These ordinary soldiers and reservists are in fact extraordinary and special people. They are motivated and inspired not by simple patriotism and nationalism, but by a deep sense of conviction that we are a people of an illustrious history and a distinct destiny.  The IDF’s soldiers are well- trained, well-armed, and well informed.  They are skilled professionals with a military superiority, but the images, videos and reports from the front lines tell of soldiers who know that the secret to their victory is not in their weapons or intelligence.  In fact, it is not in their hands, but it is in their hearts, their souls, and pouring out of their mouths.  The clips of IDF bombings and operations are powerful, but they pale in comparison to the power of the clips of soldiers putting on Tefillin, asking for tzitzis, praying, singing, dancing, and proclaiming al tirah Yisrael, don’t be afraid Israel, ein lanu al mi l’hishaein elah al Avinu She’bashamayim, we have nobody to lean on other than our Father in Heaven, anachnu ma’aminim b’nei ma’aminim, we are believers the children of believers.

 

Our soldiers know and feel that the wind at their backs, the spiritual iron dome over their heads, are the heartfelt prayers on their behalf being uttered nonstop by all of us, their brothers and sisters around the world who love them, cherish them, admire them, and feel boundless gratitude to them. 

 

To deny the potency, power, and effectiveness of Torah and Tefilla as an indispensable part of any military victory is to deny a basic foundation of our faith.  Ultimately, every area of our lives, certainly our national safety and well-being is dictated from Above and is in the hands of Hashem.  There must be no doubt that our davening, our learning, our merits have meaning, they matter, they make a difference.  Just as we know it is not the doctor nor the surgeon who heals, but it is Hashem.  It is not the lawyer who makes the winning argument or the earthly judge who decides, but true justice is served by the Heavenly Judge.  It is not the businessperson or entrepreneur who closes the deal, but it is the Senior Partner of every endeavor, Hashem.  And it is not the soldier who wins the war, but the true General, the Master of all Legions, the Ribono Shel Olam. Living with Emunah and Bitachon, tenets of our faith, means recognizing and living this axiomatic truth, recognizing that we live in a matrix of illusion, while the reality of everything comes from Hashem.

 

Of course, simultaneously, it is also true that we don’t passively wait to be healed, we don’t sit on the couch waiting for money to fall from the sky, we search out the best doctor and we take initiative to earn an income.  Excessive effort with no faith in Hashem is heresy, but claiming to rely on faith without making any legitimate effort is not genuine faith. 

 

Chazal say harbei sheluchim l’Makom, Hashem has many agents and messengers.  We must always remember that He is guiding their hand and outcome.  But, while Hashem gives the talent and strength, the shliach, the agent still puts in the effort and energy to use it and is deserving of our most basic hakaras ha’tov, our gratitude and appreciation. During a loved one’s surgery we daven and pour out our heart to Hashem.  And when it is a success we thank Him, but we have never been concerned that showing appropriate appreciation to the doctor is a contradiction to knowing that Hashem is the one who guided his hand.  Just the opposite, failing to recognize the doctor’s critical role is its own denial of Hashem’s hand. We daven that the lawyer find the right words and that the judge come to a favorable conclusion.  But we have never felt finding the best representation or preparing diligently for a case somehow contradicts the reality and truth that Hashem is the real Judge whose opinion and conclusion is the one that truly matters.  In every area of our lives, we seek to strike the balance between hishtadlus, our initiative and effort, with bitachon, trust and faith.  We see them not as a contradiction or source of confusion, but two complementary, critical elements of a Jew’s life. 

 

During this urgent time, with Am Yisroel at war, it is no different. The brave soldiers of the IDF represent our people’s initiative, they are the shlichei Hashem fighting this milchemes mitzvah to defend the Jewish people.  Remarkably, overwhelmingly, they practice their initiative powered by profound emunah and bitachon, both theirs and ours. 

