Month: August 2026

Inspiration from 1976 that applies in 2026

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

Andres Spokoiny, the CEO of Jewish Funders Network, wrote a powerful piece in his Substack about The End of American Jewish Exceptionalism. As somebody who grew up in Argentina and moved to the United States in 2012, his viewpoint is powerful and spot on. It is something I have been watching and writing about for over a decade. The belief that the United States will always be a safe home for the Jews has ended. I used to wonder how the Jews in Germany could think they were Germans first and Jews second despite all that they saw. What blinded them? Unfortunately, I no longer wonder.

It is easy to want to be part of the majority. To be accepted. To want to be thought of as an American first. As Jews, that has never been nor will it ever be our reality. Look through our history in Israel. The Babylonians. The Persians. The Greeks. The Romans. The Crusades. The Muslims. The Ottomans. The British. During our exile, we thought we were part of Spain, Poland, Russia, and Germany. All proved we were and will always be Jews first. Yet the US gave us a new hope. One we thought we could dream of. As Jews, we have always had our bags packed, waiting for the exile to come. In the US, we unpacked. Haim Salomon funded the American Revolution.

As we witness incredible antisemitism and Jew hatred across the world and throughout the United States, the question is: what are we going to do? Are we ready to pack once again and move? If so, where? To Israel? Back to Poland? Where would be safe? Other than Israel, who would take us? The Jews who packed and ran are part of our history. Israel has shown us that Jews today fight back. We don’t stand by, and we don’t run.

Recently I read a great article in The Free Press about Ronald Reagan’s greatest speech. Reagan was known for great speeches, great lines, and being a great orator. I was excited to see which presidential speech was his ‘greatest’. As a teenager when he was elected at a time when pride in the United States was incredibly low, his voice and speeches inspired me. They gave hope for a better American future. While in hindsight there are many things that Reagan did as President which caused many problems, his powerful love for America and belief in American exceptionalism were uplifting at a time when we needed that.

I was surprised that the article about his ‘greatest speech’ was from the 1976 Republican National Convention after he had lost the nomination to Gerald Ford. It was a speech I had never heard. In typical Reagan fashion, as I read the words, he inspired me once again about what we face today. I watched and listened to the speech and was even more inspired because Reagan’s words in 1976 ring even more true today with the challenges we face.

Reagan’s speech, completely unprepared and off the cuff, has a few significant points that we should listen to for today’s world. The speech was framed around an invitation he received to write a letter for a time capsule that would be opened in Los Angeles 100 years in the future, in 2076, during America’s tricentennial. At first, he thought the assignment would be easy, writing about the problems the United States faced, mostly domestic, in 1976. Then he realized that in 2076, the people reading the letter would already know the history and would know what happened. Did we address the issues of our time? Did we have nuclear war? Is America still a free country? Reagan stated:

And suddenly it dawned on me; those who would read this letter a hundred years from now will know whether those missiles were fired. They will know whether we met our challenge.” He wondered: “Will they look back with appreciation and say, ‘Thank God for those people in 1976 who headed off that loss of freedom? Who kept us now a hundred years later free? Who kept our world from nuclear destruction?’

We face many problems today, on the 250th birthday of America. Fifty years from now, when the letter Reagan wrote in 1976 is opened and read, those people will also know if we succeeded. Did we head off the loss of freedom that we face from the far right and the far left? My children, 26 and 23 years old, wonder if they will be able to buy a house. The people of 2076 will know if we addressed the challenges we face today related to stagnating income, rising costs and inflation, artificial intelligence, corrupt politicians, the rise of socialism, healthcare, terrorism, and climate change. They will know if AI turned into the Terminator, eliminated jobs or the need to work, or is the equivalent of computers or cell phones, things that in 1976 were unimaginable.

When we think of the future and future generations, we need to think differently. My great-grandfather was born in 1880, and my oldest son was born in 2000. It’s likely that the world 100 years from now will be run by my yet-to-be-born grandchildren’s children and grandchildren. What is happening now won’t be their concern, as it will be long ago history.

