There is often a debate about whether being Jewish is a religion or a people. My friend, Avraham Infeld, has publicly spoken about this. He says, “We are a family, a people, with a common religion.” It’s the best description I have heard.
Rabbi Harold Kushner (z’l) has written about this as well. In his book, To Life, he asks, “What do you have to believe to be Jewish?”. The answer, is nothing. You don’t have to believe in God. You don’t have to believe in the Torah. In fact, you don’t have to do anything to be Jewish. You are Jewish if your mother is Jewish. That’s it. Many people in today’s world will say you are Jewish if either parent is Jewish. That is the proof that we are a people, a family, a mishpacha, that share a common religion.
This gets proven all the time with Jewish geography. In the Jewish world, it isn’t the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon. Usually it is 2-3 degrees of connection. Hersh Goldberg-Polin (z’l) is a great example of this. I didn’t know him or his family. Yet I have friends who knew him at Camp Ramah Darom. 2 degrees of separation. The picture below is from a fraternity brother of mine who’s son was friends with Hersh. Another 2 degrees of separation.
Hersh as a kid with friends including my fraternity brother’s son
You may have seen the memes and comments about family in Israel.
I told someone I was traveling to Israel.
He asked, “do you have family there?”
“Yes I do. 8 million brothers and sisters.”
That’s who we are. Brothers and sisters. Family. Mishpacha.
As I think about family, I think about the hostages. There remain 101 of them in captivity and we don’t know how many of them are still alive. At Passover Seder, I set up chairs and put pictures of the Bibas family on the chairs so they could be at our Seder in spirit. After Seder, I couldn’t take them off the chairs so they remained there for a few months.
Mia Schem inspired me with her words, “We will dance again” and I got the same tattoo she did on my forearm. It inspires me to work hard every day to build a better future. To never forget the hostages that remain or the horrific violence that occurred on October 7th, I’ll never forget the look on Rami Davidian’s face as he talked about the morning of October 8th, when he went back to the Nova site to help clean up and provide dignity to those murdered. He looked at the trees right near us as he told us of the women tied to them that he had to cut down, cover them, give them some final dignity, and say the Shema for them. Unsaid was the condition of their bodies and the obvious rapes that had occurred. The tears in his eyes said more than his words ever could.
When Rachel Goldberg-Polin described the condition of her son Hersh’s (z’l) body, I cringed. Not just at the weight loss, the loss of part of his arm, and the obvious torture he had endured, but also how he was murdered. These aren’t the acts of freedom fighters or resistance. These are the acts of barbarians. As I listened to John Spencer, the pre-eminent expert on Urban warfare, talk about what he saw and how it doesn’t compare to any other barbarism he has seen throughout his career in studying warfare, it really hit home. People don’t want to believe other people can be this inhuman. People don’t want to believe this type of evil exists So they make excuses. They create lies to protect themselves from seeing that the evil exists.
The quote from Mia Schem below is powerful. “Each with her own horrific abduction story.” Yet the women’s rights groups couldn’t speak out. The ‘believe all women’ organizations denied that sexual violence occurred. The celebrities who spoke out in defense of every other group that faced sexual violence stayed silent. There was no ‘bring back our girls’ from Michelle Obama, Angelina Jolie, Pope Francis, Kim Kardashian, Ellen DeGeneres, Hillary Clinton, Anne Hathaway, Alicia Keys, Cara Delevingne, Jessica Alba, Khloé Kardashian, Sophia Bush, or Amy Poehler, who all spoke out when 276 girls from a school in Chibok, Nigeria were kidnapped by the Islamist militia group Boko Haram in 2014. Jewish women didn’t count.
Talking about Jewish women, my friend Yocheved Ruttenberg recently was announced as the Z3 Bridge Builder award winner. What did she do that won her the award? On October 8th, with her older brother serving in the IDF as a lone soldier, she realized that she could not stay in the United States in her Dallas construction sales position. This then 23 year old spent a week raising $17,000 to buy things for her brothers unit, booked a ticket to Israel, and began her journey. A month into her 2 week trip to Israel, she met another young woman and together they created the Sword of Iron Facebook group, creating a place for those wanting to come to Israel and volunteer to meet each other, learn where they could volunteer, and build a community. Today, almost a year later, the group has nearly 40,000 members. Yocheved is a star. The number of people excited to see her in Israel, who want to take a selfie, who thank her for creating this community which enables them to make a difference, is immense. People come back time after time to volunteer, using the Sword of Iron group to figure out where to stay that is affordable, where to volunteer, who else is going to be there, and how to connect to their community. Thanks to Yocheved, there is no ‘lone volunteer’. Everybody, Jewish or not, is part of a community.
