Tag: palestine

Mourning, Air Force Base, and celebration

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

The last day of our trip was a powerful one on many levels. The amazing thing is that we only went three places and one of them was the restaurant for lunch!

We left about 30 minutes late which frustrated our staff. It ended up being perfect. Our first stop was at Shura Army base, a forensic center near Ramle where most of the victims from October 7th were brought to be identified. As we got there, they were loading the body of one of the IDF soldiers who was killed on Saturday in Gaza into the van to take him home to be buried. We go to watch them put him into the van, one of our group who was saying Kaddish for his mother said Kaddish, and we then escorted him out of the parking lot on his final journey. It was incredibly powerful and moving. To be able to do that type of honor for a soldier killed defending Israel and the Jewish people was overwhelming. These kids, and they are kids, put their lives at risk every day to protect Israel and the Jewish people. In America when I see a soldier, I always thank them for their service. In Israel, I want to begin doing that as well. It’s the very least I can do.

We met Noa, the woman who works to prepare the bodies for burial and for identification. Noa told us that she has 8 children and on October 7th, 7 of them, plus her husband and herself were drafted into the army. Think about what that must be like. It was yet another reminder that the Israeli people do not want this war. They do not want this war to go on indefinitely. They want the hostages returned. They want Hamas out of power and not able to kill Israelis any longer. They want peace and quiet on the border. They want to go back to living thir lives. They don’t want to worry about their children or their spouses in firefights. They want normalcy and that only comes with the return of the hostages and Hamas removed. They will deal with the emotions and fear to accomplish those goals. But it’s not what they want to do, despite what the media may tell you.

Noa speaking to us

We entered the base and came to the meeting room where we learned what they do here. After October 7th, this is where most of the bodies came for identification. They have a lab on the second floor to do DNA testing. They have DNA, dental records as well as fingerprint records for every IDF soldier . It made some of the identification easier but many of the bodies were burned or were just ashes. As we entered the actual area where they did this work, we were silent as the gravity of the work settled in each of us.

The meeting room in the base before you enter. Notice the pictures on the wall are all faces of those murdered on October 7.

In the room where they do the ritual preparation of the bodies, we heard what it was like after October 7th. I’m not sure that i can even try to describe what she was telling us. The condition of the bodies that came in. Some of the challenges identifying them. Some that were just ashes or parts of bodies. And the blood. That is the one thing that I will never forget. Her description of how much blood there was and they had to deal with. She told us about a Hassidic man who came in with bodies. He had been pulling dead bodies out of bomb shelters that Hamas attacked at Nova. He had blood halfway up his calf because to pull them out he had to step in pools of blood. The more stories she told us, the more horrified we were. Then she said something that has me thinking. She said that she can’t focus on how awful it was and what happened. Instead, she chooses to focus on the good in her life and what she can do to make the world better. She wants to cook a better dinner for her family. Be a better mother for her children. Be a better wife for her husband. Be a better friend, neighbor, and boss. It’s an incredible way to look at the world and an incredible attitude. It made me thing about what I am willing to do to deal with the anger and rage from Kfar Aza, Nova, and being at this base. Am I going to let the anger and rage consume me or am I going to turn it into something to make the world a better place. If Noa can do it after what she has seen, I know that I can as well.

We left the room and moved to the room where families have their chance to say their last goodbyes to their loved ones. It was hard sitting in that room, looking at the table where the body would be, knowing what families must be feeling and experiencing when their loved one is on that table. We were all quiet as we sat in the room and Noa talked to us. I think we were all grateful to have been in the room but even more grateful to leave it.

Listening to Noa talk about what she and her team have gone through since October 7th makes me think about all the people we normally don’t think about. They aren’t family members of those murdered or kidnapped. They haven’t lost family members who are serving in the IDF. Yet they are traumatized by what happened on October 7th and what has happened since October 7th. What is it like to have 7 of your 8 children drafted into the army to fight a war? What is it like to have both you and your spouse drafted into the army during a war, potentially leaving your chidren as orphans? What is it like to deal with that many dead bodies? With that many mutilated people? With remains that are just ashes? The entire country is dealing with PTSD and I’m not sure what it will mean long term.

Our last stop on the base was to visit the place where all the IDF Torahs that need repair or can’t be repaired are kept. It was incredible seeing how many Torahs they have there. As the Rabbi who is in charge told us, it’s the largest Aaron Kodesh (ark) in the world. He also told me that the IDF needs thousands of mezuzahs for their soldiers. They need them for the rooms where soldiers sleep in bases, outposts and bunkers both within Israel, along the borders (south and north) and in Judea and Samaria. They also need a few dozen at this point for buildings inside Gaza seized and used for headquartersWhen you watch this video I took, you will be amazed at what you see.

The IDF torahs in need of repair or that can’t be repaired
The sofer (scribe) repairing a Torah

As we left the base, we were all shaken by the experience. Like at Kfar Aza and Nova, we felt the death. We felt the overwhelming loss related to the murder of 1200 people on October 7th. As I think about how Israel has changed since October 7th, these feelings are a part of it. If I am feeling it after only 8 days, how powerful must it be for Israelis who have been feeling it for over 7 months?

We headed to our last stop of the trip, the Palmachim air force base. This is where they fly drones from. The base is highly secure, no pictures were allowed, and things were off the record. What I can tell you is that I was blown away by what we learned. I can tell you that the process Israel uses to actually have a drone drop a bomb is multi-leveled and requires multiple approvals. And I can tell you that the drone operator ALWAYS has the authority to abort the mission no matter what the supervisor says if they determine that there are civilians, women or children in the area and that it would not be appropriate to execute the mission. I can also tell you that this happens more often than you would expect. The drone operators are kids. Their support staff are 18-19 year olds. It’s always amazing to look at who comprises the Israeli military. It’s largely the 18-22 year old population. This is very different from the US military and not what most people think of when they think of an army. These are kids who are willing to do whatever is needed to defend their country and the Jewish people but really want to finish their service, travel, and then go to college and live their lives.

After the briefing, we had our final barbecue with the soliders on the base. These 18-25 year old men and women were so happy to have us there. We sat with them, talked, and got to know them. The DJ played great music, the food was good, and we had fun. After we ate, the DJ really got things moving and we got up and started dancing. The soldiers joined us as we danced and laughed and had a great time. As it got to be time for us to leave to take people to the airport, they had difficulty getting us to stop. We finally did, celebrating with the soldiers. Some of the guys on our trip were from Emek, a Jewish Day School in Los Angeles. They had some of their students write letters to the soldiers. The day after our visit, we got this note from the wife of one of the soldiers on the base. If you ever wonder if the letters you write, the visits you take to Israel, the support you provide really matter, I think this note proves how much they really do.

It was sad as some of the guys headed for Tel Aviv and then we dropped a bunch at Ben Gurion airport. The rest of us returned to Jerusalem and a few of us made plans for the next day. The trip was over but the experience will last a lifetime. There is so much for me to unpack from this trip. So much to understand about what it means to me to be a man, a husband, a father, and a Jew. What does it really mean to be a Zionist? what am I willing to die for that shows what I actually live for? Much much more. As I unpack it, I will share them.

I still have 2 days in Israel, two precious days in Israel. Two days to wake up in Jerusalem, smell the air, walk the streets. What a blessing that is. A day in Tel Aviv with meetings. Time to see friends. Israel is truly in my heart and in my soul. As my 21st trip approaches the end, I am already looking at possible trips 22, 23, 24, and 25 in the next year. I appreciate how lucky I am to get to go to Israel. How lucky I am to have the contacts and connections in Israel that I have. The Israeli friends that I have. An understand of the land, the history, the challenges, the struggles, and just how much it means to me as a Jew. If you haven’t been to Israel, I urge you to come, especially now. If you have been to Israel, I urge you to come back. I promise you will experience a different country and a have a different experience.

Yom HaZikaron in Israel – this year is different

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

There is something special about being in Israel.  For those of you who have been here, you know.  For those of you who have not been here yet, I can’t explain it.  It’s the air, the sounds, the smells, the energy that exists.  Even in the middle of a war, I feel peaceful.

I got my frozen Aroma (the best coffee drink ever) and went to get a taxi to my hotel.  My driver was former military (like most people in Israel).  As we discussed the war, he shared that when he was on active duty and reserves, his unit was like the one in the TV show Fauda.  If you haven’t seen the show, it is a must, especially with what is going on now with the Hamas-Israel war.  It might provide some insight into the challenges that exist to finding peace.  He showed me a picture of him undercover.  It was incredible to see.  As we pulled up to the hotel and got out of the car, the 8 pm siren went off.  I have been here for Yom HaZikaron two other times and know what the siren is like, however this year was different for me.  As I stood outside my taxi with everybody else around, standing proud, silent, and thinking about all those who have lost their lives in defense of the Jewish people and Israel, I got emotional, and tears came to my eyes.  The minute was over far too quickly, and it made me long for the two-minute siren today and to be in a large group like I will today.  There is something about being a Jew and being the majority especially during significant times like this that is indescribable until you experience it.  It is something that you can’t comprehend and can’t even imagine until you experience.

I went for my walk on the beach, sat there enjoying the sound of the Mediterranean Sea, the fresh Israeli air, and the sand between my toes.  My friend Matthew finally arrived after spending 30+ hours traveling after United cancelled his flight a few days ago and we hung out before crashing for the night.

Monday was the full day of Yom HaZikaron.  It also meant Israeli breakfast.  For those of you that have never been here or had Israeli breakfast, it is simply the best meal of the day.  The options are endless, the fruit and vegetables fresher than anywhere at home other than your own garden, the dairy product incredible, and the best way to start the day.  The hotel had one of the best breakfasts I have had and I sat with friends eating and drinking coffee (lattes and cappuccinos not Nescafe like my first trip in 1989!) 

We left the hotel for the ceremony with the Machal soldiers.  I didn’t know we were going to be with Machal soldiers, and this was very meaningful to me.  When I was running UF Hillel, I learned about Machal and Aliyah Bet from Ralph Lowenstein z’l, who in 1948 was the second youngest North American to volunteer to fight in the war of independence.  Those who volunteered from other countries were part of Machal.  The museum for Machal and Aliyah Bet was included when we constructed Norman H. Lipoff Hall, the home of the Hillel the University of Florida.  Ralph would regale me with stories of his time on the boat traveling to Cypress to immigrate to Israel, his time driving a halftrack in the war, and the conditions they had to fight in.  When we dedicated the museum in 2005, most of the living members of Machal from 1948 came.  They kept thanking me for my part in the museum happening.  I told them that all I did was say yes to a great idea and that they were the true heroes.  It was one of the most humbling moments of my life as these true heroes, who risked everything including being arrested and losing citizenship to fight for Israel and the Jewish people. 