In 1976, after posing these questions, Reagan gave a powerful conclusion. He declared to the crowd that,

“This is our challenge. We must go forth from here united, determined. And what a great general said a few years ago is true: There is no substitute for victory.”

Here in 2026, 50 years after Reagan’s speech, we are faced with the same declaration. The future will be looking back at us to see how we solved our problems. Did we treat each other with dignity and respect to build a better world, or did we hate each other so much that we destroyed our country and our world? Did we solve our economic challenges, or did they consume us? Did we address healthcare, or did we bring back diseases that we must fight to cure? Are diseases like cancer and diabetes a thing of the past, or do they continue to ravage our society? Did we run out of fossil fuels, or did we solve our energy crisis? Did we stop anti-Semitism, or was there another Shoah, another Holocaust? Were nuclear weapons used, making part of our world uninhabitable, or did we find a way to resolve our disputes peacefully?

It can be an overwhelming responsibility to think this way. However, in Pirkei Avot, the Ethics of Our Fathers, Rabbi Tarfon teaches and reminds us that,

“It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it.”

When I think of what Ronald Reagan said in his 1976 speech, this is what comes to my mind. 100 years from now, none of us will be here to see how things turned out and what our efforts turned into. We will know what effort we put in, however. We will know if we bothered to learn things and make educated decisions based on what we learned or if we got our information from TikTok and other social media outlets. We will know if we fought against hatred, sat silently and let it grow, or participated in it. We will know if we supported scientific research, sat quietly and let it die, or encouraged its elimination. Each of us has the opportunity and the obligation to do our duty. No more and no less. We live in a world with many challenges. It is easy to think this is the most challenging of all times; however, we only think that because it is when we are alive. I’m sure our ancestors thought the same thing during the Dark Ages, the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Black Plague, the Great Depression, and of course the Holocaust. However, as Ronald Reagan said, there is no substitute for victory. Our ancestors did what they had to do to make society survive. If we want society to win, humanity to win, we must do all we can to make that happen, even if it doesn’t benefit us in the short term. Perhaps especially when it doesn’t benefit us in the short term. Our grandchildren’s children and grandchildren are depending on us. We can’t let them down.

Fight for the soul of Israel

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

I have written about my client, Rozana, and the work they are doing with peacebuilding through health diplomacy. When I was doing site visits with them in late May/early June 2026, I wrote extensively about what I saw and experienced with the settler terrorism. I use the term terrorism because that’s what it is, and if we can’t call out the Jewish terrorists, how can we expect anybody else to call out their terrorists? These are people who believe in a Greater Israel that includes Judea and Samaria, along with Jordan, Syria, and Saudi Arabia. They are being empowered by MK Bezalel Smotrich, who has ensured they don’t get arrested and face no consequences, all with the implicit support of Bibi.

While I was there, I had the opportunity to have dinner with three former Israeli ambassadors who each served five postings. It was fascinating listening to them talk about the upcoming election and how it was truly a fight for the soul of Israel. They shared their concerns that if Bibi wins, there will be an incredible exodus of smart Israelis, creating a brain drain, and they discussed the influence of Smotrich and Ben Gvir and their radical beliefs and policies. Later on this trip, I spent time with two friends of mine. They have 3 young, brilliant Israeli children. One of them is a Sabra, born and raised in Israel and politically on the right. She and I spent a long time discussing the impact of the upcoming elections and her concern that if things don’t change, she will need to find another place for her family to live, but doesn’t know where to go. As we watched her children play on the beach, talking away in Hebrew, a tear came to her eye as she said, “They are Israeli though. How do I take them away from here?” The struggle for so many Israelis is real and unless you go visit and spend time really speaking with them, there is no way those of us living in the diaspora can understand. We focus on the things we see and they live an entirely different existance.

I love Israel and go as often as possible. Later this year, I’ll be taking my 27th and 28th trips there. I have friends who serve as MKs in the Knesset and even more friends who are running in the upcoming election because they know how critical this election really is for the future of the country. I have friends actively serving in the IDF or in milium (the reserves) and some of them are running for office while others are planning to move to the US to escape the new, different hardships of Israel. The internal issues, which don’t get the same media attention, are substantial. My friend, Ambassador Rodica Radian-Gordon, recently spoke at our staff meeting to share her insights. They were powerful and depressing and important to hear. Deep thoughts about the future and what it may look like pending the outcome of the election.