Yocheved was 23 when she started Swords of Iron. She turned her passion into something that has changed the lives of more than the 40,000 members of the Facebook group. Every time somebody comes to Israel and volunteers, she is changing not only their lives but the lives of those who benefit from the volunteer work. She is changing the lives of the volunteers’ friends wherever they live, who hear that their friends are coming to Israel to volunteer, see the pictures, and hear from them upon their return.
If Yocheved can do it, what is your excuse for not following your heart and your dream to change the world? Yocheved isn’t done. There is far more she is planning. Let her be your inspiration to do something.
Doing something is what Dror Israel (Dror) is all about. After October 7th, they were first responders when it comes to the needs of children and families. They created pop-up schools at the Dead Sea for families that had been displaced. They created schools all over the country as people were displaced from the south and the north. They had afterschool programs, youth groups, and brought in counselors to help those dealing with stress and PTSD.
In September I had the opportunity to visit Dror while in Israel. Seeing their work in person was powerful. Hearing the impact directly from the children in school was incredible. Seeing the inpact of the youth movement in an Arab village was inspiring. Watching both the excitement learning and the gratitude the students had for Dror and their educators was impactful. In the middle of an ongoing war that is over a year long, with rockets being launched at them daily and sirens going off multiple times a day, the resilience of the children and the Dror educators was inspiring.
As the war continues into its second year, Dror educators continue to innovate. In order to help children deal with the stress and challenges just being children, they began restorative 3 day trips for them to Mitzpe Ramon where they can act like children without the rockets and sirens. They can play outside, sleep without worrying about having to go to the safe room in the middle of the night, and experience joy. As Dror began these trips, they quickly learned that the entire family had a need to participate. So as Dror does, they pivoted and innovated even more. Last week, 100 children and parents from the Nitzanim elementary school in Carmiel embarked on a three-day retreat in Mitzpe Ramon. “It was such great fun, far from the noise of the war. We had a chance to connect with other families from the school and our neighborhood—just what we all needed,” said Irena, mother of Michael and Vasily, both students at the school.
Israel is known as the start up nation but it is more than just technology. Israel innovates in so many different ways including education and how they value human life. This is seen through the work of Dror Israel, who is dedicated to supporting these children until they can safely return to their homes and to helping them rebuild their communities and restore a sense of trust, resilience, and hope. Imagine if we had that in the United States.
Families from Carmiel during the 3 day restorative trip to Mitzpe Ramon
Earlier I wrote about how we are a family with a common religion. The great thing about being a family is that we have traditions. Many of them are based on our common religion such as the Passover Seder, shaking the lulov and etrog on Sukkot, and putting on tefillin. One of my favorites is something that I just learned and began this summer.
The prayer Acheinu is not an ancient one. It tracks back to the 9th century, 800 years after the destruction of the second Temple. The song “Acheinu” however, was only written in 1990. I sing it every day for the hostages. It’s short, simple, and easy to learn. It’s something tangible that I can do while I lie in bed, am in the shower, or sitting at my desk. I have the words on my phone and I get them in an email every day as well. As Jews, we have these type of regular things to remind us. As I said before, Tefillin is one (and I must admit that while I occassionaly put them on, I don’t do it regularly). Tefillin takes a few minutes and is a physical reminder. Singing Acheinu is a spiritual reminder that takes a minute or two with practice.
As Jews, we can find what are the things that resonate for us. What keeps us grounded? What connects us to God? What do we do to stay grounded, connected to God, connected to the world and to humanity. I pray and meditate every morning and have for more than three decades. For the past 5 months, I also sing Acheinu. It’s the one thing that I do daily that I look forward to NOT doing any longer. When the hostages are released, the need for me to sing Acheinu will be removed. Every day when I sing it, it has meaning. And every day that I sing it, I hope it is the last day that I will have to do so.
It’s 395 days today. 395 days of captivity. 395 days of terror and abuse. 395 days that American hostages have been ignored by our government. 395 days that the world has tried to excuse their being kidnapped and abused. We will not forget. We will not rest until they are returned. We will not stop until Hamas and Hezbollah are removed from power, until the threat that is Iran is no longer a threat.
The events of October 7th have been widely circulated and publicized. Most people know what happened and even thought there are deniers, they are largely discredited. As sombody who sat in front of the TV all day on October 7th while sending WhatsApp messages to my Israeli friends and family to check on them, I have been more aware than most. In addition, I put together a viewing of the 47-minute Hamas video and I saw the Nova music festival documentary and heard a survivor speak afterwards. I have friends in the IDF reserves who gave me updates.