I had been asked to bring some things with me to give to individual soldiers that I met during the trip and was able to hand them out before the ceremony.  I shared this opportunity with some friends on the trip so they could share in the joy of doing something nice for the soldiers.  As I spent time talking to them, most of them from France, I was struck by a few things.

  1. How young they are.  These were babies.  They were younger than my own children. 
  2. They shared how bad it is in France for Jews.  I knew it was bad from reading the news, but they shared much more. 
  3. How happy they were to be in Israel, serving in the IDF, protecting Israel and the Jewish people.  In the middle of a war where they could lose their lives at any moment, they were happy to be able to serve.
Two French IDF soldiers in the Machal unit
A French IDF soldier serving in the Machal unit

They thanked me for coming from the depths of their soul.  I have had this happen in Israel two other times.  The first was during the second intifada when Jews weren’t coming to Israel. The only ones coming were Christians.  When a Jewish group came, they thanked us profusely because they hadn’t seen American Jews coming to Israel in a long time.  It made me sad then and makes me sad now.  The other time was when I came in 2021 just before Israel was reopened due to Covid.  Tour groups hadn’t been allowed to come until ours and the looks we got wearing our badges were incredible.  People came up to talk to us, ask questions, and thank us for coming.  We brought a sense of relief and support once again that had been missing.  It reminds me of our obligation as diaspora Jews to come to Israel, to support of brothers and sisters all the time.  How much they need us even though they appear to be tough and can take care of themselves.  They need to see us, to hug us, to talk with us, and to laugh and cry with us.

During the ceremony, which was very moving, there were a few things that stuck out to me.  First, as Jews we always live with hope.  We always have.  We always will. Hope for the future.  Next year in Jerusalem at every Seder for generations.  My Ethiopian Israeli friends often talk about their hope when living in Ethiopia to one day return to Jerusalem. 

An originial Machalnick from 1948 speaking at the ceremony. May he live to 120.

Secondly, the impact of North American Jews in the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.  Ralph would always share the role we played with the air force in 1948, with getting the planes, weapons, and equipment needed to fight the war.  It was illegal for Americans to help provide Israel with any of this at that time, yet so many brave people did.  My friend Ann Bussell would tell me stories about her father, Shepard Broad, and how he provided the funding to retrofit the ships in the Miami river.  She loved telling me stories about how as a little girl she would play on the deck of the ship, Exodus, in the Miami River.  How American Jews took incredible risks to give Israel a chance to survive.  If they could risk everything on a state fighting with an army that was overwhelmed in numbers and equipment, what are we prepared to risk today for the incredible State of Israel.  It made me think deeply.

As the ceremony ended and we gathered for lunch, our trip leader, Saul Blinkoff, shared some wisdom with us.  I took three things to heart.

One, “if you don’t stand up, you can’t survive.”  It sounds so simple, yet it is very true.  We are not the Jews of the 1930s and 1940s who went to the gas chambers.  We are not the Jews who stood by during the pogroms in eastern Europe.  We are not the Jews who converted during the Spanish Inquisition to avoid prison, deportation, or death.  We stand up today.  We fight back today.  After Hamas violently invaded Israel and murdered 1200 people on October 7th, we didn’t sit back and apologize for existing.  Those days are no longer.  As Jews we are proud of who we are and will fight for our survival.  NO MATTER WHAT.  We have Israel to thank for that.

Two, one of the reminders of the horrors of October 7th was that the Sukkahs were still standing for a long time afterwards.  The attack came on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, the end of the holiday of Sukkot.  There wasn’t time to take the sukkahs down as people were reporting for reserve duty immediately.  Many had been murdered in the Gaza envelope so there was nobody to take those sukkahs down.  The sukkah, a reminder of the temporary nature of life, designed as temporary structures, stayed up for weeks after they should have been taken down.  Temporary had become more permanent.  But they were temporary and came down.  Just like the horrors we are dealing with right now are temporary and will end.  The IDF will succeed.  Israel will be kept safe.  We won’t be in Gaza forever, just longer than anybody would have hoped to ensure Israel and the Jewish people are safe. 

Third, time is the one thing we can’t get more of.  We never know how much we have, and we can’t make more.  Yet on Yom HaZikaron, time stops.  This was my third time being in Israel for Yom HaZikaron and time does stop.  Things are much slower.  It’s a day of thoughtfulness, of mourning, of reflection.  The contrast between Memorial Day in America is profound.  There are no sales.  There are no barbecues.  Stores and restaurants are closed.  The siren goes off for a minute at 8 pm as the holiday begins and then for 2 minutes at 11 am the next morning.  The nation stops and stands at attention. 

When we got back to the hotel after the ceremony, we had some free time, which was greatly needed.  My friends Matthew, Michael and I went to the beach to sit, talk, relax, connect, and then go for a swim in the Mediterranean Sea.  The water felt incredible, the wind making us a little cold, but it was refreshing.  In some ways it was like a dip in the mikvah (ritual bath) that refreshes and renews you.  We headed back to the hotel for some time in the steam room to relax before getting ready for our final speaker and then dinner.

Our final speaker of the night was my friend Yaron.  He was a commander in the IDF in Gaza for the first 4 months.  He responded on October 7th.  He had an incredible military career and I have written about him many times.  He is a true hero and a real badass.  He is also one of the nicest and humblest people you will every meet.  He and I gave each other big hugs and caught up a little before his presentation.  Brothers.  Friends.  Judaism is so much more than a shared religion; it is a shared family.  Yaron is like a brother to me and I worry about him during this war. 

Hanging with my brother Yaron

As he talked about October 7th, ‘a day of hell’ as he described it, the day came to life for me in a way it never had before.  His commander ended up at the Nova festival by accident, fighting terrorists and trying to save lives.  Yaron had to defend his military base which was under attack.  He had to defend another military base that was under attack.  He had to fight his way to get from one place to another as terrorists were controlling the area.  The frustration in his voice as he talked about all the phone calls he was getting from people who needed the IDF to save them was palpable.  For some reason, his cell number was given out to people, and he was getting calls from all over, trying to figure out logistics and how to attempt to save people from the terrorists that were committed to murdering, raping, and kidnapping Israeli civilians.  When Yaron decided that he was going to go back to the main base to better help defend Israel, he was questioned about the risk to his own life in trying to get there.  He responded that he had to do it to save lives.  As he went to go alone, one of his friends who served under his command jumped in the jeep with him.  When Yaron told him to get out and not risk his life, his friend told him that he was in the reserves, so Yaron wasn’t really his boss, and he was going.  Two young female soldiers in their early 20s jumped in the back. Yaron ordered them out and they gave the same answer his friend did.  That’s Israel.  Saving lives was most important, even at the risk of their own lives.  When they got back to the base, they began searching for people to save.  I’ll never forget Yaron telling us that ‘there was nobody to save’. 

One of the things that tied together the sadness of October 7th and the way the Jewish people focus on the future and on hope was a picture and story Yaron told us.  He has 7 children and not too long ago his 6th child had his Bar Mitzvah.  They held his Bar Mitzvah at Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the places that was devastated by Hamas terrorists on October 7th.  Despite the death.  Despite the sadness.  Despite the loss.  The Jewish people will live on.  We will celebrate joy.  We will not just survive, we will thrive. 

Yaron with his son at the Bar Mitzvah at Kibbutz Be’eri

Yaron had to leave after the presentation because he had to back to Gaza.  He said it to me the way I would have said, “I have to go back to the office” or “I have to go to the grocery store.”  That struck me as well.  He was going back into harm’s way as if it was no different than going to the store.  He understands what is at stake is the future of the Jewish people. I’m hoping to see Yaron again today or tomorrow before he has to fly to the US but neither of us in charge of that.  It depends on what is needed in Gaza.  What a strange sentence to type and thought to have. 

The group of us went out to dinner at a great meat restaurant.  They fed us like at a Brazilian steakhouse and we ate and talked.  The sun set over the port of Tel Aviv and we shifted from Yom HaZikaron to Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel’s Independence Day).  Normally this is an incredible transition with sadness erupting into incredible joy.  I’m still processing how different it was last night and will write about that in my next blog post.  It’s too much right now, especially with the entire day of Yom Ha’atzmaut ahead. As Saul was talking to us about the transition, he talked about pain and suffering and the difference between them.  He told us a story about a woman giving birth and her husband was there with her.  As she was in excruciating pain, he began making faces of pain.  She stopped, mid push, and asked why he was making faces when she was in pain. He told her he didn’t like to see her suffering.  She took a deep breath, paused again between pushing, and told him she was in pain, not suffering.  Saul, and the story, reminded us that suffering leads to nothing.  Pain leads to growth.  As we deal with the pain of October 7th, the pain of the war in Gaza, the pain of the loss of life, we can also grow.  Suffering is useless.  It leads to nothing. 

Today was filled lots of pain but no suffering. I’m so glad to be here in Israel, my homeland, with my brothers and sisters. I can feel the healing beginning.

The journey begins – return to Israel post October 7th

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

The journey begins.  My son took me to the Orlando Brightline station so I could take the train to Ft. Lauderdale so I can board me El Al flight to Israel.  My bags are heavy, filled not just with my clothes but also with things to give away to my friends serving in the IDF and their fellow soldiers.  I usually bring some things to give away but this time it feels like a holy mission as they mean more than the usual knickknacks. 

When I go to Israel I tend to write a lot, often daily.  So, I hope you bear with me as I chronicle this trip.  It already feels different.  My family really doesn’t want me to go but they could only delay this trip for so long.  Israel is in my entire being.  It isn’t just my heart and soul but it is core to my identity.  This is my 21st trip but is very different than any before.  I came during the start of the first intifada and again during the second intifada when few Jews were traveling to Israel.  It broke my heart every time somebody thanked me for being Jewish and coming to Israel because all they had seen were Christians on a pilgrimage.  I was here when Jordanians were massing on the border and we could hear gunfire from our hotel room on their side of the border, not knowing they were going to breach the border.  I came during Covid, before the country even was open.  We got special permission and were limited to one of three flights.  We had to have been vaccinated and boosted, get a Covid test before we left, two when we arrived plus a blood test.  We were forced to quarantine for a day until the results came back. 