I keep going back to the Israeli Declaration of Independence, where it states:

In the midst of wanton aggression we call upon the Arab inhabitants of the state of Israel to return to the ways of peace and play their part in the development of the state, with full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its bodies and institutions, provisional or permanent.

We offer peace and amity to all neighboring states and their peoples, and invite them to co-operate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The state of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and reconstitution of the Middle East.

My friend and the head of Rozana’s Palestinian office, Mohammad Asideh, recently had a piece printed in The Jewish News in the UK. It’s a powerful piece: thoughtful and questioning. I am posting it below to share with you. It is okay to love Israel and also be critical of some of the government policies. It is important to understand what is really happening and ask if that is something we are comfortable with. The Israeli people are asking that question, and those of us who love Israel should be asking it as well. I hope that you read it and think deeply about what it means. If you love Israel like I do, we can really ask ourselves, what does it benefit someone to gain the whole world, and lose their soul in the process? The Jewish people have been kept together because we never lost our souls. To lose it now, when we finally have Eretz Yisrael again, would be tragic.

Here is Mohammad’s article, both as a link and below for easiness of reading. I hope it inspires thought and lots of deep conversation.

“I believe people in a position to act need to have a serious conversation about what might be coming, for the sake of Palestinians, Israelis and Jews around the world alike.”

Mohammad Asideh

Ten days ago, I was walking into a meeting to discuss the International Fund led by the UK, Canada and Australia. Just before it started, a friend texted me: “what had happened in your town, Tel?” I didn’t see his next message until the meeting ended. Four young men were killed by settlers in my town on what was supposed to be another quiet Friday morning. He listed their names. I knew all four. We went to the same school and I played football with two of them.

A settler and a soldier were killed too.

There have been more dramatic events than this one. But something about it shifted the public feeling among Palestinians in a way I haven’t felt before. It’s common now to hear: what came before Tel is not the same as what came after.

We should all be ready for a new reality. On your next visit to the West Bank, don’t be surprised if you see Israeli military jeeps patrolling Palestinian cities and no stones thrown back. There will be resistance, but a different kind. I have no idea what would it be.

For a month now, everyone has been struggling to get fuel. These days I take taxis to my meetings for Rozana, the organization I work for, if I go outside Ramallah, because I don’t know if I’ll get another chance to fill my car. My brother waited from morning until evening yesterday just to refill his car. If he hadn’t, he couldn’t have gone to work. No work, no food on the table.

Water, electricity, medication, all of it that reaches the West Bank has been reduced by the Israeli government. Most people I know now think twice before they take a shower.

One of the projects that Rozana runs is a Mobile Clinic in remote communities around Hebron. Getting our teams safely to and from clinics has become harder and riskier. Moving medical supplies, or something as basic as water, through checkpoints that open and close without warning, has become harder.

I’m not the complaining type. I say that because I think these injustices are rarely held accountable or covered in the media. Gaza remains our biggest pain and challenge and now we fear for the safety of the people we love even when we are with them at home inside Palestinian cities.

Radicals thrive on the actions of other radicals. There is no such thing as only one radical side. And yet, despite everything I’ve just described, there has been no violent uprising here. I ask myself why? I think it’s because we’ve entered a new phase of this conflict, annexation.

I know many people are waiting for the election in Israel and Palestine at the end of this year. I’m almost 40. I grew up hearing that things would be better after the next one. This is rarely the case.

I believe people in a position to act need to have a serious conversation about what might be coming, for the sake of Palestinians, Israelis and Jews around the world alike.

Antisemitism has never needed material or justification. It has always been there. However, radical settlers in the West Bank will and are providing so much material for antisemitic voices around the world.

On my last trip to Paris, I came out of a meeting with a Jewish colleague and watched them take off their kippah before we stepped onto the street. They didn’t feel safe. Just a few days ago, a BBC interview went viral here: a settler, a lawyer, called for everyone in my town to be killed, and everyone in other Palestinian towns too, after a settler was killed in the recent settler attack on my town.