I thought I was prepared when we went to Hostage Square and heard from the fathers of two hostages earlier in the week. I wasn’t. Hostage Square was overwhelming and I want to go back and just sit there for hours with the family members to show support. Hearing the pleas of the fathers of two hostages was beyond painful. I’ve mainly processed the experience and while the hostages will be in my heart and mind until they are released, I figured out a way to cope with the experience.
Today, we went to the Gaza envelope. This was something I have looked forward to being able to do since October 7th. To volunteer with agriculture because the Kibbutzim and Moshavim are short workers. To visit Kfar Aza or Be’eri, the Kibbutzim that were brutally attacked. To be at the Nova music festival site and pay tribute to those murdered by Hamas terrorists while they were enjoying live music and their friends. It felt noble. It felt important. And it was.
The location of the farm where we worked on the lemon grove
Working on the lemon fields was rewarding. It wasn’t fun work. It wasn’t hard work. It was necessary work. We started by seeing the office area, using the bathroom, and getting a feel for where we were. We were about 2 miles from Gaza. They had a collection of rockets fired from Gaza in the front as well as some remnants from the Iron Dome rockets that shot them down. I got a chance to hold one of the Iron Dome rockets which was much lighter than I expected.
Holding an Iron Dome rocket used to shoot down a Hamas rocket
We then spent about an hour and a half cleaning the trees, cutting away excess branches that made it harder for them to properly water and nourish the trees. The lemons were big and delicious and I cut one up to squeeze into my water bottle. As we worked the fields, we found parts of rockets and Iron Dome rockets lying around. They couldn’t be bothered with cleaning up the smaller fragments from the grove.
Our guide from the kibbutz shared the challenges with having lost their workers from Thailand and all the workers that came daily from Gaza. The King of Thailand won’t allow them to come back to Israel but he was able to get some Thai workers back by having them go to Cypress and then pick them up there. They also added some workers from India but are still woefully short of labor. When we asked him if the Kibbutz lost any members on October 7th, his response was a bit surprising. “Yes, only 4”. I had to double and triple check that he understood I meant were any of them murdered by Hamas terrorists, not if they decided to leave the Kibbutz. He understood clearly as he told me they had 3 women and 1 man murdered. He said they got lucky. Some people climbed out of the window and ran to other houses, allowing the people coming from Gaza to just rob their homes. Others opened the door and told them to go away and they did. Nobody is sure why they got so lucky (as if having four people in your community murdered is lucky) but they were.
I think the most impactful think that he said to us was that they were planting because it gives them roots. They aren’t going anywhere. They aren’t leaving the land. They aren’t moving and they aren’t afraid. This is their home. It was a powerful statement and I thought to myself, “F them! I’ll move here. I’ll live here to show Hamas and others that we as Jews aren’t going anywhere!” Since my wife has already said I have the softest hands of anybody she knows, that feeling was really good for about 30 minutes and then reality set it. I’m not moving to be a farmer in the south of Israel. But it should did feel good for a while. Israel is our historic home and after 2,000 years, we aren’t giving it up and aren’t leaving.
On the way to Kfar Aza, one of the men on our bus asked if we could stop at the bus shelter near the Nova site to pay tribute to two of his friends who were murdered that day. As it turns out, one of the people was the uncle of the woman I heard speak in Orlando after the showing of the Nova documentary. Lee survived the massacre. Her story was brutal and gunwrenching. She had described the shelter she hid and and where she watched her uncle and others die. To see it in person and pay my respects both to her uncle and the others who perished but also to honor her survival, I wanted to get out and see it as well.
The exterior of the bomb shelter where Lee Sasi hid and her uncle and 11 others were murdered
I have been inside bomb shelters on prior visits to explore them. I knew what the size was like, the dark and dinginess. The feeling of being trapped even as the only one in there. For some reason I didn’t apply that when Lee told her story. As I stepped into the bunker, it all camp flowing back. I thought about 25 or more people cramped in this tiny space. I thought about being trapped with no way out as terrorists reached their guns around the corner and began firing randomly, guaranteeing to hit people based on both the small area and the concrete walls. I thought about what would happen each time a grenade was thrown into that small space by the terrorists. I thought about Lee, hiding underneath dead bodies to protect herself from the bullets and the grenades, using the dead bodies as shields from the explosions of the grenades. It became overwhelming and I quickly left.
Walking through the bomb shelter where Lee Sasi hid and 12 people, including her uncle, were murdered.