As you can tell, I’ve been here under a variety of circumstances.  Yet none is like this.  It is not because it is an active war zone.  It is not because there are still three active fronts (Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in the north, and the Houthis).  It is not because this is a solidarity mission, as I have been to Israel for that in the past.  This trip is about healing the rip in my soul that happened on October 7, 2023.  Similar to the Harry Potter story when Voldemort ripped his soul into many parts, mine was torn and damaged as I watched the horrifying events unfold on television.  The frantic texting and WhatsApp messages to my friends and family throughout Israel to check on how they were doing.  I remember one telling me about those dead at one of the kibbutzim near the Gaza border and I thought she was telling me about the Moshav that she and her husband lived on.  For more than an hour, I thought they were under attack and the terrorists were near their house until she corrected me.  My friends who were in the IDF reserves who didn’t respond to me because they were responding to the attack.  Were they alive?  My friends who had children in the IDF.  Were they alive?  Who did I know that might have gone to the Nova music festival?  While the initial reports were bad, they were nowhere close to as horrifying as what really happened there. 

I lived near Three Mile Island when it almost melted down. We evacuated, not knowing when or if we could go home.  On 9/11 I had a campus of Jewish students at University of Florida who were scared and unsure what was happening.  I had to let people go during the financial crash of 2008 for no fault of their own.  I had to lay off 136 employees when Covid shut down The Roth Family JCC in 2020.  I’ve dealt with crises before.  Nothing prepared me for the internal impact of October 7th.  This trip is entirely about that.  It is a healing journey for me. 

When I arrive, Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day will begin.  This is the third time I will be there for it and both were incredibly impactful.  This one will be very different.  The next day is Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day.  I have also celebrated two of these in Israel.  It’s usually a joyous day, filled with celebrations, parties, fireworks, barbecues, and a parade of boats and planes on the beach in Tel Aviv.  It’s one of my favorite days of the year when I can be in Israel for it.  This year will be very different.  We will go to the south, to a Kibbutz that was attacked on October 7th.  Visit the Nova music festival site.  Go back to Sderot, a place I have been many times but looks nothing like it did prior to October 7th.  I will spend a few days with two friends who are IDF reserve officers.  One spent the first four months in a high-ranking role in Gaza, the other spent the same time in a high-ranking role in the north.  My visit to the Kotel (Western Wall of the Temple) will be unlike any before.  We will volunteer on a farm, picking fruit and vegetables.  That is one of the things people have either forgotten or don’t know.  The people who worked in the fields were largely either Thai or Palestinian.  Since October 7, the King of Thailand won’t allow any workers to come to Israel and Israel has not been able to allow the Palestinians to come to work in the fields for security reasons.  Volunteers have been ensuring produce is harvested and food is available.  Imagine taking a day off from your work to go into the fields and pick produce that will help feed the entire country.  Not once.  Not twice.  It is now seven months. 

One thing will be the same.  When I walk out of the airport, that first breath of air will be sweet.  The sound of Hebrew spoken everywhere will warm my heart.  When I get to Tel Aviv tonight, I will go for a walk on the beach, feel the sand in my toes and see and smell the Mediterranean Sea.  I will dip my feet in the water and realize that I am home.  In a few days when we pull into Jerusalem, the city of Gold, I will see the breathtaking view as we drive in and be captivated.  When I go into the old city of Jerusalem, I will be overwhelmed with a closeness to God that I will work to keep with me when I am not there. 

The view of the beach and the Mediterranean Sea from my hotel balcony

I’ll miss going to the north, where it is not safe due to the Hezbollah rockets that land daily.  I’ll miss going to Tzfat, one of my favorite cities for its mysticism and beauty, because it is too close to the north.  I’ll miss being on the top of Masada and at the Dead Sea because that’s not what this trip is about.  I’ll miss the opportunity to go to Hebron and visit the tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs due to security issues.  Those are all things I can do on a future trip.  There will be future trips.  Israel will win this war and survive.  That is what the media doesn’t communicate.  Israel is fighting for her survival.  And as Golda Meir said, our secret weapon is that we have no place else to go. 

Gen X, Israel vs. the US, Free Speech and the Roman Empire

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

For many obvious reasons, I have been thinking a lot about the world we live in today and the attitudes people have today.  It is truly a fascinating time to be alive in so many ways, not all of them good. 

I am part of Gen X.  I think this has a huge impact on the way I view the world.  I know it has a huge impact on how I both raised my children and how I see what is happening on college campuses, in the school systems, and in our country.  My generation grew up with freedoms that future generations didn’t have.  We were latchkey kids.  Most of our parents worked so after school we were free to do what we wanted. 

We didn’t have computers or screens.  There was no internet or cell phones.  We played outside until the streetlights came on.  Often times our parents had no idea where we were after school and that didn’t bother them.  We were independent.  We’d ride our bikes miles to get to other friends’ neighborhoods.  Our friends were our friends because of who they were.  Race, religion, sexuality didn’t matter.  My public school was closed for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur because 1/3 of the students and teachers were Jewish.  We were also closed the first day of deer hunting season because 1/3 of the students and teachers would be out hunting.  We were an eclectic group of people tied together.  I grew up with friends that came from family’s that had lots of money, those who were middle class, and those who didn’t have much money.  It didn’t matter.  Many of us are still in touch today.  We had real friendships that stand the test of time.

I remember when two of my childhood friends finally came out.  I, like the rest of our friends, were happy for them that they felt comfortable coming out.  We also knew they were gay when we were in elementary school, so it wasn’t a big deal and changed nothing as far as we were concerned.  We paid attention to who people were, not identity politics. 

As I look at the world today, I wonder how we lost that specialness from my childhood.  We are more divided than any time since the civil war.  We no longer focus on the quality of the individual but on what sets them apart from us.  We no longer care about who people are but rather how they identify.  When I was running nonprofits, my goal was always to hire the best person for the job.  It didn’t matter to me if it was a man or a woman, what their race or their religion was.  I didn’t care about their sexuality.  I wanted the best person for the job.  Today’s world seems to have more and more focus on the identity of the person as we focus on how we are different instead of how we are similar.

My older son is home for a bit and he took me to the Brightline station (high speed rail between Orlando and South Florida) so I can get my flight to Israel later tonight.  As we were talking, he told me about how many of his ‘friends’ he has had to block on social media because of how they were minimizing what Hamas did on October 7th and the need for Israel to eliminate Hamas to ensure the safety of Israelis and to free to people of Gaza.  It saddened me to hear this.  I don’t know how all my childhood friends feel about the conflict.  What I do know is that the vast majority of them have reached out in support of me.  I’m not asking them to believe what I believe.  I am asking them to be my friend and understand what I am going through as a Zionist and as a Jew since October 7th. 

I have long looked at the difference between Israeli youth and American youth.  From the time I first began to engage with 18-21 year old Israelis, serving their country in the IDF, and comparing them to my own college experience and then, when working on the University of Florida campus, with the UF students.  The similarities and differences were dramatic.  On the many Birthright Israel trips I staffed, we had 8 Israeli soldiers join us.  They were the same age as our students on the trip.  When they showed up in uniform, they were imposing.  Awe inspiring.  A few minutes after arriving, when they changed out of their uniforms, they became peers with our college students.  For the part of the trip they were with us, the similarities between the Israelis and Americans was striking.  When they first arrived and then, when they put their uniforms back on at the end of their time with us, the differences were striking. 

As a result, it didn’t surprise me that after October 7th, so many members of the IDF reserves showed up.  I read that Israel recalled 250,000 reserve soldiers and hoped to get 200,000 to actually show up.  Instead, 300,000 showed up.  People in America were doing all they could to get flights to go back and serve.  My friends who were retired IDF soldiers in the 40s and 50s showed up to serve.  They understood the existential threat that Hamas is as a result of October 7th.  Many of them went from protesting the Netanyahu government and some of their policy positions to a united front for Israel.  It was extraordinary but if you know Israel and Israelis, it was also not unexpected.

Last week, Douglas Murray, one of my favorite people to follow, was given the Alexander Hamilton Award for his ‘unwavering defense of Western values.’  His speech, in text here and the video of it below, was extraordinary. 

He spoke about “What it Means to Choose Life”.  He uses examples of both the Ukrainian people and Israeli people that make me long for the days of my youth.  Unlike our entitled generation that believes everything should be given to them, the people he talks about understand that everything comes with a price.  Unlike the protesting college students who think they have the right to incite violence, take over buildings, violate campus rules and break laws without any consequences, the people Murray talks about understand that everything comes with a cost. 

I want to be clear that I am not saying the college students shouldn’t protest.  Protesting, especially on college campuses, is a right of passage.  We have freedom of speech in the United States and as President Andrew Shephard says in the great movie, The American President,

“America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You’ve gotta want it bad, ’cause it’s gonna put up a fight. It’s gonna say, “You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who’s standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.” You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms.  Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free.”

I disagree with the campus protesters position, and I disagree with how they characterize what is going on in Gaza.  I also firmly stand with their right to peacefully say it.  To gather in the public allowed space, in the manner that is allowed for everybody, and protest and hold signs, and say what they want.  Crossing the line to blocking Jewish students from going to class, harassing them as they walk on campus, threatening them, physically assaulting them, breaking the campus rules and breaking laws is not acceptable and comes with consequences. 

I laughed when the spokesperson for the student protesters who took over Hamilton Hall at Columbia University asked for ‘humanitarian aid’.  Nobody was forcing them to stay in the building.  They could walk out of the building to get food and water any time they wanted.  The entitlement was absurd.  The students at Princeton who have decided to hold a hunger strike to protest the war in Gaza also made me shake my head.  Nobody is forcing them to go on a hunger strike.  They aren’t in prison or jail where their care belongs to the state and monitoring them is therefore the state’s obligation. They are choosing not to eat and as a result, they are responsible for their own health monitoring.  When they got upset that the University wasn’t monitoring their health as they were on the hunger strike, I thought to myself, ‘What entitlement’. 