 

This combination, the relationship of initiative and faith, has always been evident in our attitude to war.  Commenting on the words, וְלִזְבוּלֻ֣ן אָמַ֔ר שְׂמַ֥ח זְבוּלֻ֖ן בְּצֵאתֶ֑ךָ וְיִשָּׂשכָ֖ר בְּאֹהָלֶֽיךָ׃ עַמִּים֙ הַר־יִקְרָ֔אוּ שָׁ֖ם יִזְבְּח֣וּ זִבְחֵי־צֶ֑דֶק, “And of Zebulun he said: rejoice, O Zevulun, on your journeys, And Yissachar, in your tents, they invite their kin to the mountain, where they offer sacrifices of success,” the Chassam Sofer (Toras Moshe) comments: It can be explained that we find that Shmuel and Shaul, when they went out to war, before going out, they would offer a sacrifice for protection… And when it says, ‘Rejoice, Zevulun, in your going out to war, for Yissachar in your tents,’ it means Zevulun’s success at war will come in the merit of Yissachar’s learning in the tents.”

 

Soldiers who fight absent Am Yisroel davening and learning cannot be successful.  But it is also true that Am Yisroel learning and davening without soldiers fighting and protecting them cannot survive.  Yaakov Avinu prepared in three ways to defeat Esav, including diplomacy, preparing militarily, and davening. Dovid HaMelech, the very author of the Tehillim we passionately recite, also led an army with generals and soldiers, as did the Jewish Kings we find throughout Tanach. 

 

The Chiddushei HaRim of Ger, Rav Yitzchak Meir Alter, points out that we are called Yehudim after Yehudah specifically because we as a nation are to be characterized by an ever-present sense of gratitude, by an appreciation first and foremost of Hashem, but also of His loyal agents and emissaries who carry out His will.  There must be enough room in our hearts and on our lips to express gratitude to all.  We must be grateful to those making spiritual contributions, to those storming the Heavens, and certainly to those making extreme sacrifices, our incredible soldiers who take the ultimate risks and an army who are moseir nefesh for our people. 

 

Loving soldiers, davening for them, showing appreciating to them has always been the Torah way, it is the example our gedolim have set, and it is the responsibility we bear at this time, something that should be obvious and intuitive.  In 2005, Rav Simcha HaKohen Kook and the Bostoner Rebbe of Yerushalayim made an urgent call to have every active soldier partnered in solidarity with someone davening for their safety. They launched the “Elef Lamateh, Elef Lamateh” campaign based on a Midrash (Bamidbar Rabbah) that says for every thousand Jewish soldiers that went to fight, one thousand who remained behind matched with them and davened and learned on their behalf. 

 

In the introduction to the third volume of Tzitz Eliezer, Rav Waldenberg writes:

A shudder runs through my entire body when I think about that terrible period of the birth of the state…We the residents of Jerusalem in particular were cut off without any connection with the other cities and surrounded by enemies in the soul, who are passionate and busy as we were driven out to swallow us…There wasn’t a neighborhood that wasn’t hit and there wasn’t a street where victims didn’t fall… Glory and praise to our heroic soldiers who sacrificed their lives to fight like lions for the conquest of our holy land from foreigners and for the establishment of our state with the face of a lion, their face like deer on the mountains to hurry and with God’s help were the messengers of the Supreme Providence to carry out This historic mission, God will remember those who fell in the fulfillment of their holy mission and will enshrine in memory the glory and eternity of those who are alive with us today.

 

Rav Shach, during a visit with soldiers to his home, expressed gratitude to them, emphasizing “that you are esteemed, important people and you provide excellent protection of the Land of Israel.” He thanked them for their actions and acknowledged their contribution, stating that he stands before them in great appreciation.

 

Rav Chaim Shmulevitz (1912-1979), the Rosh Yeshiva of the Mir once said: “The Gemara (Bava Basra 10b) says about those that gave their lives defending Lod, no creature can stand in their place. It is because they sacrificed their lives for Israel. I say the same about those who sacrifice themselves for our salvation. The entire world cannot stand in their place. The obligation upon us to pray for them is boundless because, as our Sages said, ‘One who opens for his friend, his soul is obligated to him.’ All the more so for one who sacrifices his life for us. The obligation upon us is boundless.”  Rav Yitzchak Brand described that during the Six Day War, he witnessed Rav Chaim Shmulevitz stand before each soldier he saw in appreciation for their mesirus nefesh to save the Jewish people. And Rav Yisroel Lau relates how no less a Gadol Hador than Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach z”l, when asked about traveling to daven at Kivrei Tzadikim, would respond,“In order to pray at the graves of tzadikim, one doesn’t have to travel up to the Galil. Whenever I feel the need to pray at the graves of tzadikim, I go to Mount Herzl, [the national cemetery for fallen IDF soliders in Jerusalem], to the graves of the soliders…who fell ‘Al Kiddush Hashem’ for the sanctification of G-d.”

