The Jewish world sobbed and smiled together as we saw the first three hostages come back and then the next four. In the days that will follow, we will ride an emotional rollercoaster and see more hostages are coming back alive while we learn that others are no longer among us.
It is a new chapter for the people of Israel and for Jews around the world with each having very different roles to play. For Israelis, the war may break out again amid the sacred task of tending to the wounds, comforting the bereaved, and recovering the economy. For diaspora Jewry, many of the challenges it faces will remain the same. Efforts to delegitimize Israel, antisemitic attacks, and defaming anyone who stands with Israel, will continue.
Whether you are in the diaspora or in Israel, this is a moment we must all seize. We are at a pivotal moment in history. Since October 7th, 2023, we haven’t had a single day to catch our breath. The ceasefire should give us pause to stop and think about our priorities for the coming years. If we do not know what our goals are in times of peace, we do not know what we fight for in times of war.
The coming days are times for every member of the Jewish and friend of Israel to stop everything they are doing, ask themselves what their duty is in the new phase we are in.
For the people in Israel, this task is more clearcut Israelis know better what wounds need to be tended to, what bereaved families must be supported in the coming years, who served in Gaza and might need to be supported through an injury, PTSD, or needs help rebuilding their career or business. Most Israelis want to renew the war and finish off Hamas.
For diaspora Jewry, thinking of the months and years ahead is more complicated. While the ceasefire agreement did stop the physical combat taking place in Gaza for a while, the relentless anti-Israel and antisemitic propaganda machines we have seen around the world did not stop for a moment. The vile antisemitic groups on campus, the rallies in the streets of big cities, and the Qatar-funded outrage machines are all operating on all cylinders.
Jews of the diaspora need to start thinking long-term. Thinking long term means our giving to Israel, prioritizing those organizations that help those affected most by this war, and those who sacrificed most. We need to rethink our local alliances–those who stood with us over the past fifteen months are our true friends; those who haven’t are probably not. And maybe it means moving to Israel.
We must set our sights on the war against our history. Our enemies and the enemies of Israel have a forward-looking decades-long plan to demonize and delegitimize Israel so that it would be socially unacceptable to affiliate or show support for Israel, and so far it is an extraordinary success. We have already seen this success in film, culture, and in the alarming number of elected officials willing to openly support an arms embargo on Israel.
This is not only a war on Israel and its right to exist, but it is also a war on Jewish identity. It has because almost a ritual side of every anti-Israel rally to have chants saying: “Judaism yes, Zionism no.” The incessant focus on making sure they say yes to “Judaism” and to Jews, but not to “Zionism” is a cruel and cynical effort to shape our Judaism as they wish to see it. They will tell us what our history is, they will tell us how to define our national identity, they will modify our hopes and aspirations, and they will tell us what fellow Jews of ours are socially acceptable and which are not. And remember - they are also shouting "Gas the Jews."
It is against this well-funded wave of hostility that we must step forward. Not just for the sake of Israel but for our own sake. Those who think they will get us to omit Jerusalem from our prayers, to forsake our yearning for the return to Zion, to diminish our pride in the extraordinary achievements of the Zionist movement, or to forfeit our history to trends on social media, should think again. It won't help.
While the war in Gaza might be over, the war for our narrative has just begun. When someone sprays graffiti on a Jewish school in Australia, calls in a bomb threat to a Jewish daycare center in Toronto, fires bullets at a Yeshiva in Montreal or vandalizes a Kosher restaurant in New York, their primary goal is not that building, the goal of their attack is no hide who we are–and hide we shall not.
In the coming years our sacred goal will be to fight for a narrative we had taken for granted. We will fight to let the world know why Israel exists, we will fight to make sure the world knows our historical connection to the land of Israel, we will let the world know we stand with on another despite our differences, we will let the world know we will not let antisemites define who we are, and we will let the world know there will be consequences for antisemitism.
We will hold antisemites accountable in academia, in the work place, in our business, and on the streets. The battle of Jews in the diaspora carries on irrespective of the war in Israel. We have seen the extraordinary mobilization diaspora Jewry has shown over the apst fifteen months and are well positioned to many victories ahead.