In This Moment

By every measure, the events of this past year represent the most destabilizing times we have encountered in our lifetimes. Today, we are revisiting the tragedy of one year ago, recalling our disbelief and pain, as we saw our Israeli brothers and sisters experiencing something that the Jewish people had not known since the Holocaust.

But the loss we encountered on the 7th of October, its imprint has continued. That moment would metastasize into a year of anguish, anxiety, and anger as Israelis endured a difficult military campaign that even to this day continues without a final resolution, both in terms of the fate of the hostages and the status of Hamas. With it has come a different kind of war directed against global Jewry, Zionism and Israel, as a battle has been unleashed questioning the status and place of Jews in our society, the right of a Jewish State to exist, and the place of Zionist thought among accepted liberal ideas and beliefs.

No doubt, beyond the battle lines, this year has also drawn us to the on-going challenges facing Israel as a democracy and exposed its role and responsibility in dealing with two peoples on one land.

This is also a war to undo the modern Jewish story. We are collectively under attack for the first time since the end of Nazism. This is conflict being waged today on many stages, by Iran and its proxies, by the political left and its allies, by some on the extreme right, and by the many within the international community who see Jews as expendable.

This is also a generational war, as we see for the first time in modern history that the new hatred of Jews is being driven by a generation of 18- to 35-year-olds, who have discovered and are employing anti-Semitism. This is contest being carried forward on social media, as our enemies have captured these platforms to serve as their staging areas for an attack on Jews, Judaism, and the case for Zionism.

Our institutions have become fortresses, defending, and protecting us as we enter and depart. Where once we could be Jews in the public square, today we question how and if we should show up in those spaces.

On this anniversary of loss and of remembrance, we find ourselves living in a different place, experiencing a different existence.