I keep thinking of a line from the New Testament: “what does it benefit someone to gain the whole world, and lose their soul in the process?” It’s part of why I have always rejected violence. I felt, watching suicide bombings once justified in this place, that we were losing our soul as a people to win the war.

Israel could take every part of this land. But nothing about it would stay holy in the process. So who wins? Israel, if it loses its soul building a state on another people’s suffering? Or Palestinians, who may lose everything and still refuse to surrender? In the end, I think both sides lose.

Let’s use what time is left to save what can still be saved.

Mohammad Asideh is the CEO of Rozana for Health Diplomacy and is based in Ramallah.

This article is adapted from a message sent by the author to members of The London Initiative (TLI), following the recent deadly violence in Tel in the West Bank. TLI is a network of likeminded members of world Jewry, citizens of Israel and international allies partnering to shape a better shared future grounded in liberal democracy, societal fairness and secure peace. The author is the first Palestinian member of the network who is not a citizen of Israel.

Wisdom from the Great Jerry Garcia

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

We moved my youngest son into his apartment last weekend. Next week is his law school orientation, and the week after he begins his first year of law school. This means that we no longer have any children living at home, just the two of us, our dog Charlotte (Charlie), and cat Fester. It’s a major life change that we knew was coming at some point, then knew exactly when it was coming, and yet somehow are still not prepared for it. The house is very quiet and feels very big. There is a lot of room in the refrigerator and the pantry. The thermostat is set differently. Our lives have completely shifted overnight from what they have been like for the past 26 1/2 years since our oldest child was born. It feels weird.

It’s all part of the circle of life. Change is the constant in life. As I have been paying attention to this change, it has made me realize how frequently we experience change early in life, followed by a long gap. Here are some examples:

  1. Birth
  2. Crawling
  3. Walking
  4. Talking
  5. School
  6. Turning double digits
  7. Bar/Bat Mitzvah
  8. Drivers license
  9. Graduating High School
  10. College
  11. Graduating College/working
  12. Marriage
  13. Children
  14. Empty Nest

Most things happen within months or just a few years, except for that last phase of children to empty nest. In my case, it’s been 26 1/2 years in between them, not months, but years—nearly 3 decades. I started wondering what else in the world is like that, and I came upon something else: leadership.

Our leaders in the United States, members of the US House and Senate, serve indefinitely. Lindsey Graham z’l served 23 years before passing away and was running for another 6-year term when he died this year. Joe Biden served 48 years as a Senator, VP, and President. Representative John Dingell of Michigan (1955-2015) served just over 59 years. Robert Byrd of West Virginia began in 1951 and served 51 years in the Senate. We have had 10 other Senators serve at least 40 years, while another 13 have served at least 36 years. The House of Representatives isn’t any better. While 33 members of the House have served at least 40 years, currently there are 10. Almost 1/3 of all members of the US House serving 40 years are currently serving. That’s a shocking number.

For 15 1/2 of the past 17 years, Bibi Netanyahu has been Prime Minister of Israel. For nearly 22 years, Mahmoud Abbas has been the President of the Palestinian Authority (he was elected to a 4-year term, and there have never been elections since then – a fact the world doesn’t care about). Once again, we have examples where the circle of life, the change needed to ensure progress, isn’t happening. Change is an essential part of life and society, and we simply aren’t getting it from leadership.

As I experience the change in my life, no longer having any children living at home, and look at what’s happening in the US and the world, I find myself inspired by Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead. It’s easy to want to give up when you see Jew haters being elected to leadership positions in the US and around the world. It’s easy to feel hopeless and helpless when the lies are told so frequently it feels like Germany in the 1930s. It’s easy to shake our heads and walk away when the two major political parties in the US go so far left and so far right that they are almost the same. It’s been helpful to me to see so many Democrats now standing up against the extreme part that is taking over their party—to see them openly state there is a line they won’t cross. Hopefully, we will see the Republicans do the same. James Carville, a Democratic icon, has been public about it and speaking out loudly.