I missed the protests of the 60s and 70s because I was too young.  I have had the opportunity to talk with many people who were part of those protests.  Every single one that I spoke with could tell me how many times they were arrested for their protest.  Every single one of them was proud of their arrest.  They knew there would be consequences for their protest, and they embraced it.  They didn’t whine and cry when the consequences came.  They had that level of conviction.  Today’s protesters seem to lack that conviction.  They want the best of both worlds.  They want to protest with no consequences and have the rest of the world cave to their demands because they protested once.  There are Universities who have done this, and I believe they will face long lasting consequences for doing this.  Others have held their ground and ensured that freedom of speech is protected, and inappropriate actions are held accountable and face consequences.  Those who have made the second choice are also bearing the fruits of this effort.  Their students feel safe.  Their graduations are not cancelled.  Their donors and alumni are not up in arms.  Their University Presidents are not having to testify in front of Congress about how they are failing to protect Jewish college students. 

Our world today has the ‘news’ in the ‘entertainment’ department.  We have the 24 hour ‘news’ cycle and each station has its own agenda to push.  The days of Walter Cronkite reading the news and you getting to interpret it are long gone.  Whatever channel you watch feeds you their narrative.  Critical thinking is dying.  Deep conversations are dying.

On this trip to Israel, one of my hopes and plans is to go visit my friend Mahmoud in East Jerusalem.  Mahmoud is a Palestinian Arab, and his family owns the big Palestinian bookstore in East Jerusalem.  When we met in November 2019, he pushed some of my buttons and challenged me to think deeper and in different ways.  In the 4 ½ years since we met, I have thought deeply on many things he said to us and very much look forward to sitting down for a few cups of coffee or tea, a bite to eat, and having a robust and deep conversation.  We won’t settle the conflict, but we can do our little part to build friendships, understanding, and perhaps share what we learn from each other with our other friends that might impact change.

I think that’s the most important lesson of all of this.  I remember hearing the stories of how President Ronald Reagan and Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill would argue and fight all day long and then go have a beer together.  Mahmoud and I will come from different points of view and will sit over coffee and talk and share.  Even as I write this, a friend reached out to share information I wasn’t aware of and it changed my mind and I went back and edited something that I wrote as a result of this new information.  We need to find a way to get back to that being the norm.  Yelling at each other, only speaking with people who agree with you, repeating lies because they advance your point of view, and anything else that fits into this area does not solve problems.  It doesn’t get us to solutions.  It doesn’t bring us together.  It divides us.  It separates us.  It leads to physical harm.  It degrades us as human beings and as a civilization.

There was a fascinating September 2023 CBS News report that said most men think about the Roman Empire once a day, and some think about it as often as three times a day.  My wife asked me about it and I said that I think about it at least once a week.  She was stunned.  Why do men think about the Roman Empire so often?  My theory is that the Roman Empire is a symbol of amazing strength and power.  Incredible things came from the Roman Empire.  It seemed to a power that would last forever.  And it fell.  I always wondered how the Roman Empire could fall.  It had a strong military, powerful leaders, good economy, art, and culture.  It seemed to be the type of society that would last forever.  Yet it didn’t.  The past few years have given me an indication of how it could have fallen.  Internal bickering.  Divisiveness.  Lack of humanity.  Lack of understanding.  Growth of hate.  Poor leaders in control.  I hope that we can learn the lessons from the fall of the Roman Empire to avoid the fall of the American experiment.  Freedom, democracy, and our future are too important to just throw away the way we are. 

We have been outsmarted – time to reclaim our story

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

There are a number of people that I love to follow.  I enjoy reading what they write, listening to their podcasts, and learning from them.  I don’t always agree with them, but I do enjoy them making me think.  Some of these include Bari Weiss, Douglass Murray, Daniel Gordis, Donniel Hartman, Kareem Abdul Jabber, Gil Troy, and Yossi Klein-Halevi.  I listed this group because if you are looking to find people worth reading, these are a number of them.

In a recent blog post in the Times of Israel, Yossi Klein-Halevi wrote about the war against the Jewish story.  I didn’t love the piece.  I think he is right on with a few things but misses the most important part of both how and why we are losing the war against the Jewish story. 

We have been outsmarted.  They say Nakba.  We say, ‘The war of independence when 7 Arab armies attacked and because of the briliance of David Ben Gurion and Moshe Dayan and many others, miraculously, we won.’

They say apartheid.  We say, ‘Arabs have equal rights in Israel.  20% of college students are Arab.  they vote.  they are in the Knesset.  they are on the supreme court. they have more rights in Israel than anywhere else in the Arab world.’  

They say genocide. We say, ‘The IDF is the most ethical army in the world.  Have you heard this general from England talk about it?  That general from the United States is a big advocate for the IDF and how Israel handles warefar.  Here, watch this video.”

They win because they are clear and to the point while we have to have them listen to an essay to explain things. In addition, we assume a few things:

1. People are smart and will actually bother to learn.

We have seen time and time again that while people may be book smart, they are not smart, and they certainly are lazy.  They have no attention span and believe what they are fed.  This assumption has been proved false and yet we continue to think that they will learn and act the same way. 

2.  The truth will come out and vindicate us.  It does, but that’s on page 25, while the lies are on the front page.

I learned this on my first trip to Israel in 1989.  That was 35 years ago, and we still do the same thing, expecting a different result.  The lies get the front page of the newspaper, the lead story on the news, and the talking heads pontificating on cable news and the Sunday talk shows.  We need to learn to challenge the lies forcefully right away.  Call them out.  And do so in a brief manner.  Better to say “you lie” than to try to explain why it’s a lie to those who won’t spend the time to learn why it’s a lie.

3.  People don’t hate Jews. 

If there was any doubt about this, it has been resolved since October 7, 2023.  It’s clear that plenty of people do hate Jews and will fight for the rights of every other group except Jews.  We will be vilified because we are Jews.  In Germany, we thought we were Germans first.  In the US we think we are either white or Americans first.  We aren’t.  We are Jews first and always. 

We saw this at the Eurovision competition with Eden Golan, who was charged with performing while Jewish. Protesters massed outside her hotel, trapping her in her room. They demanded she be removed from the competition, simply for being from Israel, for being Jewish. In Germany in the 1930s we thought we were German first and were proven wrong. We can’t afford to be fooled like that again.

The protest outside Eden Golan’s hotel.

4.  The holocaust matters to this generation. 

The Holocaust today is basically like the Civil war to my generation.  It is history and not relevant.  It is a story.  They see a movie.  They maybe meet a survivor who is old and hard to hear.  More likely it is a 2nd generation survivor now or somebody who was a child at the time.

They also can’t comprehend 6 million people.  In the Hamas-Israel war, there are an estimated 22,000 – 33,000 people that have been killed in Gaza.  At least 12,000 are combatants.  So somewhere between 10,000 and 21,000 civilians have been killed in Gaza and the world is in an outrage.  Imagine 100 times those deaths.  That would be between 1 million and 2.1 million.  There were 6 million Jews and a total of more than 11 million civilians murdered by the Nazis.  That’s 300-600 times what is happening in Gaza just for the Jews and 550-1100 times the overall number of civilians murdered. 

Many years ago, I worked for the State of Florida.  I had a big work ethic and wanted to do a great job.  I took on more responsibility because I was able to.  As a result, I got dirty looks from my co-workers.  I was showing them up.  When one of them went on vacation for two weeks, not only did I do my job and the extra responsibilities I had taken on, I did their job and not only did the work for those 2 weeks but because I wanted to do an excellent job, cleared their caseload for an extra 2 weeks.  When my co-worker got back, she was furious with me because I made her look bad because I could do my job, take on extra work, and do her job better than she could just her job.  This is what we are dealing with in today’s world.  People want things to be the way they want them to be and when it isn’t, they throw a fit, scream and yell, and some get violent. This video of a protester at Penn is a perfect example.  When he doesn’t get his way, he storms off, screaming like a small child. 

Today’s generation wants the world to work in a way that it simply doesn’t.  Terrorists who are evil don’t just follow the rules because you tell them to.  University leaders don’t typically just do whatever the students want regardless of anything else because the students protest.  Their desire to live in a different world is laudable.  Our world can get better as a result.  It doesn’t happen overnight.  And people like terrorists don’t change because you want them to.  Different cultures have different values.  They don’t change their values because you tell them they should.  Today’s generation truly believes that just because they say it, it happens. Just because they believe it to correct, the world changes for them. 

We are losing the battle today because we are doing an inferior job of communicating our message.  We are simply being outclassed in the battle for the hearts and minds of this generation.   We make far too many assumptions about them and are letting these assumptions get in the way of doing what is needed to reach their hearts and mines.  Israel is a miraculous story.  When you look at what Tel Aviv looked like in the early 1900s when the Jews were forced to leave Jaffa, it is extraordinary to see it today.  A thriving democracy, equal rights for all citizens, making the desert bloom, the start-up nation, a technologically brilliant country that created technology that literally pulls clean drinking water from the air.  The stories of this country should resonate with today’s generation, but they don’t.  That’s on us.  We no longer can treat them the way we want them to act, we need to reach out to them in the ways that they engage and connect.

When the under 40 demographic is truly exposed to the amazing story of Israel, they fall in love with it.  A country that truly lives Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) where equal access is not just a goal but an active process to ensure is a reality.  Medical care for all.  Excellent education that doesn’t break the bank.  Mandatory national service.  So much of what they want in the US is already in place in Israel but we don’t tell our story and let our enemies frame the story against us. 

It’s time for this to stop.  We need to own our story.  We need to tell our story.  We need to allow them to see the beauty of Israel and fall in love with it.  We need them to see Israel as the hope for them to live with the values they want.  It’s our job.  It’s our responsibility.  Are you up to the challenge?

Leadership is doing what’s right no matter the cost

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

Ever since October 7th, I have wanted to go back to Israel.  I was supposed to go in November 2023, but the trip was cancelled, and my family was uncomfortable with me going to volunteer.  Every day I would struggle with the deep desire to be in my homeland, doing my part to help.  Serving in the IDF is not an option at my age and without any military background.   But I can cook, clean, pick fruits and vegetables, and do whatever is needed.  The needs of my family for me not to go overrode my need and desire to go.  It has not been easy or comfortable, being in the US and my heart and soul in Israel. 

This changes on Saturday night when my flight departs for Israel.  I have the opportunity to go both for my own needs and for work related business.  It is getting me there which is what I need.  To be with my Israeli friends who have been serving in the IDF.  To visit the kibbutzim that were attacked on October 7th, go back to Sderot, also attacked.  To pay tribute at the Nova music festival site.  To spend time in Hostage square in Tel Aviv. 

