Though soaked, my family and I had a dance party in our Honda Odyssey on the way home from today’s UJA Walk With Israel. Our spirits were high, we were all a little hyper, and despite the rain, had such a fun time walking up Bathurst Street in Toronto with 56,000 of our closest family and friends.

For whatever reason, Spotify decided we needed to hear Hasidic-rock, and so played Mi Shema’amin - “He who believes” by Benny Friedman.

These lyrics are the ones that got me:

Ha’am haze, hu mishpacha
Echad ve’od echad ze sod ha’hatzlacha
Am Yisrael loh yevater
Tamid al hamapa anachnu nisha’er

This nation is a family
One and then another, that’s the secret of our success
The Nation of Israel will never give up
We will always stay on the map

That’s it. A perfect summary of this year's Walk with Israel: A family, one by one, never giving up, forever staying on the map.

This week, the streets of Toronto bore witness to something extraordinary: 56,000 Jews and allies standing shoulder to shoulder, wrapped in blue and white, singing, marching, and declaring with their presence that Am Yisrael Chai—the Jewish people live!

In a world that seems increasingly hostile, where antisemitism hides behind the language of “activism” (a paltry group stood by and tried to shout as us today but was quickly drowned out by our cheers and our pride) and where the very legitimacy of our existence is debated in university halls and on city streets, today’s march was a thunderous reply: We are here! We are proud! We are not going anywhere.

That’s me, in the middle. (Photo: UJA)

This wasn’t just a walk. It was a celebration. A defiant affirmation of life, identity, and history. It was Jews of every stripe - religious and secular, young and old, recent immigrants and seventh-generation Canadians - gathering not out of fear, but out of love. Love for Israel. Love for one another. Love for our story that refuses to end.

The haters - hiding their pathetic faces and trying to shout at our children - watched today’s images with gritted teeth. And why? Because deep down, they know: no one does community like the Jews. We bury our dead with honour, we dance at our weddings like no one else is watching, and when we suffer a blow, we don’t scatter—we draw closer. When Israel is demonized, we don't hide; we put on our Star of David necklaces, our dogtags, wave our flags higher, and make plans for our next rally, next lecture, next campaign event, and next gala.

We are the people of the unbroken covenant, and it shows.

Yes, they hate us - but let's be honest: much of it is a jealous misunderstanding of how such a small, defiant people, can continue to persist.

-Jealousy that a people exiled from their land for two millennia could not only return, but rebuild it into a thriving democracy in a region that doesn’t exactly overflow with freedom.

-Jealousy that a community punched so many times by history gets up every time with more strength, more unity, and more conviction than before.

-Jealousy that our identity is rooted in something eternal, and not just the fleeting outrage of the week.

Photo: UJA

Zionism isn’t just about defending Israel’s right to exist. It’s about Jewish dignity. It’s about reclaiming agency over our destiny, refusing to apologize for surviving, and insisting that our children inherit a world where being a Jew is not a liability, but a badge of honour. And this week in Toronto, 56,000 people proved that this fire burns strong.

Let the world watch.

Let them misquote, misrepresent, and misunderstand.

We know who we are.

We know what we’re fighting for.

And we know that if you hate a people who survived Pharaoh, Haman, Hitler, and Hamas—you’re not opposing oppression, you're opposing miracles.

They hate us because they ain’t us.

Let our hostages go, now. Fight Hamas until they are freed.

Kol ha’kavod to UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, the Shomrim, the Toronto Police, all the security guards who were there to help, and every other organization that came out to make this event a success.