On the entrance and interior of the shelter there are plaques to commemorate the 12 who were murdered in this shelter. There were stickers to commemorate and remember each individual who was murdered here. It was a powerful thing to see. I’ll never forget Lee Sasi’s story nor will I forget seeing As we headed to Kfar Aza, I had no idea that this wasn’t even close to what I would experience.
Earlier I said I thought I was prepared for Hostage Square and wasn’t. I also thought I was prepared for our visit to Kfar Aza. I have a friend who is from Kfar Aza and I knew it was beautiful before October 7. When we pulled up, it looked like many other kibbutzim that I have been to. Beautiful trees, grass, and warm, welcoming feel.
Welcome to Kfar AzaBeautiful entrance to Kfar Aza
For those of you that don’t know, Kfar Aza is located in what is known as “The Gaza Envelope”. It is 1 mile west of Gaza and the city of Jabalyia. You can easily see Jabalyia from Kfar Aza. The people of Kfar Aza were peaceniks. They believed in peace and lived in peace. They had Gazans coming to work at the kibbutz and eat there as well. They’d sit as friends. On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists broke through the gate of the kibbutz, massacring the people in the kibbutz. 62 people were murdered with another 19 people taken hostage. Four of those people remain hostages today.
Jabalya in the distance. The back of the Kibbutz’s fields are only a few hundred feet from Gaza.
As I said earlier, I thought I was prepared for Kfar Aza. I thought I understood what happened there. After all, I had watched tv all day on October 7th, talked to friends of mine who live in Israel and serve in the IDF, talked with friends who live in the south, close to Gaza. I saw the 47-minute Hamas video. I watched the Nova documentary and heard a survivor speak afterwards. I talk with my friend who is a reserve commander in Gaza and one that is a reserve commander in the north. I’m very plugged in and get real information. And yet, I wasn’t close to being prepared for what I saw.
As we began to tour the area of the Kibbutz where the Hamas terrorists attacked, I was sad with what I initially saw. It was what I expected. Houses with their roof torn off.
House in Kfar Aza with the roof torn off House in Kfar Aza with their Sukkah still up 7 months later.
Then we moved deeper into the Kibbutz and our guide from the IDF started telling stories. Watch her tell the stories. They are powerful and painful. It is something I will never forget.
Outside one of the homes in Kfar Aza where the IDF soldier tells us the story of the family who was murdered by Hamas.
This was powerful. It was hard to hear. Hard to look at the house and know the story that went with it. Yet we were only beginning.
She walked a little bit, stopped at another house, and told us another story. I’m sure she has told these stories many times. It was clear to me that no matter how many times she tells the story of the people murdered in each house, it causes her great pain. My anger continued to grow. I could feel the rage growing in my body. We moved on to another home and another story.
By this time I was boiling over with rage. I began thinking about those who deny this happened. I was thinking about those who say and believe that these people deserved it. I was furious with those who say it is all Israel’s fault and Hamas was right to massacre the Jews. I began hearing bombs dropping in Jabalya and something strange happened that I didn’t really like and continue to struggle with. Instead of feeling fear, I felt relief. Each time I heard a bomb explode just a mile away from me, it made me feel better. I’m not proud to say this and I don’t want any innocent people to be harmed. Yet what Hamas and those Gazans who followed them and looted and raped did was so horrific, bombs became the salve for my soul. Part of me feels terrible for this. Part of me is glad that something soothed my soul. It’s incredibly conflicting and I don’t think I will come to any resolution for a long time. We began walking to the next home.
The next area of homes were the youth village. At Kfar Aza, when you turn 18, you move out of your parents home and into your own apartment in this part of the Kibbutz. She told us that this was filled with life. Music and dancing. Karaoke. Barbeques. Fun. It was the heart of the Kibbutz. This was the part that was hit the hardest by Hamas. As we walked down the street, we saw pictures of those murdered and kidnapped.
There were so many, I only took a few pictures. We reached an intersection and turned towards the gate that Hamas breached to enter the Kibbutz. You can see from the picture, Jabalya is just behind the Kibbutz. 1 mile away. Maybe a little less.
I went to the gate and recorded this video. As the bombs continued to fall, it made me feel good. I hate writing that and I hate admitting it. It is not the person I am nor the person I want to be. Hamas is that type of evil. As we experienced the impact of October 7 in this part of the Kibbutz, the need to eliminate Hamas was not only clear but became an imperative.
As we headed down that part of the Kibbutz, the IDF soldier asked us not to take any pictures of the houses on that street. Everybody who lived on that street was either murdered or kidnapped. Let me repeat that again. EVERYBODY WHO LIVED ON THAT STREET WAS EITHER MURDERED OR KIDNAPPED.
