Yom Ha’atzmaut continued today in such a subdued manner it was shocking.  It was easy to forget that it was still Independence Day as so much was different than previous years.  I am used to the beach being packed, barbecues happening, an undercurrent of joy, the planes flying over the beach in formation, and so much more.  Last night, the port was empty as we went for dinner.  In a normal year, it would have been packed with people, music, fireworks, and celebration.  This year is different.

My friend, Dr. Debi Gilboa (also known as Dr. G) spoke to use this morning about courage and resilience.  Debi is a wonderful person, doctor, friend, and speaker and today was no different.  There were three things she talked about that really resonated for me.

The first was about how in 1908, sixty-six (66) families left Jaffa and moved to Tel Aviv to create something.  There was nothing there.  I have seen the pictures at Independence Hall in Tel Aviv or what it looked line then.  Huge sand dunes.  That’s it.  These pioneers and their families took and incredible risk moving to the middle of nowhere, on a sandy beach, with no drinking water, no housing in place, and no farming for food that was growing.  Why would they do this?  What could be their rationale? 

By moving to Tel Aviv, they had a chance at self-determination.  They had a change to take control of their own destiny.  They could build a city where they were in charge and could live the way they wanted to live, as Jews.  I’m sure every one of them was scared and felt unsure at times.  Yet they did it anywhere.  The fear of where they were coming from along with the opportunity that presented itself was enough to help them fight through their fear to build the city of Tel Aviv.

The second was about courage.  Courage is not feeling fear or being afraid.  Courage is feeling fear and being afraid and getting through it anyway.  The 66 families that started Tel Aviv in 1908 felt plenty of fear, yet they would not let that fear stop them from following through and building the city of Tel Aviv.  We heard from and met people from Kibbutz Alumim today.  The Kibbutz is 3 km from Gaza and was attacked on October 7. It is the only kibbutz that was attacked on October 7^th, the terrorists got into the kibbutz, but did not get into the houses.  Those on the kibbutz who hid in their safe rooms with their families and those who defended it were scared but they fought through the fear to survive.  Courage looks different but always involves facing your fears and finding a way through them.

The third topic that resonated strongly with me was when she talked about how God told Abraham and Sarah, “Lech Lecha”.  Translated this means ‘Go to yourself.”  This is when they left where they were living, left Abraham’s father’s house, and followed God’s directions.  Debi shared with us that it also means for each of us to be true to ourselves.  That we must take care of ourselves.  After October 7, Israelis are doing what they have to do to take care of themselves.  It’s emotionally difficult and requires courage to do this.  In the diaspora, we are struggling with this.  How do we take care of ourselves in a world filled with rising antisemitism?  How do we take care of ourselves when we see the hate on college campuses?  How do we take care of ourselves when we see physical violence occurring just because somebody is Jewish?  When Jewish speakers and events are cancelled because the venue ‘can’t ensure security’?  During the day today, this became a topic of many conversations I had.  The consensus seemed to be that we need to invest more in what being Jewish means to us.  Each of us individually has the opportunity to ask that question of ourselves and our families.  What does being Jewish mean to me?  How do I express being Jewish in a meaningful way to me?  Are there things I might want to do or that I like to do that I am not?  If so, what are they.  If not, maybe I want to explore what they could be.  I have found myself doing this over the past few years and coming up with my own answers for me.  I have found that I enjoy learning more about what being Jewish entails by spending time each week talking and learning some Torah with a Rabbi and how it applies to my life today.  Can the lesson change my behavior and how I feel about things?  Each week I learn a little bit more.  I am not more religious.  But I do feel more Jewish.

Debi’s talk, similar to when I am learning lessons from the Torah with my Rabbi, made me think a little deeper about issues.  I have more to chew on and more questions to ask myself.  Being on this trip, I have brothers to talk with and delve deeper together.  That’s also part of being Jewish – having a community to be a part of so life is not lived alone.

