brush you off when they are lying and libeling Israel.

What about today’s war with Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthi’s and Iran? If you don’t think Israel is at war with all of them, you really need to both learn from CIE and sign up to get updates from the Bernie News Network (BNN). Using Whatsapp or Telegram, real time updates from Israel are shared. Videos of what’s going on. Facts in real time. I need to give a warning though – the information overload can be real. A lot is happening and BNN shares it all with you. You will get the good, the bad, and the ugly. Things that give you hope and things that scare you. It’s real information. You can also access information directly from the Israel Defense Force (IDF). The IDF has a Telegram account with realtime updates.

There are also some excellent podcasts where knowledgeable people have discussions. They even sometimes come from different points of view and still talk civilly! Here are some to check out:

• The Quad – Featuring Fleur Hassan-Nahoum (former Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem), Emily Schrader (Activist and Journalist), Ashira Solomon (African American Jew & Global Moderator) and Vivian Bercovici. For transparancy, Fleur is a friend of mine but more importantly she is truly awesome and amazing.
• For Heavan’s Sake – by the Shalom Hartman Institute
• Honestly – by Bari Weiss and The Free Press. Not specifically Israel focused but when they are, it is a must watch.
• Middle East Focus – Discussion and analysis on U.S. foreign policy and contemporary political and social issues in the Middle East.

It takes effort to truly understand Israel and the Middle East. To understand the geopolitics. Even with all the knowledge I have, it took a trip I took in 2019 to meet with leaders of Palestinian Civil Society for me to really understand the complexities. I still talk to the people I met and befriended in East Jerusalem, Ramallah and Bethlehem. They still teach me. It’s dynamic and takes effort. It’s not easy. But it is well worth it.

Make the effort. Begin to really learn, not the hasbara and talking points but the deep answers. The deep questions. The challenging situations. Israel has not always been right. The history of Israel, like the history of every country, has situations that we look back on with shame. We can’t hide from them. We can learn from them and we can make sure nobody can use them against us because we know. We can discuss. We can cite history, documents, and much more. I was told early in life that education was the most valuable commodity you could ever have because nobody can take it away from you. So get start getting educated. It’ll make you rich!!