The bombs went off again and I hate to admit that my thought was, “They are not coming fast enough. We need more bombs in Jabalya. We need bombs in Rafah. We need them home.” I’m not proud of these thought but I want to be honest about the feelings that were occurring as I was seeing and hearing the horror of Hamas terrorists.
We headed to the final home we would learn about and visit. They had previously explained to us that the circle with the dot inside on the walls meant there was a dead Israeli inside. They explained all the other symbols as well but that was the one I looked for first. On this house, however, along with the circle with the dot inside, there was written in Hebrew that there were human remains on the couch. Watch and listen to her tell the story.
The couch no longer exists although some of the remains are outside the house. There are pictures of the couch inside. Here are pictures of not just the couch but also inside the house. Grenades were thrown in the house so what you are looking at are because of grenades, not bullets.
Picture of the couch with human remains on it. You are looking at the blood.The ceiling. These are from grenade explosionsMore damage to the ceiling from grenades. Imagine being in the room.More pictures of the horror inside this house
I was glad this was the last house. I was completely overwhelmed with anger, resentment, sadness, grief, and similar emotions. The horror documented in this house was beyond comprehension. I couldn’t speak for a bit as we walked down to the end of the road and met with one of the new leaders of the Kibbutz security team. The team is new because 7 of the 12 members were killed by Hamas and 3 were injured. Listen to his words and maybe you can understand what they faced and what it is like today not just in Kfar Aza but all of Israel.
We headed to the bus, all of us shaken by the experience. It was quiet and solemn. It was intense. We were all a little anxious as our next stop was the Nova music festival site. After what we just saw and experiened, would we be able to handle the Nova site? I really didn’t know.
We arrived at the Nova site about 20 minutes after leaving Kfar Aza. I needed the time on the bus to just have quiet and some peace. As we pulled in, it looked so peaceful and beautiful. I could imagine the festival happening and the joy of everybody in attendance. When we got off the bus, Saul Blinkoff, our amazing trip leader, showed us a picture of where we were standing from October 7, 2023. I took a picture on May 16, 2024. You can compare the two and see how much was left in haste compared to the emptiness now.
October 7, 2023 Nova Music FestivalMay 16, 2024 Nova Festival
I wandered around the site, letting everything seep into me. There was a sadness and a beauty to the site. It was also overwhelming at the sheer number of people that were memorialized at the Nova site.
The pictures of everbody who was murdered or taken hostage at the Nova music festival. Look closely as there are a lot pictures of people.
I wandered amongst the pictures and notes about each one of the victims. Looked each person’s picture in the face and said their name in my head. Remembering them as living people. Paying tribute to how they died. Praying for their safe return if they were taken hostage. It was amazing how many young lives were ended. It reminded me of Kfar Aza and how the young people were wiped out.
Walking through the Nova site
After wandering around looking at the images of those murdered or kidnapped and taken hostage, I found myself wanting to sit down in front of some of them and really look at the person. Spend some time with them, as if I was sitting at their grave. Treat it like I was going to the shiva house (house of mourning for the 7 days after burial). So I did. It was beautifully peaceful. It felt right. Investing time in remembering these beautiful, innocent people who were murdered by Hamas because of hate. As I sat for 5-10 minutes in front of various memorials, I found some peace. Kfar Aza was hard. Nova seemed different. Perhaps it was the lack of obvious violence at the site. Maybe it was the beautiful tribute to the souls lost or kidnapped on October 7. At both Hostage Square and Nova, I felt the same peace in my soul. Awful atrocities happened at Nova and Hostage Square is a remembrance of the kidnapping and murder of innocent people. Yet both seemed to have a soul calming effect for me.
In front of the Nova tribute. It’s beautiful and peaceful and sad.
While at Nova, we had the privilege of hearing directly from Rami Davidian, a true hero of October 7 and the Nova music festival. You will want to read about him here as I can’t do justice to his story, but I will tell you a bit of it and the impact and takeaways for me.
Rami is a farmer who lives in the Gaza envelope. At 6:45 am on October 7, he received a phone call from a friend, asking him to rescue his daughter, who was near a farm in the area. She had been at the Nova festival and managed to escape and was hiding from the terrorists. Rami not only saved her, he found others on the way to save her and got others to come pick them up. Since he was out saving people, his number was shared to those who had children at Nova and his WhatsApp was filled with requests to save people. He showed us the number of messages he received. It was unbelievable as scrolled and scrolled and scrolled.