There is a saying that ‘Leaders lead’.  You take risks.  You do the right thing regardless of the consequences.  For me, going to Israel right now falls into that category.  As a Jew, as a proud Zionist, it is my obligation to be there, to be part of my homeland, to give back, and to support my Israeli brothers and sisters.  Too many leaders in our world are so afraid of the backlash of doing the right thing that they do nothing.  As a result, they are merely a leader in name. 

We saw that today when President Biden said, “if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities — that deal with that problem.”  Going into Rafah is a necessity to both rescue hostages and defeat Hamas. 

This came a day after he said, “My commitment to the safety of the Jewish people, the security of Israel, and its right to exist as an independent Jewish people and Israel is ironclad, even when we disagree.”

Yesterday’s statement caused him potential electoral issues in Michigan and Minnesota and with the Progressive wing of his party.  Rather than do what is right, supporting our ally, fighting against terrorism and evil, he backtracked and tried to play both sides.  Yesterday he was against terrorism, hatred, and antisemitism.  Today he was in favor of terrorism, hatred, and antisemitism.  That’s not what leaders do. 

This isn’t a partisan take.  Representatives John Fetterman and Ritchie Torres are leaders.  They have taken a position with our ally, in support of good over evil, against terrorism and hate.  They haven’t forgotten the hostages and aren’t afraid to speak out, even when they take incredible criticism.  Doing the right thing is more important than poll results. 

Senator Fetterman’s office has posters of the hostages hanging on the walls
Senator Fetterman remains Pro-Israel, wants the hostages back, and is anti-Hamas and terror

We live in a world where our “leaders” are more concerned with being liked and tracking their approval ratings than actually leading.  We see this in our Jewish community, in our local community, in our states and in the federal government.  They aren’t trained properly.  They aren’t mentored properly.  Many don’t want it and think they know what it means and what it entails. Others want it but can’t find it.  The vast majority of our leaders have not had anybody provide them with the guidance and instruction needed.

I often think back to the people who trained and mentored me.  One was very hard on me.  Very critical.  I used to say that he was ‘crusty’ on the outside and ‘gooey’ on the inside.  You had to deal with the crusty exterior to get to the gooey interior.  He wouldn’t take excuses from me.  He wouldn’t accept anything but excellence.  He didn’t sugarcoat anything.  He told it like it is and didn’t try to soften it up to save my feelings.  He made me a better professional and a better person.  He would often challenge me about my own personal desires.  Did I want to be excellent, or did I want to be mediocre?  If I wanted to be mediocre, then he didn’t have to spend time with me.  If I wanted to be excellent then I had to do things differently.  I learned tremendous lessons from him.

The other mentor I think about was much softer and nicer in his presentation.  He explained things and sent the message in a kinder way.  He also wouldn’t take excuses.  He wouldn’t let me off the hook from doing things the right way.  He challenged the way I thought and the reasons behind my thought process.  He laid out his expectations if he was going to invest his time and if I wasn’t willing to do what we required to meet them, he would invest his time elsewhere.  He shared his own personal experiences and what went right and where things went off the tracks.  He wasn’t afraid to be vulnerable about the times he wasn’t successful and what he learned from those times.  He would listen as I would share the things I learned from my mistakes and share in the joy of my successes. 

Throughout my career, I have leaned on these lessons.  Both men made a significant impact on my life.  They taught me about integrity, especially as a leader.  They taught me that at the end of the day, I have to live with myself, my choices, and my actions.  They taught me that it’s better to do the right thing and get negative consequences than to do the wrong thing and get positive recognition.  I’ll always be grateful to them for their time and their investment in me. 

It is something that I strive to do for others.  Just in the last week, I have had former employees reach out to say hi, send me a picture of them together, check in on me, ask for help with career changes, to work on an exciting project together, to pick my brain as they prepare for job interviews, and to just say thank you.  It is incredibly gratifying to know that I am paying it forward from what these two men did for me.  I look at it as an obligation that I have to make the world better by helping train leaders.  I have the privilege of working with a friend to do leadership training for college students through taking them to Israel.  Together we are working on a young leadership training program in Israel for February 2025.  If we want better leaders, we have to take action to develop them. 

Leadership trip for 19-26 year olds. Highly subsidized. An amazing experience. Sign up now!

I also have the privilege of working as a mentor to a younger professional who reminds me a great deal of myself when I began working with my first mentor.  I get a lot of gratitude helping him grow, helping him see things differently, challenging him to be excellent instead of mediocre, just as I was challenged.  It’s incredibly rewarding as I watch him grow.  Each time he ‘gets it’ and understands the ‘why’ behind the ‘what’, I get a lot of joy.  I can only imagine that my mentors felt the same way when I finally ‘got it’. 

We live in challenging times.  We need our leaders more than ever and true leaders are in short supply.  It brings me back to my trip to Israel.  I want to show my children what it means to be a leader.  What it means to do what you think is right despite the risks.  I want them to understand how important it is to do what is right no matter what.  They have seen me live my values throughout the years.  Doing what was needed for my dad during the last few weeks of his life.  Being there for my mom during that time and afterwards.  Staying true to myself and my values, morals, and ethics in spite of situations with others that it would be easy to abandon them for personal gain.  Being there in DC as one of the 300,000 people there for the big rally in support of Israel.

I can’t wait to go to Israel.  It’s only a few days and it feels like an eternity.  I will get to see my friend Grace.  My friends Margot and Tamar and their children.  My friends Yaron and Yoni who are volunteering and speaking to us.  I plan on going to East Jerusalem and having a long coffee and conversation with my Palestinian friend Mahmoud.  I hope to see my friend Noam who lives in Boston but as it happens in the Jewish world, will be in Israel for a few days when I am there.  I’m having dinner with my friend Tamara and her kids.  I’ll get the personal meaning that I need in Jerusalem, at the Nova site, at hostage square, and at the Kibbutzim in the south.  I’ll give back by picking fruits and vegetables and having dinner with IDF soldiers to say thank you.

Paratroopers in the IDF running up Masada to finish their training. What a celebration. Something I will never forget. Incredible personal meaning for them and for those of us who joined their celebration.

I’ll lead by following my values, morals, and ethics.  I’ll lead by taking the time to learn and grow.  I’ll lead by spending time with friends from America on the trip, talking about our lives and the challenges we face along with the experience we are having.  I’ll lead by writing about the experience and sharing it publicly to inspire others.  And I’ll lead by showing my children not only what it means to be a leader but also how important it is to do it with grace.  To stay true to your values, morals, and ethics.  To do what’s right no matter what. 

At the Passover Seder we end with “l’shana haba’ah b’yerushalayim, Next Year in Jerusalem”.  I’ll end this blog by saying “Next Week in Jerusalem”. 

Goebbels died but his teachings are living on

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

Joseph Goebbels

I remember learning about the Nazi propaganda as I grew up.  What a masterful job they did spreading lies and breeding hatred.  Cartoons.  Videos.  Posters.  Slogans.  They kept at it, repeating the hate towards Jews until people believed it was true.  When I walk through Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Museum, they do an incredible job highlighting just how the Nazi’s did it.  With all the documentation available to us, I was sure the world wouldn’t fall for the same trick twice.  As the old saying goes, fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.

I was wrong.  Very wrong.  So wrong that it scares me.  I watched what happened on the campus of Columbia University and also at Harvard, Yale, UCLA, Michigan, and many others.  These ‘students’ who are supposed to be learning and challenging themselves were instead lemmings.  They were so strong in their chants yet so empty in their knowledge.  Most didn’t know what river or what sea.  Most didn’t even know what protesting was like or was about.  They expected catered meals.  Finals cancelled with everybody getting an A.  No consequences for their actions.  They weren’t protesting for things they believed in but rather for things they were told that aren’t true.  It was horrifying.  It was embarrassing. 

It escalated to potential violence many times until eventually there was violence.  The violence against Jewish students got minimal attention.  A woman stabbed in the eye at Yale.  Physically assaulted at Columbia.  Beaten unconscious at UCLA.  When it became clear that the University and the police were going to do nothing to protect them, the Jewish students and community tried to dismantle the tents themselves which resulted in more violence.  That violence did get media attention because it could be blamed on the Jews. 

I watch as ‘celebrities’ like Susan Sarandon, Mark Ruffalo, John Oliver, and John Cusack spew hate and lies.  Because of their celebrity status, they have a platform to spread their antisemitism and misinformation.  Key words like genocide, apartheid, famine, ceasefire are used to demonize Israel, regardless of any facts to back them up.  People believe what they hear, especially when it’s in bite size pieces and as Goebbels said, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

Chants are common now to ‘Globalize the intifada’ while most of those chanting it have no idea what the intifada was or what an intifada is.  Violent uprising.  Suicide bombers.  Innocent civilians murdered.  So, to stop innocent civilians from being killed during a war, we are going to murder innocent civilians.  Civilians killed in war at a ratio 9 times less than the UN and Red Cross accepted numbers is a genocide but calling for the murder of civilians because they are Jewish is acceptable?  This is the world we live in where Jew hatred is so strong that the obvious hypocrisy is allowed.

The use of the world genocide is right out of Goebbels playbook.  Genocide is a hot button word and is a horrific thing.  In Syria over 300,000 civilians were murdered by Assad.  Close to 200,000 people were killed in the Iraq war.  In 2022 more than 100,000 people were killed in the Ethiopian civil war.  Since 1996, more than 6 million people have been killed in the Congo war.  These are not called genocides despite the numbers being far more than the people killed in Gaza.  Yet despite not meeting the definition of genocide and the facts showing this war is anything but genocidal, the word keeps getting used over and over and over again.  There are people who now believe it because they have heard it so often.  What Hamas did on October 7th was genocidal.  They wanted to eliminate every Jew and Israeli just because they were Jewish or Israeli.  They publicly admit to genocidal wishes and yet people excuse it.  This is the power of constant repetition until people believe it’s true even when it is not.

