I’m on my way to Miami today so that I can fly to Israel on Tuesday at noon. It’s one of my least favorite times to fly because you fly all day long and then it’s 7 am in the morning and you start a whole new day. The good news is that by doing it this way, we will get a full extra day in Israel.
This trip is with the Jewish Leadership Institute (JLI), a program I am proud to have worked with for over 25 years. Targeting 19-26 year olds for a 2 week leadership experience in Israel, JLI has had an incredible impact on the lives of those who participate. Heavily subsidized, the program is available to everybody interested in developing their leadership in a Jewish context.
It is amazing that post October 7th, in the middle of a war, with things heating up in the north of Israel with Hezbollah, we have a group of young adults who want to go to Israel for two weeks, volunteer, visit Kibbutz Kfar Aza and the Nova Festival site, learn, and connect Jewishly. It is the essence of Jewish community. It is hope for our future.
This will be my 22nd trip to Israel. I began going after graduating college in 1989 and didn’t return for a decade. Since then, I go as often as I can. Israel is home. There is a special feeling being there that you can’t explain to somebody who hasn’t been and that once somebody has been, you don’t have to explain. I have been there during the first intifada, the second intifada, just as the country was about to reopen from Covid, and during this war. I have been there during times of quiet and during bombings. I have always felt safe in Israel. Just last month, I walked from Ben Yehuda Street to East Jerusalem through Arab neighborhoods and felt safe. The news tells one story and when you are there, you realize the media lies.
I am proud of the men who I went to Israel with last month. You can watch a 23 minute video of our trip and feel the emotions we felt, experience the power of the trip and of Israel below.
I am proud of the young adults I am going with now. Years from now, my grandchildren and great grandchildren will ask what I did during this time. My children will tell them that I went to Washington DC for the March for Israel rally after October 7th, joining nearly 300,000 other people on the National Mall in support of Israel. I went to Israel multiple times. I helped get the IDF supplies that they need and got them the mezuzahs they needed due to all the reserves called up and the battlefield housing. (If you want to participate in the Mezuzah project, click here.) I took young adults to Israel and worked with organizations that helped displaced Israelis because of the attack on October 7th and the war in the north. I showed up and hope that my children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren will use that as inspiration to do the same.
In the movie, Independence Day, just like Israel currently faces incredible challenges in Gaza, from Hezbollah in the north, from Iran, from the Houthis, and from the international community, the world faced a threat from aliens that was seen as overwhelming. Just like Israel, in the movie, the people didn’t give up and rose to the challenge. The President gave a powerful speech before the attack. It reminds me exactly of what Israel is facing and how we need to rise up and do what we can to support Israel and the Jewish people.
I used to say that I didn’t understand why the German Jews stayed in Germany as long as they did. So many stayed until it was too late. When I am in Israel and when I talk to my friends in Israel, they all ask me the same question. Why are you staying in the US? I hope you don’t stay until it is too late to get out. You need to move to Israel. This is not the Aliyah recruitment that I have experienced since my first trip to Israel in 1989. This is not an effort to get more Jews to Israel. This is true concern for our safety. I find myself wondering if they are right. Like most, I think this is a small minority with a loud voice creating chaos that the media love to cover because people watch, read, and click on it. It’s good business for the media. But what if I am wrong? When will we know that it is time? Will it be when it is too late? I already have the person that will hide my family and me if it comes to that. Does that mean I expect I won’t know it is time to leave until it is too late?
As Jews, spending most of our 3500-year history in exile and under the rule of others, we are used to trying to fit in. We do our best to integrate into the culture of the country we live in and follow their rules. We fool ourselves into thinking that we are just like them. We have seen the consequences over and over and over again. Are we doing it again? The big difference this time is that we have the State of Israel. We have the IDF. We don’t have to fit in. We don’t have to hide and hope they don’t harm us. We fight back. We defend ourselves. We won’t be victims again. For nearly 3400 years, we played defense. We protected ourselves and tried to be invisible. We tried to not be a target and always failed. For the past 76 years that dynamic has changed. Since the creation of the modern State of Israel, we now play offense. When attacked, whether it was 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, or on October 7th, we fight back. It’s a dynamic the world doesn’t like. Israelis don’t care. Zionists don’t care. Those who care are stuck in the past and would recreate the horrors of our past in order to be liked and to fit in. They refuse to learn the lessons of the past.
As I head back to Israel for the second time in just over 7 weeks, this message resonates strongly with me. I have seen the carnage at Kibbutz Kfar Aza. I have heard from survivors of the Nova Music Festival. I have seen the Hamas 47-minute video. I have been to the Nova site and felt the loss of the souls there. I have met with a hero of Nova who rescued 750 people that day (a truly remarkable number for a farmer in the area to do.) I heard from the woman who had to identify the women’s bodies that were murdered on October 7th, then prepare them for burial. I have spoken to friends who are serving in the IDF, called up from reserves and leaving their families behind. I have heard from those who have lost their children fighting for Israel and the Jewish people and from fathers who have children that are still hostages in Gaza. We are victims no more. We refuse to allow harm to come to the Jewish people without defending ourselves.
I don’t know what the future will bring. War with Hezbollah and potentially Iran will be devastating but may be necessary. Israel is already a different country since October 7th. What will it be like after a war in the north? How many people will die? How much damage will be done? Will the United States and NATO step in should Iran get involved? Will this be the start of World War III (WWIII)? There is much that is unknown. What I do know is that Jewish blood will not be cheap. Jewish safety matters. No matter what the ICC, the UN, or other countries say, Israel will defend herself and the Jewish people.
I also know that I have done, am doing, and will continue to do my part. Will you?
keithdblog 