The story he told us that made us all gasp was when he went to rescue a girl named Amit. He was able to figure out where she was and as he came up to rescue her, he saw that she was surrounded by 6 Hamas terrorists. Thinking quickly, he spoke to them in Arabic (he is fluent) and introduced himself as Abu Rami, a muslim. He told them that the IDF was closing in on them and they needed to run now to stay alive. As they began to move, he told them he would take the girl to his car and come around to pick them up. It would save them time and keep them safe. They believed him, gave him Amit, and ran. He took Amit back to the car and drove away.
Unfortunately, Rami also found many people who were murdered. He took them all to one spot where he laid them together. For each person he found dead, he would also say the Shema before he left them, saying the prayer for them in case they weren’t able to. There were people who reached out to him to save their children and Rami knew they were already dead. He didn’t feel it was his place to tell them this news so he would either lie that he couldn’t find them or ask them to pray to God for safety. Even during this crazy and horrific time, he thought with compassion.
Rami is a true hero. A regular man who took action when needed and saved 750 people. To put that into context, Oskar Schindler, famous for saving Jews in the Holocaust and highlighted in the Steven Spielberg movie, Schindler’s List, saved 1200 people. Rami is a role model. A hero. A regular man who did great things. He should inspire us all to do what we can to make the world a better place. There are generations that will exist because of Rami.
Standing with Rami, a true hero, at the Nova site. He rescuted 750 people that day.
We finished our time at Nova in an incredibly beautiful way. We had Anders, a musician, with us all day and at Nova, he gathered us together in a circle to play guitar and sing. Since we were at the site of a musical festival that was attacked by terrorists who committed horrific murders, rapes, and kidnappings, I couldn’t think of anything better as a tribute to those at the festival than to play music and sing. As he played the song and we joined in, our singing attracted others. A number of boys from Miami who were visiting the site joined us as we put our arms around each other, rocked back and forth, and sang loudly. It’s something I will never forget. While the impact of Kfar Aza remains and I have much more processing to do, the time at Nova was incredibly healing. It is a place I want to return to regularly, not just to pay tribute to those who lost their lives, were kidnapped, or who escaped, but also to heal my soul.
Anders leading us in song at the Nova site. It felt right to be singing and brining music to this site.
This was a heavy and hard day. Our trip leader told us that what we were doing was similar to visiting Auschwitz not long after it was liberated. I don’t like comparisons to the Holocaust as nothing does compare to it. 6 million Jews and 11 million people are not the same as the 1,200 people murdered and 250+ kidnapped on October 7. The thought behind it, however, was the same. True genocide. Not the made up word used by those who hate Israel and the Jews. Full intent to kill every Jew and Israeli they found. The goal was to eliminate the Jews. I think back to the joy in the voice of the Hamas terrorist telling his parents that he killed 10 Jews with his own hands. His celebration. He dad congratulating him. His mother being excited and elated that he killed 10 Jews.
It bothers and frustrates me that people think Hamas is the victiim. That those who support Hamas and their evil are the ones deserving of praise. When it’s a Jewish person, I shake my head, as they clearly don’t understand that these people want them dead. The media does a terrible job reporting on Israel, with tremendous bias and often times outright lies. After having been to both Kfar Aza and Nova, it is even clearer what a terrible job they have done. The horrors at Kfar Aza will remain with me. The feeling of standing on the grounds of the Nova festival will remain with me for life. Looking at the skyline of Jabalya, less than a mile away, will stay with me. Note that I said skyline – there are buildings, and plenty of them, in Jabalya.
This has been a pilgrimage for me in many ways. I needed to be in Israel for my own connection. I needed to be immersed in the culture and with the people. I needed to be here for Yom HaZikaron and share the sadness with my Israeli brothers and sisters. I needed to visit Kfar Aza to see and experience the horrors that happened there. I needed to put my feet on the ground at the Nova site, to walk around and pay my respects to those who were murdered and those who were kidnapped. I needed to sing while at Nova to honor the festival and heal my soul.
As somebody who has been to Israel 21 times now, I know not the believe the media reports. Too many others don’t. It isn’t the same Israel that I visited the first 20 times. There are questions about the hostages. Questions about Hezbollah and the north. Uncertainty about American policy. PTSD from October 7 and everything that has happened since. The hostages need to be returned. Hamas and the war in Gaza needs to be finished. Hezbollah and the north need to be stabilized. There are many existential issues facing Israel and Israelis. I’m glad to be here now and make my contribution, however small it may be.
At the end of the day, we can all do something. If you can come to Israel, please do. If you can’t, do what you can. Speak up. Speak loudly. Don’t hide. Learn the facts to address the lies. What we each choose to do now will not just shape the Jewish future, it will determine the Jewish future.
Every day I wake up and the war between Hamas and Israel is continuing. The hostages remain in the tunnels in captivity. Some are dead, some being sexually abused, some being physically abused. None getting needed medication. Iran continues to provide resources to Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthi’s in Yemen.
