Fern Sidman is Senior News Editor at Jewish Voice and spoke at the memorial in NY for Meir Kahane Hy"d yesterday:
Friends, brothers, and sisters - we’re not just here today to look back at history. We’re here to look forward - toward destiny. We didn’t come only to remember a man or a movement, but to remind ourselves of a calling - a calling that shook Jews awake all over the world to rediscover what it really means to be proud, to be strong, and to take responsibility for our people’s safety.
We’re standing here thirty-five years after the assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane - (may his memory be for a blessing and may God avenge his blood) - and we’re asking ourselves: what was it about this man, about his message, that speaks so loudly to us today? What was it he saw that so many refused to see?
Rabbi Kahane, zt’l taught us that Jewish life is sacred, that Jewish identity is nothing to apologize for, and that Jewish survival - both spiritual and physical - requires readiness, courage, and absolute faith.
Our people have been walking through the fire for over three thousand years - through exiles, inquisitions, pogroms, and rebirths. From the ashes of Jerusalem to the ruins of Europe, from the ghettos to the miracle of our homeland, one truth has never changed: Hashem’s covenant with Am Yisrael endures. It is what binds us - yesterday, today, and tomorrow. It’s what drives us to remember, to act, and to rebuild, again and again.
Rabbi Kahane was a Brooklyn boy - born in 1932 into a world already trembling with upheaval. He grew up with one foot in the beit midrash and the other in the public square. He was shaped by the Torah he learned at the Mirrer yeshiva and by the hard lessons of a century that showed what happens when Jews grow too comfortable and the world grows too quiet.
He learned early that complacency kills. He studied the story of European Jewry - destroyed not only by hatred but by the silence of bystanders. He saw that when Jews hesitate, when we hope others will fight our battles for us, tragedy follows. If the Holocaust taught us anything, it taught us that out of that realization came a simple but powerful conviction: the Jewish people must never again be spectators in their own destiny.
That belief - that sense of self-reliance and moral clarity - sparked a rebirth of Jewish pride that changed communities around the world.
In the 1960s and 70s during the nascent days of the Jewish Defense League, when America was going through cultural upheaval, Jews were finding their voice again. Antisemitism still lingered - you could feel it in the country clubs, the boardrooms, and the universities. It wasn’t shouted; it was whispered. But alongside that poison came a powerful awakening: the movement to free Soviet Jewry, the victories of Israel’s young state, and a new generation of Jews proud to learn Hebrew, to wear kippot in public, to stand tall as Jews.
Rabbi Kahane was one of those who made it okay to stand tall again. His Jewish Defense League didn’t emerge out of anger - it came out of necessity. He wanted to make sure that never again would Jewish blood be cheap. He created community patrols, self-defense training, and the idea that protecting Jewish life wasn’t someone else’s job - it was ours.
Now, my friends, the dangers we face today look a little different - but make no mistake, they’re just as real. In Rabbi Kahane’s time, threats came in the streets. In our time, they come through screens. Hatred travels at lightning speed now - spreading on social media, on chat boards, on anonymous accounts. It’s the same old antisemitism, just dressed up in hashtags and algorithms. What used to fester on the fringes now spreads in seconds - viral lies turning into real-world threats.
But the battlefield today isn’t only digital - it’s ideological. We’re watching a dangerous fusion take shape - what people are calling the “Red-Green Alliance.” It’s the marriage of radical leftist movements and political Islam - two forces that on paper couldn’t be more different, but that share the same venom toward Israel, toward capitalism, toward the West, and toward the very idea of Jewish sovereignty.
And from that toxic brew, we’re seeing new political figures rise - people who wrap themselves in the language of “justice” and “progress,” but whose real mission is to tear down Israel and the Jewish people. One of them, Zohran Mamdani - the new mayor of New York City - calls himself a “Democratic Socialist,” but his ideology is steeped in old Marxist hatred. It’s the same playbook - only now it’s packaged as moral virtue.
Rabbi Kahane, in his prescience and wisdom saw this coming over a half century ago. He consistently warned us that if we didn’t face our enemies honestly, they would come not just with guns and bombs, but with words and ideas that would corrode the Jewish spirit from within. And after what we saw on October 7, 2023 - when Hamas terrorists slaughtered 1,200 innocent souls in the most barbaric way imaginable - we know how right he was.
