It hasn’t even been a year since I stood in front of the congregation on Yom Kippur to reflect on my experience in the Yom Kippur War fifty years prior. The following week, I went to Israel to visit family for Sukkot. On Simchat Torah, October 7th, 2023, at 6:30 AM, we woke up to sirens and knew something serious was going on. I couldn’t believe that fifty years later, we were embroiled in yet another war.
The following day, I joined Achim Leneshek, or Brothers in Arms, and volunteered with the organization for the next three weeks, preparing meals and sorting care packages for reservists and displaced families. Whenever the sirens went off, the entire volunteer group – hundreds of people – would have to move together to the underground parking lot that acted as an improvised shelter.
Since I came back to the states, Avi and I have been supporting the Hostages and Missing Families Forum as they protest to bring the hostages home. This has been a rough year and a half for people who love Israel. When we started protesting the judicial coup, we feared that something like this would happen, that the direction the country was taking under this extreme government would compromise both Israel’s security and the strength of Israel’s democratic institutions. On October 7th, our worst fears came true.
Stephen Decatur said this famous quote about the then-new United States: “My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.” Israel today needs to be set right. We love Israel and are doing what we can to support it, through volunteerism and activism, because we want to see Israel thriving and being a light to the nations. We hope to see a return of all of the hostages and a path to peace.