I never thought I would say this, but I wish the world was silent about all of this. “Why?” you may ask. Because rather than condemn the terrorists of Hamas who still have American hostages among those they kidnapped, instead of condemning Iran, instead of demanding that the Houthi’s and Hezbollah stop firing rockets at Israel, the world condemns Israel for fighting for survival.
I wish I could say it was just the non-Jewish world. Our history as a people, for thousands of years, has us as our own worst enemies. Facing persecution, facing death, facing evil, we have a history of defending those who persecute and kill us, those who are evil, all while condemning ourselves. I don’t know why we do this. I wish I knew. I wish I could figure out a way to stop it. Just like in Germany, we defend those who hate us all the way into the gas chambers.
I am amazed at those who call this war genocide. The definition of genocide is, “the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.” It is clear that is not what Israel is doing. How do we know this? First because according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the Palestinian population has increased about 10 times since the War of Independence in 1948. Even more recently, according to the PCBS, displacement of more than 200,000 Palestinians, with the majority of them to the Palestinian country of Jordan, after the 1967 war, the Palestinian world population was 14 million by the end of 2022. This means that the number of Palestinians in the world has doubled since 1967. That goes against the definition of genocide. Secondly, during this current war, if Israel wanted to destroy the Palestinian people in Gaza, they could have just bombed the entire country and killed all the people there in a matter of days. Instead, they have chosen to be more surgical in their efforts, doing their best to avoid civilian casualties whenever possible. Once again, you do not attempt destroy a nation or group of people by doing all you can to save civilians.
The other thing that amazes me is when people talk about this being the worst loss of civilian life in conflict. The facts simply don’t back that up. According to the UN and the Red Cross, there are usually 9 civilians killed in armed conflict for every military person killed. That means 90% of all deaths in armed conflict are civilians. Iraq Body Count figures from 2003 to 2013 indicate that 77% of casualties were civilians. So how does the war between Hamas and Israel compare? If we use the statistics provided by Hamas, which nobody really believes is accurate, the ratio is somewhere between 1:1 and 1.2:1. That means Israel is 8-9 times BETTER than the world average and 7 times better than the US in Iraq. And that’s using the numbers provided by Hamas!
Estimates put the ration at somewhere between 1.0 and 1.2 civilians per Hamas Terrorist killed in the war, far better than the normal, accepted ration of 9-1
Just this week, Israel tragically and accidentally bombed trucks from the World Central Kitchen, killing 7 of the aid workers. It is a horrible tragedy. There is no excuse for it. And Israel hasn’t made any excuses. Israel admitted it was a mistake and they were in the wrong. They did an investigation, identified what happened, held those accountable whose actions resulted in the bombing and these deaths, and vowed to learn from this mistake. Listen to an interview by friend Fleur Hassan- Nahoum, the Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem. She, and Israel, isn’t hiding from what happened or how awful it is.
Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem and my friend, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, is brutally honest about the awful mistake in attacking the convoy of aid workers. This is what sets Israel apart – a willingness to admit mistakes, hold people accountable, and learn from their mistakes.
In October of 2015, the US initiated an airstrike against a Doctors Without Borders trauma center and killed at least 42 people including 14 hospital staff members and at least 24 patients. The investigation found that human errors, fatigue, process, and equipment failures were at fault in the deadly airstrike. US Central command said that, “These factors contributed to the ‘fog of war,’ which is the uncertainty often encountered during combat operations.”
In August of 2021, the US made a mistake and fired a hellfire missile in Kabul, accidentally killing 10 civilians, 7 of which were children. When I was attending the Israel-American Council Summit in Austin, Texas last year, my Uber driver had recently gotten out of the military. He was in Afghanistan during this time and during the botched withdrawal of the troops there. The stories he told me were horrible. The mistakes and errors made turned my stomach. I felt terrible about how we, America, treated the people who served in Afghanistan and those who were our allies in Afghanistan. It was understood that we messed up and made mistakes and that this happens in war.
Every other country in the world gets the grace of making mistakes in war. Not Israel, the Jewish nation. Once again, Israel is held to a different standard. I have said repeatedly that war is terrible. We should do everything we can to avoid war. When you can’t avoid war and you must take on evil, you must defeat it. Otherwise, evil continues to grow. Yet in today’s world, it appears there is a desire to have more evil than Jews.
I listen to people like Bernie Sanders and even friends who are Jewish who unfairly criticize Israel. Where was the outrage about the nearly 620,000 people killed in the Syrian civil war? What about the more than 375,000 people killed in the Yemen civil war between 2015 and early 2022? The 30,000 children killed by Assad in Syria. Israel is the target because it is the Jewish state and that is antisemitism and hate.