 

In 1980, at the 6^th Knessiah Gedolah of Agudas Yisroel, a special Kayl Maleh was recited for Chayalei Tzahal, the soldiers of the IDF who gave their lives al Kiddush Hashem.  It was said in the presence of Rav Shach, The Gerrer Rebbe, Rav Moshe Feinstein, Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky, Rav Ruderman, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, the Vizhnitzer Rebbe, the Slonimer Rebbe, the Modzitzer Rebbe, and the Biala Rebbe who all stood and honored the fallen soldiers.  

 

Rav Aharon Lichtenstein related that once when he returned to America and was visiting with his father-in-law, Rav Soloveitchik, he posed a series of questions from students who were serving in the IDF. One student worked in the tanks division and his job was cleaning out and maintaining the tanks. Often his uniform got covered in oil and grime and he wanted to know if he needed to change before davening Mincha, something that would be terribly inconvenient and difficult. The Rav looked at Rav Lichtenstein and wondered out loud, “Why would he need to change? He is wearing bigdei kodesh (holy clothing).”

 

Rav Yitzchak Yosef, the current Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, said, “One must express gratitude that we are here in Eretz Yisroel, that we can sit and fulfill mitzvos, each as they want.  If we didn’t have security forces, if we didn’t have soldiers could we sit in quiet and study Torah,  could we educate our children?! What was here before eighty years, there was nothing, Hashem helps through them, they are shlichim of Hashem and in their merit do we sit and fulfill mitzvos and study Torah.  We must be grateful.”

 

During the Yom Kippur War, a soldier approached the holy rebbe, the Bais Yisroel of Ger z”l and shared that the soldiers are extremely cold during the night in the north.  The Bais Yisroel wished him well and gave him a bracha that he should return whole. That Sukkos, the young Gerrer student appointed to help the Rebbe heard the Bais Yisroel knocking on the door to his own home, unable to get in. The “hoiz buchir” unlocked the door and the rebbe apologized to him and explained, “The key is metal and my hands are extremely cold. I tried lifting it but I just couldn’t.”  The Sukkos weather was actually rather pleasant to so the young man asked why the Rebbe’s hand was cold.   The Rebbe explained, ever since the soldier told me it’s cold in the north and the soldiers are freezing, I have been feeling so cold.

 

When the First Lebanon War broke out, Rabbi Yisroel Zev Gustman declared that it was a milchemes mitzvah and later announced that since Jews were fighting on the front, every yeshiva student must sleep at night like soldiers, meaning a few hours and with shoes as if they were on the front lines, and not to waste even a minute.

 

Klal Yisroel has children literally putting their lives on the line every day to protect all of us. Their service involves sleepless nights, stormy weather, parents who don’t hear from their children for days, wives who have no idea if their husband will ever make it home, children who yearn for their fathers and live in constant fear, loss of life, severe injuries, and the strong risk of all of it. This is what faces our soldiers and their families daily and it is frightening.

 

Our soldiers and their families are being moseir nefesh for our cause, are we doing our part to leave our comfort zone, push ourselves, maximize our time and efforts to make our contribution?  Our soldiers are living in unimaginably limited ways, are we minimally adopting limitations on our lives to at least be nosei b’ol, feel the plight and pain and discomfort of our brothers and sisters? 

 

I was talking to a friend from our community this week and he mentioned in passing that he hasn’t had chocolate since the war started.  Each time he has a craving and is tempted to indulge, he reminds himself of the conditions the soldiers are living in and decides he can forgo a pleasure as a small way of feeling their pain. 

 

What adjustments are we making to our lives and routines to reflect that for so many of our people, nothing is normal?  Will we really indulge in an elaborate vacation during Yeshiva Week this year while a war rages for our people, or will we mute our vacation and recreation as a way of demonstrating a connection with those who haven’t had a moment off since this began?  Do our simchas reflect our condition or do they carry on as if no existential threat faces our people?  Can we complain about petty discomforts or inconveniences while members of our family are sleeping on the floor, outdoors under trees, fighting not only our enemies, but the elements like bitter cold and rain?