We spent time at the Peres Center for Innovation and Peace.  I’ve been there before and it is an amazing place, created by Shimon Peres, with an intentional incredible view of the Mediterranean Sea to inspire peacefulness.  The main floor is an exhibition space and when I walked in, I was struck by the exhibit from October 7^th that was there.  It was truly unbelievable.  There was a huge screen with a video documenting the events.  There was a photo exhibit that was captivating.  I videoed part of the video screen and noticed that the reflection of our group watching it was also seen in the recording.  I thought that was appropriate as we are all a part of October 7 just like it is a part of us. 

I came out of the Peres Center with three takeaways this time.  First, Israel has always been about peace.  The Declaration of Independence explicitly offers peace and a welcome to the Arabs to join the new country.  It was the Arabs that rejected that peace and went to war.  Since 1948, Israel has offered peace many times and until the Abraham Accords only found peace partners with Egypt and Jordan.  Neither is a warm peace, but both have held.  Despite the media wanting to say that Israel is the problem, the colonizer, the oppressor, Israel’s actions since 1948 have shown them to be a willing partner for peace with whoever wants to engage with them about peace.  When the war with Hamas in Gaza ends, and it will end, it is highly likely that the peace and normalization with both Saudi Arabia and Indonesia will be finalized.  More and more Arab nations are coming to realize that they are better off being peaceful and partners with Israel than trying to eliminate them.  That is both the narrative we need to be using and the future for the region.

Secondly, there was moment in the video about Shimon Peres where he says that he didn’t feel like he was really the Prime Minister until he “sat in the Old Man’s chair”.  The Old Man is David Ben Gurion and it made me think about leadership.  Israel has had some incredible leaders.  Ben Gurion, Shimon Peres, Moshe Dayan, Yitzhak Rabin, Menachem Begin, Golda Meir, Ariel Sharon, Chaim Weizmann, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, Yigal Allon, Abba Eban, Levi Eshkol, Yitzhak Shamir, Yigael Yadin, and Ezer Weizman are like Israel’s version of our American Founding Fathers, only I remember almost of all them in my lifetime.  Israel is a young country and with the loss of these key leaders, the question remains who is going to step up.  There is no question that the current situation both in Israel and in the world is a result of leadership challenges.  I found myself wondering who would be the next wave of leaders that will step up, both in Israel and the United States, to take us to the next level.  Israel turned 76 this week.  When the US was 76, it was 1852.  We were 8 years away from Abraham Lincoln and his leadership.  The US was about to enter a civil war.  It was leadership that got us through those challenging times.  Who will be both Israel and the United State’s Abraham Lincoln for this time period?  Without that leadership, I fear for the future of the world.

The third takeaway was when Peres was summing up his own life near the end.  He said, “I didn’t dream big enough” and he urged everybody to dream bigger.  In today’s world, I think we need to listen to him and dream bigger.  We need to think beyond what is possible and think what would be ideal.  Then we work towards accomplishing the ideal.  We may not reach ideal, but we will be far better off than if we just try to accomplish what is possible.  It reminds me of the saying, “Shoot for the moon, and even if you miss, you will be among the stars.”

One of the highlights of the day was our visit to The Squadron, a flight simulator created by a high-ranking commander in the Israeli air force.  The commander gave us a very high level briefing which was incredible.  The pattern of three take-aways continued from his talk. 

When talking about October 7, he said that the country was already in a weakened position because of the civil unrest that was going on before then.  The protests of the government policies and attempts to change key laws, the status of the Prime Minister and his legal issues, and the split in the country.  It sounded far too familiar to what we are dealing with in the United States.  He said to us, “When the body is weakened, the germs can get in and attack”.  This is what happened on October 7.  This is what we are seeing set up in the United States today.  I found myself asking myself how far away are we in the US from our own version of October 7?  Would it come from the far right?  From the far left?  From a terror attack funded by Iran?  Are we getting ready for another 9/11 but on a much larger scale?  Will we learn from Israel or continue to stick our heads in the sand?