Bernie Sanders doesn’t get it – he doesn’t understand evil, he doesn’t pay attention to the data, and despite being Jewish, he hates Jews.
We need people like Representative Ritchie Torres, who is outspoken in his support of Israel, the need to remove Hamas, and holding Hamas responsible for this war. He speaks out against conditions of aid to Israel.
Ritchie Torres on Israel (at the 1:20 mark). He is a vocal supporter of Israel and the right to defend herself and the need to eliminate Hamas.
Senator Hakeem Jeffries has spoken out loudly and clearly in support of Israel. Senator John Fetterman has been one of the most vocal supporters of Israel. He speaks out publicly about the need to remove Hamas, the fact that Hamas hides behind human shields, and the need to support Israel unconditionally.
Senator Fetterman speaks about Israel and Hamas at the 2:45 mark until the 5:20 mark. He is a very vocal supporter of Israel, the right to defend herself, and the need to eliminate Hamas.
My own Senator, Rick Scott, has been vocal about his support for Israel. He tweets daily about the hostages, never letting them fall out of our thoughts.
Senator Scott speaking powerfully in support of Israel. We need more leaders to do so.Senator Scott is active on Twitter reminding everybody about the hostages
So now that I’ve written all this, so what? Other than venting my frustrations, anger, and disappointment, what is the point? The point is that each of us have the ability to make a difference. Each of us can learn the truth. Each of us can speak out loudly. Each of us can challenge those we know when they are spewing venom at Israel that is simply wrong and unfair. Each of us can confront those who we hear are speaking untruths, talking points without substance, and spewing hate. If you want to see how it’s done and how it is done well, watch this clip of Douglas Murray during an interview with Al Jazeera. He doesn’t let the person interviewing him get away with the lies and antisemitic comments she makes.
Douglas Murray is amazing as he takes her apart when she lies.
We can support Israel and the hostages. Wear the dogtags that say “Bring them home now” or “We will dance again” or both. Get a yellow ribbon pin and wear it. Put a piece of masking tape on your shirt every day with the number of days the hostages have been in captivity. Buy things from Israel to support their economy. Be loud and proud. The people who hate us aren’t going away. They are going to be out there spewing Jew hatred in the context of Israel at synagogues, JCCs, in the streets, at people’s homes, wherever they can be. If we hide, they win.
Rachel Goldberg, mother of hostage Hersch Goldberg Polin, started the masking tape. This was day 98. We are not past day 180.
When you are able, visit Israel. I have wanted to go since October 7th but have not because my family was worried about my safety. I love my family and was willing to wait so they felt better. I’m not willing to wait any longer. I’m going in May. You can join me if you want – it will be an amazing trip and very meaningful. I’m not sure how I will feel when I go to the site of the Nova music festival or one of the kibbutzim. I’m not sure what visiting Sderot will feel like this time – the police station, always a stop to see the rockets that were fired at them is no longer there. Being there for Yom HaZikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut will be different this time. It will be the third time I’ve been in Israel for Israel’s memorial day and Independence Day. I already know this one will be different. I am arriving the night before the trip begins and staying two days after. I wish I could go earlier and stay even longer. I’m going on the Momentum men’s trip. Join me. If you are a woman and want to go, there is also a women’s trip and I can connect you to it so you can go.
Unlike the past, we are not powerless. We are not lambs being taken to slaughter. We have the IDF. We have Israel. We have voices and don’t have to allow the lies to be all that people hear. When people cry for a ‘Ceasefire Now’ remind them that Israel has already agreed to the ceasefire, it’s Hamas who hasn’t agreed. Don’t push Israel for a ceasefire, push Hamas. Push Qatar who houses the leaders of Hamas. And remind them that this war can end immediately if Hamas would release the hostages and surrender.
Write and call your member of Congress and your Senators. Your voice matters. Every member of Congress that I have spoken with, every Senator I have met, have said how much those calls, emails, and letters mean. You have a voice, use it. If you think it doesn’t matter or people don’t notice you are wrong. I get asked about the number on the tape or my dogtags all the time. Be inspired by Cincinnati Reds Assistant Pitching Coach Alon Leichman and his baseball glove for this season. He is making a powerful statement, “Bring them home NOW”. You can join in making that powerful statement of support and stand up to the Jew haters who want us all gone.
A powerful statement on his baseball glove
Don’t be silent. Don’t hide. Don’t allow them to win. We’ve been down that road before and it doesn’t end well for us.
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