 

Passing up on a piece of chocolate or forgoing an elaborate vacation or business as usual simcha may not directly eliminate Hamas, but it does connect us to our people, helps us resonate with their conditions, and powers us to pour it into heartfelt tefillos, and that makes all the difference in the world.  Nothing gets a parent’s attention or response more than children caring about one another and feeling each other’s pain. 

 

The lives of our precious soldiers and of all our brothers and sisters in Israel has been interrupted and severely disrupted. Those contributing from within the walls of the Beis Medrash, and all of us wherever we are with whatever we have to offer, must push ourselves to the limit as well.  We cannot carry on in ordinary ways during these extraordinary times. 

In the early 20^th century, universities in America, including elite Ivy league schools, imposed a Jewish quota, denying many qualified and worthy applicants’ entry, simply because they were Jewish.  For example, A. Lawrence Lowell, president of Harvard University from 1909-1933, labeled the growth of Jewish students at Harvard as the “Jew problem” and asserted that the growing number of Jewish students at Harvard would “ruin the college.” He proposed reducing the number of Jewish students at Harvard by imposing higher standards of admissions to members of “the Hebrew race.”

 

While 100 years later, Jews are admitted to college campuses, today, in many cases, they are not welcome there and simply are not safe there. Last week, Jewish students had to lock themselves in the Cooper Union library as other students chanted “Free Palestine” outside the doors and held up signs while aggressively and threateningly banging against the glass windows.  A few days ago, threatening statements about Jews on an online discussion board at Cornell University prompted officials to send police to guard a Jewish center and kosher dining hall and found Jewish students hiding in their dormitory rooms.  Jewish students at Columbia University said at a press conference this week that they had recently been subjected to a series of antisemitic incidents in recent weeks, including death threats.

 

These stories and countless others, unimaginable and unfathomable just a month ago, are now becoming the norm, not the exception, on campuses.  Shockingly, many of the hateful students are emboldened or even openly encouraged by professors who endorse and subscribe to the same ideology of hatred and attach their names and respected credentials to letters blaming Israel for October 7 and/or outright supporting Hamas. While reactions of disgust and statements of support have come from the White House, many elected leaders, and other allies, the national outrage, or mass movements that we have seen to confront other forms have hate and bigotry have not emerged.

 

To appreciate how relatively muted the reaction has been, consider the appropriate national reaction if black students were told the black student center was closed because it couldn’t be secured from the racists who threaten black students and all black students need to hide in their dorm room. Imagine Muslim students or LGBTQ students needing to lock themselves in the university library because they are being taunted and threatened. 

 

Campuses are not the only place that antisemitism is on the rise. Reuters reported that in Los Angeles, a man screaming “kill Jews” attempted to break into a family’s home. In London, girls in a playground are told they are “stinking Jews” and should stay off the slide. In China, posts likening Jews to parasites, vampires or snakes proliferate on social media, attracting thousands of supportive reactions. In countries where figures are available, like the United States, antisemitic incidents have gone up a mind-boggling 400% since Oct. 7 compared with the same period last year.

 

Jim Gaffigan, posted: “Does anyone else feel the need to call all their Jewish friends and say, Okay, you weren’t being paranoid?”  Gaffigan is a popular comedian, but his observation is no joke. 

 

In 2017, following the exposure of numerous abuse allegations against high profile individuals, the #Metoo movement swept the country with millions using the phrase and hashtag first in English and soon after in dozens of other languages.  A groundswell of support emerged to stand with victims of abuse and to make clear it would not be tolerated.

 

In 2013, the hashtag  #BlackLivesMatter began after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. The movement returned to the headlines and gained international attention during the George Floyd protests in 2020.  That year, 67% of Americans expressed support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

 

Where are these same voices to defend the Jews? Where is the sweeping outrage, where is the birth of a movement to stand with Jewish lives while there are growing explicit vile threats against innocent Jewish lives?  Why hasn’t #JewishLivesMatter gone viral?  Where are the demands to defund campuses, where is the call to cancel antisemites and Hamas sympathizers? 