One of my favorite songs by the Grateful Dead is “The Wheel.” I love the music, the jam that is included, and the words. A few years ago, Dead and Company played a show at The Gorge where they played “Playing in the Band,” then right into “The Wheel,” and then finished with “Playing in the Band” once again. It’s one of my favorite things to listen to, and this 28-minute version of these songs is something I listen to at least once a day. The words, the music, the jamming touches my soul. The more I have listened to it during this time of my life and with what is happening in the world, the more the words of “The Wheel” inspire me to continue forward, to continue the fight, and to believe that we can have a better world, despite the challenges we face with leadership around the world, in the US, in Israel, in the PA, with growing Jew hatred, the lies of the media, and the unwillingness for so many to bother to learn and challenge the lies.

The chorus begins with The wheel is turning and you can’t slow down. This reminds me that the world is constantly moving and changing. I don’t have the power to stop or even slow down the problems with our leaders in the world, in the US, in Israel, of the PA, or the media lies and the massive Jew hatred. The world keeps moving. The key word that is easy to miss in this lyric is “YOU“. It doesn’t say the world can’t slow down; it implores you, the individual, not to slow down. The more the world turns, the more we have to keep up. The more we have to fight. The more we have to be unwilling to give up.

The next line is You can’t let go and you can’t hold on. What a lesson! Quitting and giving up is simply not an option. Holding on and hoping that you will survive as the world turns and changes isn’t an option. Once again, we are being told that we must take action. The status quo is not acceptable; it will not work. History has shown us that those who let go don’t survive. Those who hold on and hope that, because they held on and stayed with those who hated them, they will be allowed to remain. They never are. They don’t survive either. The only way to survive and thrive is to keep moving, keep working, and, as in the first lyric, not slow down but speed up.

The third line reiterates in clear words what has been said in the first two lines. You can’t go back and you can’t stand still. What was is no longer. We can’t return to the days of Israel being a bipartisan issue in the US. Those days are gone and will not come back. We can’t go back to the time when being Jewish or supporting Israel excluded you from being a Progressive. The days when the value of the US-Israel relationship was understood and valued are gone. We can’t go back to where we were, nor can we stay where we are. The sand is shifting and collapsing below us. We must move forward. We can reach a better place and build a new reality, but it will be a new one, not the old one. We must take action.

The final line has always been one of my favorites for many reasons. Now it’s a powerful reminder of what happens if we don’t heed the lessons of the first three lines. If the thunder don’t get you, then the lightning will. There is no safe place to just stay. If it’s not the thunder it will be the lightning. If it’s not the far left, it will be the far right. If it’s not Iran it will be Qatar or the Houthis or Canada or Spain or France or the UK. Standing still and hoping for a better outcome without taking the action to make the better outcome happen means somebody will get us. There are enough out there that hate us, that want us dead, that it will happen. Unless we take action. Unless we fight. Unless we educate ourselves and speak out.

I had the opportunity to spend time with three former Israeli ambassadors while visiting Israel and the West Bank two months ago. They all told me that the upcoming election is for the ‘soul of Israel.’ I have no doubt about that. I have seen through my cousins in Israel and my friends in Israel what is at stake. I have seen firsthand what is happening in the West Bank as a result of this government’s policies being driven by Smotrich and Ben Gvir with Bibi’s implicit approval. The world is telling us that they need to see a different leader of Israel to believe there can be a different future. So I learn. I talk to Israelis to engage them in dialogue so I can learn. I am inspired by the number of younger Israelis who are now running for office in the upcoming election and am excited that while I can’t vote because I’m not an Israeli citizen, I will be there during the upcoming election in October.

America is no different. The midterm election in November may well be for the soul of America. Will we elect moderates or extremists? Will we elect those who love America or hate it? A perfect example of if the thunder doesn’t get you, then the lightning will.

The Wheel was written in the very early 1970s and first appeared on a Jerry Garcia album in 1972. Yet in 2026, it may be more important than ever. It is up to us to not slow down. It is up to us to not let go and not hold on. Because we must always remember that if the thunder doesn’t get us, then the lightning will. James Carville knows this and can show us all both what to do and how to do it.

Enjoy the music and video – it’s a phenominal almost 30 minutes of music.