Apartheid is another word inappropriately used to delegitimize the State of Israel and Jews in general.  Israel is not an apartheid state.  Citizens have equal rights regardless of their status as Arab, Christian, Druze, Baha’i, Bedouin, or Jew.  Those who are not citizens, like in any country, don’t have the same benefits as those who are citizens. That isn’t apartheid.  There are Arab members of the Supreme Court, the Knesset, in universities, serving in the military, and in every part of Israeli society.  There is apartheid happening in the middle east – in the Arab countries that won’t allow Jews.  Gaza was an apartheid state where Jews were not allowed.  I remember going through the Rafah crossing in 1989 as I took the bus from Jerusalem to Cairo.  That wouldn’t have been possible in 2023. 

The other word that gets used improperly and often is genocide.  Genocide is defined as, “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.”  So, if you want to say Israel is committing genocide against Hamas, you might be correct.  They are a terrorist organization who had their own genocidal intentions on October 7th and continues to say they will do what they did on October 7th over and over and over again.  To say that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza is simply false.  If they wanted to commit genocide, then on October 8th they would have carpet bombed Gaza and nobody would be left alive.  Instead, Israel has been tactical.  They have done all they can to avoid civilian deaths.  This is shown in the ratio of combatants to civilians killed in this war.  According to the UN and Red Cross, the normal ratio is 9 civilians for every 1 combatant.  Depending on what Hamas numbers you believe, Israel is somewhere between 0.6 civilians to 1 combatant to 1.2 civilians to 1 combatant.  Well below the normally accepted ratio for every other country and every other war in the world.  Genocide is used to inflame people.  It’s used to inspire hate and physical attacks on Jews.  It is a bold-faced lie that gets repeated, especially by those celebrities, over and over and over again.

Occupation is the fourth word that gets used regularly.   Israel withdrew from Gaza and removed its citizens by force in 2005.  That’s the fact.  Since 2005, there has been no occupation of Gaza.  So, saying it is because of the occupation is simple another lie.  People may then talk about the blockade.  The blockade was put in place when Hamas took over and started firing rockets at Israel and building tunnels to kidnap Israelis.  It exists by both Egypt and Israel to do their best to limit rockets and missiles and guns from getting into Gaza.  It doesn’t limit food or medicine.  Saying occupation or blockade is merely a way for uneducated people to attempt to place the blame on Israel and the Jews.

The newest lie, which occurred tonight, is that Hamas accepted the ceasefire offered by Israel and Israel still attacked Rafah.  The reality is more like this:


Israel: Here is our ceasefire offer.

Hamas: No

Israel: Here is option 2 for a ceasefire.

Hamas: No

Hamas then bombs the reopened humanitarian corridor.

Israel: Fine, we will attack Rafah.

Israel begins to attack Rafah.

Hamas: We will take option 3 which you didn’t offer.  We accept the ceasefire that we negotiated with ourselves. 

The World:  Israel rejected the ceasefire offer that they offered, and Hamas accepted.

Once again, the truth doesn’t matter, and the lie gets repeated over and over and over again.  The media covers the lie.  The New York Times covers the lie.  Papers in Europe cover the lie. 

As we move into the next phase of the war, not just between Hamas and Israel but between those who hate Jews and Jewish people, we need to be vigilant with these lies.  We need to be loud and repetitive in combatting them and telling the truth.  We need to keep it simple and not give a lecture.  I recommend something like this:

Response to lie:  You are lying.

Response to lie:  That’s not true.

Response to lie:  False!!!

Response to lie:  You don’t know what’s true.

Response to lie:  Learn something before you lie about it.

Keep it brief.  Keep it simple.  If they want to know the truth, and most don’t, then they will ask, and you can tell them. 

This next phase will be the most challenging.  We see the violence occurring at UCLA and around the country.  We see it happening in Europe.  I’m afraid that the next phase will involve larger scale attacks against Jewish people, homes, and businesses.  Protect yourself.  Learn the law.  Take self-defense classes.  If you feel the need to be armed, make sure you both follow the laws of your state/country and get trained on how to use it.  The decision to be armed is not one to take lightly and it’s not a joke and guns are not toys. 

If Israel goes into Rafah and ends the war between Hamas and Israel, it will not end the war against the Jewish people.  It will not mean that we are safe in our countries.  It will not mean Israel is safe with Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran still attacking.  We are preparing to move into a new stage that we only saw a glimpse of with the protests on campuses.  Be prepared.  Never again isn’t just a slogan, it means we are going to take action and do what we have to ensure that it never happens again. 

Yotam Berger wrote this

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

For the first time in the existance of this blog, I am not writing it. This was written by Yotam Berger, and Israeli PhD student at Stanford. I couldn’t have said it better or clearer so I’m letting his words say what I think and feel. Please read Yotam’s words and think hard about them. You can read the original post (in Hebrew) here. This translation came from Daniel Gordis’s substack Israel from the Inside.

Man in a Hamas costume on the campus of Stanford this week.

Five lessons from Stanford, California 

The academic year in the United States is coming to an end. In a few weeks, the university students graduating will stand on the grass, in caps and gowns. They will excitedly take pictures, shake hands with the deans, and then fly away, making way for a new generation of their ilk.

Ahead of the graduation ceremonies, the anti-Israel student protests at American universities are also increasing. Let’s start with the “all clear” siren. Here at Stanford, at least, the students who sleep on the campus lawns and call for a “global intifada” are—as a rule—not dangerous in the physical sense of the word. But they are very dangerous in the medium and long term, as far as the image of the leader of the free world is concerned.

This is my second year at Stanford. When we returned here in September after the summer break, I intended to finish the year with an approved research proposal and a third of my PhD written. It’s hard to describe how far I am from meeting that goal. In my opinion, I’m not really unusual. Since October, many Israelis abroad have found themselves forced to choose between two options—to put their heads down or become ambassadors without a choice. Who can even write an article when his two brothers are fighting in Gaza? Instead, I found myself spending much of my time on “outreach” activities that I had no intention of taking part in.

Despite this, I learned some very important lessons this year that I will never forget. As the school year comes to a close, and in light of the wave of anxious questions from around the country in light of the current round of campus madness, I thought I’d share the five most important lessons I learned this past year at Stanford, California.

1. Whether we want it or not, we are always—first and foremost—the Jews.

The first year here was a fabulous academic experience like no other. I felt surrounded by international friends. I was given full access to the world’s brightest legal minds. The feeling was that endless opportunities lay ahead. Friends from Israel, who asked already last year if we suffered from anti-Israelism, sounded funny to me. No way!! I am a liberal Israeli. I wrote for the most leftist newspaper in Israel. I did my clerkship in one of the more liberal courts in the Western world. Why would anyone have a problem with me? I walked among those who I thought were friends as equals among equals. I could talk about Israel freely, criticize it and love it, have discussions that I thought were good and complex about the most sensitive issues even with those who clearly disagreed with me. I felt like a citizen of the world.

That was an illusion. There really is no such thing, it turns out, as a “Jew who is a citizen of the world,” as long as the Jew insists on his right to a national existence. For many of those whom I saw as friends, it turned out, I was first and foremost the Jew. At the moment of truth, few of them stood by me on a personal level. Almost none of them stood by me at the national level. Their double standards allowed Israel-hating students to say horrible things about me and my friends, but silenced our every attempt to oppose it. In some places, I had to choose between apologizing for my Israeliness and rejection. There was no choice to be made.

This eye-opening experience also has advantages. It is a litmus test for the human quality of those around us. Some of the people around me went out of their way to support me, or to show gestures of humanity. I found myself surrounded by strong and durable ties. I will not forget these friends easily.

2. America deserves Donald Trump.

An Israeli friend joked to me that if Trump is re-elected president in November, he will walk the halls of Stanford and hand out baklava. It’s a very funny joke only because it’s not entirely imaginary.

November 9, 2016 was a day that struck me with amazement. Like many all over the world, the fact that the United States of America elected Donald Trump as president was unimaginable. In a very deep sense, no matter how many commentaries I read, how many films and documentary series I watched—the appointment of this man seemed inexplicable to me. Unimaginable. Impossible. Even years later, when the words “President Trump” stopped feeling strange on the tongue, the choice of him seemed inexplicable to me. A glitch in the matrix. I couldn’t understand how his campaign could be successful.

This year I finally got it. No, if I were an American I still wouldn’t vote for Trump. But I now understand those who vote for him. Donald Trump is some Americans’ answer to the madness on the other side, a madness I didn’t notice until it turned its face in my direction. A madness no less terrible than Trumps’s madness. No, if I had the right to vote, I would not vote for Donald Trump. But America deserves him.

3. The progressive movement is not a political ally of liberal Zionists.

Last year, the progressive movement seemed like an amusing youth rebellion to me. Yes, the ceremony where everyone announces their gender at the beginning of class seemed strange to me, not always necessary, but not harmful. The fact that I had to declare my race on every form I filled out (and make sure to state that I was “Middle Eastern”) made me laugh, but didn’t upset me. I saw the American progressive movement as the infantile sister of liberal movements that I respected. I saw it as an ally. That was a mistake.

I saw the American progressive movement as the infantile sister of liberal movements that I respected. I saw it as an ally. That was a mistake.

The “progressive” movement is not an amusing anecdote. This week I was exposed to a particularly graphic expression of this. In the “Pro-Palestinian” encampment (in double quotation marks, since a significant number of its residents are unable to point to the country on a map, and it is doubtful that they are able to name a single Palestinian leader) that was re-established in the heart of the campus, a man was photographed in a full terrorist costume—including a black sock hat with a slit for his eyes, and a green Hamas ribbon on his head, next to students who are active for transsexual rights. This strange alliance [DG – since Hamas executes those it considers sexual deviants, which obviously includes transsexuals] is not funny to me.

The progressives are challenging much more than the state of Israel, or the right of the Jews to a nation state. I’m not sure how many of the people who identify as progressives actually hold these ideals, and how many of them are just repeating them over and over loudly, with the intention of gaining some kind of social sympathy. But those of them who hold this position really no longer believe in the existence of “truth,” or in the existence of facts.

I’m not referring here to those who express the opinion that it is difficult to get to the truth, or who think that the courts do not always succeed in finding out what the facts are, or who hold that different ideas are perceived differently through different eyes. I’m speaking about those who say unequivocally that there is no such thing as truth. They are not interested in presenting facts to support their arguments because they do not believe there is such a thing as facts, and they say so explicitly. They think that it is forbidden to use the term “jihadist” in front of jihadists, or to call supporters of terrorism by their names, because feelings are more important than facts (although, of course, first and foremost theirfeelings). They don’t believe there should be consequences for actions, because they don’t believe there should be consequences for anything. Everything can be disputed, because nothing is real. Life is a debate club. It’s not a treat, or at least not just a treat: it’s an ideology. This ideology challenges the existence of objective truth—attainable or unattainable—as an intellectual concept.