 

We would like to believe that the overwhelming majority on campuses and off of them, around America and the world, are decent and moral, disturbed by what happened in Israel and the ripple effects elsewhere. But being disturbed is not enough. Sitting on the sidelines is unacceptable. As Shai Davidai, a professor at Columbia whose passionate speech about campuses not being safe for Jewish students recently went viral, eloquently put it, “To the silent majority: I think we need to talk about your silence.”

 

We need all good people to speak up, act up, confront antisemitism and antisemites and be intolerant of the intolerable. We need a #JewishLivesMatter movement, a sweeping campaign to confront antisemitism and protect Jews everywhere.

 

Elie Wiesel once said: “We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe.”

 

At this moment, standing with Israel and the Jewish people is the center of the universe. As antisemitism grows everywhere, I know how much it means to me to see each and every gesture and demonstration of solidarity with our people and our homeland.  Those who are not indifferent are indeed making a difference.  I opened my front door this week and saw my non-Jewish landscaper riding his lawn mower with Israeli flags flying from it.  An older non-Jewish couple in Ft. Lauderdale airport stopped me to say how upset they are by what is happening and that they stand with the Jewish people and Israel. A video of a non-Jewish construction worker in New York standing up for us and aggressively confronting someone taking down pictures of kidnapped hostages has warmed our hearts.

 

The position we as a people are collectively in right now is a grave cause of concern, and it should and must motivate us to speak up and fight for ourselves.  More than that, it should also inspire us to think about how we feel, what we are going through, and to remember this experience when another group, race, or minority finds itself confronting its enemies.  If even small gestures are meaningful to us, we must express them to others in the future who need to know they aren’t alone or on their own.  If solidarity matters, we must stand with those who are targeted in the future.

 

In last week’s Parsha, when Hashem tests Avraham by asking him to leave his home and all that he knows, He promises to make Avraham great, to bless him and also v’heyei beracha, to be a blessing.  What does it mean to be a blessing? It can’t mean to be blessed because that was already said with avarechecha, I will bless you?  Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch explains that Hashem was not only promising Avraham that he would be blessed, but at the same time was challenging Avraham to take his experience, to learn from his own story and to use it to become a blessing for others.  Others pursue being blessed, satisfying their wants and needs and finding their own happiness.  To be progeny of Avraham is to take our experiences and to pursue becoming a blessing in other people’s lives, using it to help others find justice, security, and ultimately happiness.

 

In this week’s Parsha, Avraham is a blessing by advocating for and protesting on behalf of Sedom.  When Hashem reveals His intent to destroy this corrupt city and society, Avraham doesn’t passively accept with indifference.  He objects, protests, and negotiates on their behalf. 

 

As we find ourselves in this urgent time, a crisis for our people not only in Israel but around the world, we are fair and just in expecting more from the world, in demanding outrage, support and solidarity.  But at the same time, we must demand of ourselves to take this experience and feeling and to be a blessing for others who will need us to be outraged, support and stand in solidarity with them. 

While the primary horrors and atrocities in Israel occurred on October 7, the fallout and aftershocks are continuing every single day. Despite Hamas literally videoing, promoting, and memorialize their brutal and heinous attack using all kinds of media, there are still people questioning the scale and depravity of the massacre.  In response, Israel held a stunning session for the international press sharing gruesome images of the atrocity so that journalists could document in an undeniable way what happened.  Eylon Levy, an Israeli government spokesman, in a video announcing the session, said, “As we work to defeat the terror organization that brutalized our people, we are witnessing a Holocaust denial-like phenomenon evolving in real time as people are casting doubt on the magnitude of the atrocities that Hamas committed against our people, and in fact recorded in order to glorify that violence.”

 

The infiltration, casualties, number of hostages, relentless barrage of rockets, continuous attacks from Gaza and from Lebanon are indeed great reasons for concern, prayers, effort, and support.  The world is coming to learn what Israel has known for a long time: she is surrounded by enemies who seek her utter destruction and annihilation.  The infamous Hamas charter, written in 1988, doesn’t speak of disputed territory, it reads like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and calls for a genocide against Jews.  Hezbollah, Iran and other terror organizations and individuals in the West Bank and elsewhere speak of “from the river to the sea,” a non-subtle euphemism for the destruction of all of Israel. 