He also said that he believes there will be no peace for at least 100 years because we have lost the youth.  It made me think of the exodus from Egypt and how we had to wander for 40 years for the generations of slaves to die so that a new generation that didn’t know slavery could rise.  Do we need to wait until the generations who have grown up with hate die off so we can have a new generation that doesn’t know hate rise?  I hope we don’t need to wait 100 years or more.  I hope we can make changes in our world now that shorter that time.  The one thing that I do believe is that the instant gratification expectations of the US and Europe are not realistic and that this will take time.  Can we shorten the 100 years to a decade?  2 decades?  I don’t know but perhaps it is time that we change our expectations and begin the hard work to get there instead of hoping and praying that it will happen in 2024 or 2025.

The final takeaway was when he said that the only thing that will get us out of this is leadership.  I agree with that 100%.  As I wrote above and have written before, we have a serious lack of leadership in the world and in our Jewish communities.  It is time to invest in leadership.  We need to make hard choices and difficult decisions.  We need to change the paradigm that we currently live in where leaders are determined by money.  Our leaders need to lead, unafraid of the personal consequences because they are doing what is needed for the community, the nation, and the world.  We need the courage Debi talked about.  We need to dream bigger like Shimon Peres said.  We need to allow the great leaders to rise and truly lead. 

We then got to try their fight simulator. These were F-16 simulations and it was truly amazing. It gave me great admiration for the air force pilots and made me want to practice more and more.

Our final stop for the day was to meet with the people from Kibbutz Alumim.  They have been relocated from their kibbutz near Gaza to a hotel in Netanya since October 7.  We heard from two people at the kibbutz.  Sarit, a young mother, hid in her safe room for 26 hours with her husband and 2-year-old daughter.  Sarit’s husband was able to grab a little schnitzel for their daughter and one diaper for her before they entered their safe room for 26 hours.  That’s not much in terms of food and one spare diaper for 26 hours isn’t nearly enough.  Her descriptions were intense and thankfully the terrorists didn’t get into any of the houses on this kibbutz.

The reason they didn’t get into any of the houses on this kibbutz was because of people like Eyal, the second speaker.  This kibbutz had 15 members of their defense force that were trained and had access to guns in their armory to protect the kibbutz.  Facing 150 or more terrorists invading the kibbutz, these 15 people fought them off.  They ended up getting help from the IDF with a helicopter coming and helping shoot at the terrorists, killing many and driving them away after a full day of battle.  Eyal ended up getting shot 4 times.  Once on the side of his face, once in his back, once in his side, and once through his lung and out his scapula.  He was rushed to the hospital where he was able to recover.  The story of bravery on this kibbutz was not remarkable compared to the stories I have heard on other kibbutzim.  What I took from it was the importance of being prepared and trained.  Nobody wants to think that we have to be prepared to protect ourselves, but the reality is that we do.  We can hope that we never have to use the training and that the practice is just that, but we need to be prepared.  Whether it is in Israel or in the United States, a failure to prepare is preparing to fail.  We no longer can afford that luxury.

Outside the hotel, near the school they had created for their children, we had a huge barbecue and got to celebrate life with the members of the kibbutz.  There was nothing like seeing the children fully engaged in life.  Just as my grandparents used to say that looking at us, their grandchildren, was the proof that Hitler had lost, watching these children play and live life was proof that Hamas failed.  Those who hate us failed.  We survived once again and we will thrive again.  Some of the little kids gave us gifts of vegetables from the kibbutz and seeing them warmed my heart.  Then a few of the young boys came over to dance with us and that was the highlight of the day.  It warmed my heart.  We danced.  We sang.  We smiled.  We laughed.  We lived.  I made sure to get a picture with them to remind myself that no matter what, we choose to live.  And we choose to live freely as Jews.  Authentic to ourselves. 

I knew when I got on the plane to come this time that part of why I was coming was because October 7 and what has followed has ripped a hole in my soul.  Watching the children, dancing with them and seeing them choosing life has begun to repair that hole.  We need to listen to Dr. G and be courageous.  We need to hear Shimon Peres and dream bigger.  We need to pay attention to the lessons from the air force commander and demand real leadership and invest in leadership development.  And most of all, we need to live authentically and with joy.  Life is too short and too important to waste.