4. Always go straight. It is not so important what is said or written about you.

The denial and turning of the backs of those whom I saw as friends, or at least fellow travelers, came with a temptation: to lower one’s head. I do not belittle and I completely understand Israelis who chose this. At this stage, for now, being ashamed of being Israeli, suppressing Jewish symbols, trying to adopt the American accent—can ensure a reasonable quality of life even in places where hatred of Israel is very present. But when the temptation was placed in front of me—to some extent at least— I tried to remember what I had learned from two teachers in recent years.

Attorney Momi Lemberger usually tells his interns to “always walk straight.” When a decision is made in a case—should an indictment be filed? Should the charges be dropped?—The only thing that matters are the facts and the law. It is easy to be tempted to consider what was written in the newspapers. What the minister says. The chance to advance in the system. But considering such considerations inevitably leads to bragging, to losing one’s way. Judge George Kara used to tell his interns that “it doesn’t really matter what they say or write about you.” The facts are more important. Making the right decisions is more important. There is no reason to align with vanities, even if it has some social or public cost.

These lessons are true in relation to greater and much more important decisions than the personal decision of whether to keep one’s head down or insist on externalizing and being proud of one’s Israeliness, even in unpleasant forums. But they are infinitely true when the heaviest price to pay for going straight is that some American PhD students will turn up their noses at you. Since October, I’ve learned that there’s no point in keeping your head down, while there is intrinsic value in the decision to always going straight, to calling a spade a spade.

5. The solution to the university crisis cannot come from below, but it can be parachuted from above.

The kids protesting in these university yards worked very hard to get accepted to Harvard, Stanford, Yale, and Columbia. Most of them are not the “Vietnam generation,” even if that is what they tell themselves. They are the equivalent of the 8200 children and IDF Radio in Israel. [DG – both very prestigious jobs in the army, the former in one of the most respected intelligence units, the latter on the radio, a position very hard to snag.] They worked very hard and paid a lot of money to get here, and they care a lot about how they graduate. More than that, they care what the characters they value think of them. True, they care what their classmates think. Most of them care just as much what the President of the University, the Dean of the Faculty, and even the lecturer in the course think of them.

For many of them, the current wave of protests can be an educational opportunity. American universities repeatedly emphasize the importance of freedom of speech in American culture, the centrality of the First Amendment to the Constitution which guarantees absolute freedom of speech in the American political atmosphere. They can’t shut them up. That is true. But the universities can, and are even obliged, to educate their students. They should not and cannot prevent these children from screaming their demands to spread the intifada or boycott Israel. But they can tell them that they hold very stupid positions.

If university presidents would stop trembling in their own shadows, they could tell their students that they have a right to express stupid views, but that shouting them out won’t make them any more correct. Lecturers cannot silence their students, but they can emphasize that anyone who expresses uninformed or unfounded positions with great confidence is an educational failure. An Israeli—as I discovered—cannot really convince his American counterpart that Israel is not committing genocide, even if there is not even a shred of evidence to support the argument that what is happening in Gaza is genocide. But if the president of the university were to look at his students and express sincere disappointment when they express such a preposterous position, something in a significant portion of those students might shift.

The effectiveness of the “direct information”—in front of the young students—exists, but is very limited and in any case organized bodies can hardly promote it in an inorganic way. The solution, in my opinion, lies in putting pressure on the presidents. And there is urgency in this—today’s generation of presidents and senior lecturers are still old and established people, who were educated in the 1970s and 1980s. They remember the Six Day War and Yom Kippur War. They are liberals, but they are liberals like Bill Clinton. They have respect for Israel. They have no intention of responding to the BDS demands that many of their students voice. In private conversations with Israelis, they also express their feelings of affection for Israel generously. But their feelings of fear of their American students are immeasurably stronger than their affection for their Israeli students. The pressure needs to be put on them. If they are freed from the terror that grips them of expressing their opinion, they can set boundary lines, and these may seep down—to those who want to participate in the “pro-Palestinian” festivals, to make an impression, but want more to be loved by important people in their professional lives.

If we do not take advantage of the present opportunity, we will find ourselves in a short time standing in front of a new generation of presidents and deans. It is not known if they will still have positive feelings—however repressed—towards Israel.

Fight, Flight or Die – you get to choose

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

Columbia University has been in the news for the past few weeks due to their anti-Israel and anti-Jewish encampment.  UCLA has been for the same reason.  Portland State.  Northwestern.  Harvard.  Yale.  Penn.  University of Michigan. George Washington.  Cal Poly Humboldt.  Brown. Cornell.  Princeton.  University of Southern California.  Arizona State.  CCNY.  CUNY.  Plenty of Universities where students went beyond free speech and protests, violated University policies, intimidated Jewish students, blocked access to campus, and in the case of UCLA, violently attacked and beat a Jewish woman, Yale where a Jewish woman was stabbed in the eye, and Columbia where two Jewish men were attacked.

Then there are Universities like the University of Florida, University of Texas, Florida State University, University of South Florida, University of North Carolina.  University of Utah, University of Illinois, Mary Washington, Northeastern, Indiana, Wash U in St Louis, University of Pittsburgh, UConn, University of Utah. VCU, University of Georgia, Tulane, and Virginia Tech.  At each of these Universities, the University Presidents and leadership allowed free speech and protests but enforced their campus rules and regulations.  As such, when the protests went beyond free speech, they were broken up and people arrested.

For the most part, it’s the first group of schools that have been in the media.  That’s because of the old news adage, ‘If it bleeds, it leads.’  We saw an incredible lack of leadership by the University Presidents at those schools.  Columbia President Minouche Shafik, fresh off her testimony to Congress, enabled the protesters, didn’t enforce the campus regulations, finally called in the NYPD, and then promptly apologized for doing it.  Jewish students were encouraged to finish the semester away from campus, being denied the equal protection of the law and equal access to the education they are paying for.  Chants of “go back to Poland”, ‘We are Hamas’ and ‘Globalize the intifada’ occurred on campus.  US Representatives Ilhan Omar and AOC showed up to support the active hatred of Jews on campus.  Omar even said, “We should not have to tolerate antisemitism or bigotry for all Jewish students, whether they are pro-genocide or anti-genocide.” 

Khymani James, a student at Columbia and one of the leaders of Columbia University’s anti-Israel encampment threatened to kill Jews in a live stream meeting with the school.  Nothing happened until it became public when he was barred from campus.  He was then let back on campus until they were exposed again and he was suspended.  Columbia chose to be complicit with threats of violence against Jews.

These are threats to Jewish students.  The encampment grew and got more violent and more active.  Finally, they took over a campus building, barricading themselves inside and doing damage to the building.  After a ridiculous press conference with a student leader who demanded ‘humanitarian aid’ for those who chose to occupy the building and could leave at any time, did President Shafik relent and call in the NYPD to break up the protest.  She wasn’t interested in protecting the Jewish students, only protecting her campus buildings.

Northwestern President Michael Schill chose to give in to the student terrorists holding his campus hostage.  Brown University did the same thing.  Their leadership caved to the students’ bad behavior, breaking of the campus rules and regulations and criminal activities.

These Presidents and their administration have failed their test of leadership.  They have abandoned their Jewish students.  There are calls for their resignations as a result.  I can’t imagine any other group facing what Jewish students have faced in which the actions and behaviors of these Presidents and administrations would be acceptable.  At UCLA, their failure, along with the assault on a Jewish woman, resulted in Jewish students believing they had been abandoned and taking matters into their own hands, working to break up the antisemitic, illegal encampment resulting in a riot. 

We have a serious leadership problem on our campuses.  By not holding students and faculty accountable to the rules when it comes to Jewish students, they are guilty of endangering Jewish students’ safety.  They are committing Title VI violations and there may be civil rights lawsuits against them.  They have become a national joke, and the Universities are viewed unfavorably by most.  There is a reason you don’t negotiate with terrorists.  Reinforcing their bad behavior only ensures more bad behavior in the future. 

Compare that to the University of Florida, who’s President, Ben Sasse, provided the campus rules and regulations in advance along with the consequences for violating them.  When the protesters went beyond free speech and violated the campus rules, the consequences were enforced. 

Other universities took action after letting the protesters know they were violating the campus rules and would be arrested if they didn’t disperse.  When they didn’t, the police came in and arrested them. Actions have consequences. Failing to obey the rules and the law is illegal.

I want to be clear.  Free speech is important.  Being able to protest is important.  However, when people decide to break the rules or break the laws, there are consequences for their actions.  That’s what they were arrested for, their actions.  Protests matter and there is a line that cannot be crossed.  When the line is crossed, leadership has an obligation to act.

When I see some of our country’s leaders in an uproar because the protesters are held accountable, I get angry.  They know better and they know it is only happening because it is against the Jews.  When I see our country’s leaders and our Jewish communal leaders be silent about what is happening to Jewish students on campus, I get angry.  We cannot put our heads in the sand and hope it goes away.  We know better.  We know what comes next.  I’m grateful to our country’s leaders and our Jewish communal leaders who have spoken up and taken public positions.  There are far too few of them. 

Sen. John Fetterman, Rep. Elise Stefanik, Rep. Ritchie Torres, and Speaker Mike Johnson have been leading public advocates to protect Jewish students on campus.  Others have joined them.  Yet far too many have been silent or supporting these encampments designed to terrorize, intimidate, and block Jewish students and faculty from entering campus.  In many cases they assaulted Jewish students. This has nothing to do with the war in Gaza.  It has nothing to do with humanitarian aid.  It has everything to do with antisemitism, Jew hatred. 

Chris Cuomo, a TV talking head, spoke out eloquently against the rise of Jew hatred on these college campuses.  His comment on Twitter when he posted it was shocking.  “I never thought in America I would have Jewish people thanking me for arguing that they have a right to exist.”  It is worth watching.

UNRWA came out with an announcement that there is plenty of food available in Gaza but there isn’t money to buy it.  This is humanitarian aid, provided for free, that UNRWA is either allowing Hamas to steal or selling to Hamas who is selling it on the black market.  The more facts that come out, the worse people like AOC, Ilhan Omar, Cori Bush, Jamaal Bowman, Nancy Pelosi, Rashida Talib, and these protesters look. 