 

The last two weeks have seen countless headlines and analyses of the risks of a ground invasion, potential implications for the North in the event of a full-scale war and the possibilities of other nations like Iran or Syria getting involved.  Indeed, there is so much to worry about, work on, daven for, and care about. 

 

But, here is the thing.  While I daven, advocate, and lose sleep over the safety and security our brothers and sisters right now, I am not worried about the long-term future of Israel.  Israel is incredibly resilient, capable, powerful, tenacious, fierce, smart, cunning and strong.  Israel will persevere, the IDF will triumph, the people, though deeply wounded, will bounce back.  These horrific atrocities have brought the people of Israel together, fostered a united country and people.  (I had the privilege to represent our shul and our community this week by bringing supplies, goods, toys, hugs, and love to IDF soldiers and displaced citizens this week. I saw with my own eyes resolve, achdus, and energy the likes of which cannot be believed. I look forward to sharing more with you about this trip in the coming days.)

 

The people of Israel have revealed that underneath the important, often vociferous debate, is a nation of profound faith, unity and conviction.  Israel will emerge stronger than ever.

 

This week’s Parsha is filled with pesukim and stories that feel so relevant today: Avraham first settling in Israel, Hashem promising the land to Avraham and his descendants, the birth of Yishmael and the fateful promise about his future. One of the central highlights is the Bris Bein Habesarim, the “Covenant of Parts,” in which Hashem tells Avraham about the destiny of his descendants: the slavery and suffering they would endure, and the subsequent redemption and settlement in Israel. The Torah describes how Avraham cut up a calf, a ram, and a goat, but ואת הצפור לא בתר – he did not cut the turtledove that was part of the covenant. Rashi explains that Psukim in Tanach compare other nations to calves, to rams, and to goats, and the Jewish people are compared to doves. The animals representing the other nations were cut up, representing their eventual demise. Why wasn’t the bird cut? רֶמֶז שֶׁיִּהְיוּ יִשְֹרָאֵל קַיָּמִין לְעוֹלָם – To symbolize the promise of the Jewish nation’s everlasting future.

 

A video clip was circulating this week of an address given by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks zt”l, whose third yahrtzeit is next week. So many have expressed how much we miss Rabbi Sacks at times like these, and it brought such comfort hearing his voice at an AIPAC policy conference ten years ago, delivering chizzuk with remarks that sound like they could  have been given this week:

 

I have to tell you that what we grew up with, “never again,” is beginning to sound like “ever again.” And at the heart of it is hostility to Israel. Of course, not all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic. But make no mistake what has happened.

 

In the Middle Ages Jews were hated because of their religion. In the 19th century and the 20th, they were hated because of their race. Today, when it’s no longer done to hate people for their religion or their race, today they are hated because of their State. The reason changes, but the hate stays the same. Anti-Zionism is the new anti-Semitism. …

 

Today what is at stake in Israel’s survival is the future of freedom itself. Because make no mistake, this will be the defining battle of the 21st century, which will prevail: the will to power with its violence, terror, missiles, and bombs; or the will to life with its hospitals, schools, freedoms, and rights. …

 

Every time I visit Israel I find among Israelis, secular or religious, an absolute unswerving dedication to Moshe Rabbenu’s great command Uvacharta Bachayim, “Choose life.” Israel is the sustained defiance of hatred and power in the name of life because we are the people who sanctify life. …

 

Judaism is the defeat of probability by the power of possibility. And nowhere will you see the power of possibility more than in the State of Israel today. Israel has taken a barren land and made it bloom again. Israel has taken an ancient language, the language of the Bible, and make it speak again. Israel has taken the West’s oldest faith and made it young again. Israel has taken a shattered nation and make it live again. Friends, let us not rest until Israel’s light shines throughout the world, the world’s great symbol of life and hope.

 

While we must not stop davening, donating, supporting and visiting, Israel will ultimately be ok.  The real question is what will happen next for those Jews living outside of Israel?  While even before October 7, everyone knew about the enemies surrounding Israel, few of us truly knew how many enemies were living in our midst and how, given the opportunity, they would boldly and brazenly rear their ugly heads and ideas. 