May 1 starts Jewish Heritage Month.  President Biden issued a proclamation in which he references protecting the Jewish community in the United States but fails to mention anything happening on campus.  He talks about the hostages but has failed to pressure Qatar, who houses the leaders of Hamas, and continues to provide Iran, the funder of Hamas, with more money.  His words don’t match up with his actions.  We need to demand more of President Biden and of Congress.  We need to make our voices heard loudly.

As antisemitism, Jew hatred, increases in the United States, I see and hear more and more Jewish people speaking up and being outraged.  I am part of a group of parents who are concerned about what is happening on college campuses and I see the change as Jewish parents and students no long look to the Ivy League schools and look for safer campuses.  I have received calls and emails from parents who want to take advantage of Governor DeSantis’s decree that he will waive many of the transfer requirements for Jewish students to transfer to Florida Universities.  Yeshiva University extended their transfer deadline.  The Technion in Haifa has openly offered sanctuary for Jewish students, graduate students, and faculty who don’t feel safe at their University. 

This is America in 2024.  We need to face reality and act.  Raise our voices and speak out and speak up.  We need to thank our allies in other communities.  We need to thank our politicians who are supportive and make sure our voices are heard by those who hate Jews and fight for there to be more antisemitism, more Jew hatred.  If you haven’t been an activist, it’s time to become one.  Our collective silence has brought us to this point.  It is our collective action that will defeat Jew hatred.  It’s your choice, fight, flight, or die.

Screams Before Silence is a must watch

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

I decided to watch the new Sheryl Sandberg documentary “Screams Before Silence”.  I have seen the 47-minute Hamas video as well as the documentary about the Nova music festival massacre.  Both of those were incredibly impactful and hearing Lee Sasi, a survivor of the Nova music festival massacre speak is something I will never forget.  I’ll be in Israel soon and get to visit the site of the Nova music festival massacre, Sderot, and other areas in the south near Gaza.

Screams Before Silence – because of the topic it won’t embed here but you can click to watch

Since October 7th, I have been wanting to go back to Israel daily.  My last trip was in November 2022 and while I have an ongoing desire to go to Israel, I have not been able to return since then.  After October 7th, my family would not allow me to go to Israel.  Every time I brought up the topic, I was instantly shut down by them.  It wasn’t until this trip that, while they don’t want me to go, they aren’t stopping me.  I leave in 12 days and am anxiously anticipating getting on the plane and heading to our homeland.  There is a deep need inside of me to be back in Israel, connecting with the land and my people to help start healing my Jewish neshamah (soul). 

Many people have asked why I would subject myself to watching the 47-minute Hamas video.  And then also watch the Nova music festival documentary.  And now Screams Before Silence, documenting the rape and abuse of women by Hamas.  My answer used to be simple.  I needed to bear witness for those who were murdered and abused.  Now it is more than that.  In a world where we already have October 7th deniers, where people are saying that Hamas had the right to murder, rape, kidnap and abuse innocent civilians, who call the war between Israel and Hamas “Bibi’s War” or “Netanyahu’s War” I have to do more than just be frustrated and angry.  How can anybody watch these atrocities, much of it filmed BY HAMAS, and hold anybody else responsible?  How can anybody who sees the actual footage, who listens to the survivors, not see the evil that is Hamas and Iran? 

In all three videos, they show the IDF arriving at the Nova massacre for the first time.  Each time I hear the soldier counting the dead as he begins to arrive, my heart breaks.  Echad, Shtyim, Shalosh, Arba, Chamesh (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).  When he looks into the food and drink tent and sees all the dead bodies strewn on the ground, the pain in his voice is palpable.  “Oh my God. Oh my God.”  His questioning plea, “Is anyone alive here?”  “Give us a sign of life.” “No signs of life.  Anyone?  Please?” is haunting as we know there is nobody alive, but he doesn’t yet know that.  In Screams Before Silence, they are interviewing him in between parts of the video.  The look on his face, the pain in his eyes, cuts deep to my soul.  I think about the students and professors on college campuses that are protesting and wonder if their watching this would make a difference.  Are their hearts and souls already too filled with hatred for Jews that somehow, they would feel satisfied that we got what we deserved.  What a terrible world we live in if that were to be true, yet I fear that it is.   

The video of the IDF first arriving at the Nova Music Festival massacre.

When I see people, particularly Jews, who focus only on what is happening in Gaza, I find myself getting angry.  They forget what happened on October 7th that was the cause of the war.  They forget or don’t believe that Hamas uses human shields.  That Hamas was shooting Gazans trying to leave the north for safety in the beginning of the war and it was Israel that created the safe corridors for them.  They don’t want to believe that Hamas would actually turn hospitals, mosques, homes, and ambulances into military structures and make them military targets.  It’s as if they have to find a way to excuse the evil that is Hamas because they can’t bear to believe that there really could be people that evil in the world.  Once again, Jews become the scapegoat.  Instead of Israel being the victim of a horrific and barbaric attack, Israel is the one in the wrong.  Instead of Hamas being war criminals for the taking of the hostages, for the rapes and brutal murders of civilians, for using human shields, for using hospitals and mosques and ambulances as military structures, it is Israel, a country that documents how much they do to minimize civilian loss of life, that gets the blame. 

When I watched Screams Before Silence, there are two moments that really stood out and impacted me.  The first was when Sheryl Sandberg, who does the interviews throughout, asks the first responders to see some of the images that they saw in person.  Each image they show her draws a more dramatic reaction from her.  You can see in her eyes and in her face the impact of the images.  She gasps at a number of them.  The first responders are telling us what she is seeing.  As horrific as the descriptions are, you can watch Sheryl’s face to see that the images are far worse.

The second is at the end of the documentary.  Sheryl moves from the interviewer seat to the one where those being interviewed sit.  You can see how much this has impacted her.  The director of the documentary comes to the seat Sheryl just left and asks her about making this film and the impact.  As Sheryl talks about the experience, tears came to my eyes.  It was incredibly moving.  I had a similar experience just watching it and I can’t imagine what it was like for her to talk to the survivors, hear their full stories, see the images that the first responders took.  It was a beautiful and powerful interview that was emotionally powerful.

Today has been full of events related to Israel and the war with Hamas.  The first lawsuit was filed against Columbia University for their failure to protect Jewish students. 

The Columbia University President set a 2 pm deadline for the end of the encampment and then let it pass with no consequences.  Senator Bernie Sanders called the war “an illegal war”, forgetting or not caring that Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th, murdering more than 1200 civilians, kidnapping more than 250 civilians and still has over 130 hostages.  A number of members of Congress are calling for the federal funding to be removed from the Universities that aren’t protecting Jewish students.  The body of an Israeli hostage was discovered near Gaza, somebody killed on October 7th that was thought to be a hostage.  At UCLA, an anonymous group built a giant screen with loudspeakers outside the UCLA protest showing footage from October 7 on a loop. 

After being instructed not to put up tents at the University of South Florida in Tampa, a few protesters decided they would anyway and were arrested.  That’s what effective leaders do, they follow the rules and regulations in place for everybody.  There are rumors of a potential peace deal brokered by Egypt. Sinwar was seen publicly in Rafah. 

Caitlyn Jenner took on the anti-Israel crowd in a publicly shared video. 

The leadership of Washington University in St. Louis put out a powerful statement about hateful protest on their campus and the arrests made because of the violation of their policies.

Israel is preparing for the ICC to issue arrest warrants for their leaders for war crimes.  The United States seems willing to sit back and allow it to happen although there are members of congress who are urging President Biden to step in and stop this farce. 

The rise of antisemitism is growing everywhere we look.  At McGill University in Canada, a man dressed up as a terrorist with a mock suicide bomb attached to his chest.  How long until they are no longer fake bombs and we see suicide bombers active in the US and Canada?

Jewish students are being blocked from entering campus at UCLA and Columbia. As students they have the right to be on campus and attend class. Their rights are being denied by people who are breaking the campus rules. Where are the Presidents of these campuses? Where are the Governors of California and New York?

We live in a world and a time where activism against prejudice and hate is more important than ever.  The truth and facts don’t seem to matter.  A group of Christians joined the pro-Israel counter protest at Columbia today.  That’s what we need.  People to stand up to hate, especially antisemitism, even when it’s not their group being targeted.  Over the past few years, I have been interviewed on the TV news about the rise in antisemitism far too often.  My message has always been the same.  We need to stand together, speak out together, against all hate.  When we allow hate to grow, we get the evil of Hamas.  We get the uninformed students at Columbia, Harvard, Yale, NYU, and many other Universities who wouldn’t dream of saying what they are about Jews about anybody else. 

The question for each of us is, what are we going to do?  Are we going to sit back and hope it goes away?  Are we going to hide so that we can try to stay safe?  Are we going to speak out, speak up, and be loud about how this is wrong?  Are we going to challenge our friends and family who spew Jew hatred couched in anti-Israel or anti-Zionism troupes?  Are we going to reach out to our US Representatives and Senators and demand that they protect not just Jewish students on campus but Jews everywhere in the United States?

I started by talking about the film Screams Before Silence.  It is something everybody should watch.  It’s not easy.  It’s painful.  It’s hard. It’s necessary.  It’s available to watch on YouTube.  I urge you to watch it.  I urge you to watch it with others.  I urge you to have your friends watch it, especially those who are critical of Israel. 

I’m doing my part with the film.  And I’m going to Israel on May 11th to not just visit my homeland but to do my part in the healing after October 7th both for myself and for Israel.  I’ll pick produce.  I’ll visit the sites of the horrific October 7th attack.  I’ll cook for IDF soldiers and serve them dinner.  I’ll be there for Yom HaZikaron (Israel’s Memorial Day) which will be very different than the other times I’ve been there for it.  I’ll be there for Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel Independence Day) which will also be different than any other time I have been there.  I’ll spend Shabbat at the Kotel (the Western Wall).  I’ll spend time with my Israeli friends who are like family to me.  And I am planning to meet with at least one of my Palestinian friends for a powerful conversation about how we move forward. 

Wearing Tefillin and a Tallis at the Kotel (Western Wall) before I went to pray and connect spiritually

I’m not asking you to do what I’m doing.  I am asking you to do something.  Are you up for the challenge?

I took this picture – it always inspires me. I hope it inspires you to take action