 

Surely, we thought, taking sides on an issue so clear and obvious like supporting innocent civilians, elderly, children and women who were victims of a series of pogroms and systematic murders versus associating with and sympathizing with, or full-on endorsing wicked and evil terrorists, the choice would be clear. Even if one was regularly critical of Israel and supportive of Palestinian statehood, surely it would be simple to condemn objective atrocities and express sympathy for butchered civilians and kidnapped hostages.

 

Instead, the last two weeks have been an enormous wakeup call to Jews of the Diaspora.  Ivy League universities, once considered bastions of intellectualism, centers of sophistication, capitals of progress and advancement have abandoned their Jewish students, failing to protect them from Hamas-sympathizing fellow students and professors.  Long considered spiritually dangerous for Torah Jews, college campuses and others are now literally dangerous physically for those who proudly identify as Jews or supporters of Israel.   Every day seems to bring new stories that should shake us all. An Israeli at Columbia got beaten with a stick. Jewish students at Cooper Union were locked in a library while a horde of threatening students, some encouraged by professors, banged on the doors and windows.  Jews on campuses across the country are being threatened, harassed, and physically intimidated, while the academics at these institutions issue statements about “escalations of violence” at best or simply casting Hamas’s atrocities as “resistance” and blaming Israel for everything that happened on October 7 at worst. One professor at a prestigious college gave a horrifying speech, captured on video, in which he described feeling “exhilarated” watching the events of October 7 unfold.

 

The images and videos of pro Hamas rallies in cities across the US, Europe and around the world is shocking, jarring, and downright scary. They have included swastikas and actual calls to “gas the Jews.”  We learned that for some, while Black Lives Matter and some other forms of prejudice are so serious and have zero tolerance, Jewish lives don’t matter and antisemitism is open for debate, as organizations purportedly devoted to civil rights and justice were unashamed to celebrate terrorists who paraglided into a rave killing 260 innocent people.   We experienced a legacy media that abandoned journalistic principles and practices, all too eager to swallow and regurgitate Hamas propaganda without verification or substantiation. 

 

We witnessed elected Congresspeople stand with the perpetrators over the victims and spread a blood libel falsely accusing Israel of striking a hospital, actions with real consequences. 

 

Of course, we have also witnessed extraordinary expressions and demonstrations of support, from the majority of Congress who passionately and compassionately stand with Israel, to President Biden who has demonstrated enormous support by traveling into a war, asking for significant funding for Israel and steadfastly supporting Israel’s right to defend herself, to zealous advocacy for Israel from many elected officials, including those who stand to alienate themselves in their parties and caucuses, including Congressman Ritchie Torres.  We have seen billionaires withdraw their funding and their longstanding ties with universities and institutions that are underserving of them.  We have experienced media who were moved to tears over what happened in Israel.

Yes, there are reasons to be hopeful and optimistic but with all the enemies that Israel faces, the safety, security and rights of the Jews in the diaspora feel the most vulnerable and fragile of any point in my lifetime. 

 

Of course, the simple answer to the now-revealed condition of Jews around the world is to move to Israel.  Certainly, Israel is our homeland, it is our destiny, and now more than ever we should recognize it should be part of each of our final destinations.  Even if we don’t live in Israel now, Aliyah must be a question not of if, but of when, for all of us. 

 

However, realistically, just as throughout our history there were multiple centers of Jewish life and Torah, the likelihood is that the millions of Jews living in the Diaspora are not picking up and moving tomorrow.  So what will be?  How should we confront the new reality we have seen?  While spiritually and now physically unsafe, are there consequences of having universities and college campuses that have no Jewish students, nobody to advocate for Israel, no representatives of our people?  Is there more we can do to ensure terrorist sympathizers aren’t elected to any office in this country?  Is cancelling subscriptions to legacy media that has a clear bias enough or can more be done to hold journalists accountable?  And perhaps most importantly, have the rallies and people despicably tearing down posters of kidnapped Jews changed our security considerations at our Shuls, schools and Jewish communities?  Do we continue to trust our outstanding local law enforcement and intelligence who protect us or does our sobering new reality demand elevated security measures for ourselves?

 

I don’t have answers to these questions, but they need to be consistently spoken about and considered.  Israel has changed forever, but so has the world of those who don’t yet live there.