Rabbi Kahane used to say, “If you want to know what they’d (the Arabs) do to us if given the chance, look at what they do to each other.” Those weren’t words of hate - they were words of warning. They were reality. And on October 7th, that reality came home in the most horrifying way.
What we saw that day - the cruelty, the sheer evil - tore a hole in the world’s conscience. But what happened after may be even more shocking: how quickly so many in the West justified it, excused it, even celebrated it. On campuses, in city halls, on social media - the masks fell. The hatred that had been simmering erupted into the open.
Our young people on college campuses are being hounded for being Jewish. Professors are excusing terror as “resistance.” Online mobs are cheering for Hamas. What used to be unthinkable has become normal.
So what do we do? We fight back. We protect our synagogues, our children, our truth. We challenge the lies. We build coalitions. We show up. We say Hineni - “Here I am.”
Rabbi Kahane’s message was simple but eternal: Jewish survival doesn’t depend on the goodwill of others. It depends on our own courage - our willingness to stand up, to speak truth, to defend ourselves in body and in spirit. He taught us that our greatest weapon isn’t fear, it’s faith.
Thirty-five years ago, on the very night he was taken from us, Rabbi Kahane stood in a Manhattan hotel ballroom and told his audience something that rings even louder today: that the forces of darkness had gathered, that the time had come for Jews to return home to Israel, to the land promised by Hashem. He said that like Avraham Avinu, we must be ready to leave comfort behind and walk toward destiny.
That message isn’t just about geography - it’s about mindset. It’s about refusing to let fear dictate our choices. It’s about fortifying our souls and our communities with moral clarity. It’s about standing up in a confused world and saying, “We are proud Jews, loyal to Hashem, loyal to Torah, loyal to Israel, loyal to truth.”
And that brings us to this week’s Torah portion that we read in shul yesterday - Parashat Vayera.
In it we encounter Avraham Avinu at the height of his spiritual journey - the man who stood alone against the world, who challenged the idolatry of his generation, who pleaded with Hashem for the righteous of Sodom, and who ultimately stood ready to sacrifice to Hashem the very son through whom the covenant of Israel was meant to continue. It is here that we see, perhaps most clearly, the essence of the Jewish mission: faith under fire, moral clarity amidst confusion, and an unflinching readiness to say “Hineni” - “Here I am.”
In the narrative of Vayera, the Torah presents three distinct moments where Avraham utters that holy word. Each represents a different dimension of spiritual courage and devotion, and each carries profound meaning for us today as Jews confronting our own trials - trials not upon the windswept mountains of Moriah, but in the streets and institutions of our modern world.
Hineni is not just a word. It’s a declaration. It means: I’m ready. I’m present. I’m faithful - even when I don’t understand, even when the world is against me.
And that’s the same call we’re hearing now. As New York - the largest Jewish city outside of Israel - faces the leadership of a mayor who’s overtly hostile to Israel and the Jewish people, we have to decide how we’ll respond. Will we shrink? Or will we answer as our forefathers did - Hineni.
Because the tests haven’t changed. The platforms may be digital now, the language more polished, but the hatred is the same. And so must our response be the same - not fear, not silence, but strength, pride, and faith.
So today, as we remember the extraordinary life and legacy of Rabbi Kahane and his undeniable impact on Jewish history, as we honor his unflinching courage and his unwavering sacrifice, let’s say what he said to the world: We are here. We are awake. We are not going anywhere.
We stand affirmed in a different but no less urgent mission: to defend Jewish life, to deepen Torah study, to fortify institutions, to educate truthfully, and to offer aliyah as the noble answer to persecution.
Hineni. Here we are. Ready to defend, ready to believe, ready to fight for the Jewish people - with Torah in our hearts, courage in our hands, and Hashem by our side.
May the memory of HaRav Meir David ben Yechezkel Shraga HaCohen be for a blessing and may he continue to be a melitz yoshor for Klall Yisroel. And let us remember those that we lost on October 7th - those we have lost in the tunnels of Gaza and the hundreds of brave IDF soldiers who sacrificed their lives for our safety. May their precious neshomathave an aliya in Gan Eden and may their memories be for a blessing. May our deeds honor their names. May the God of Israel preserve us, strengthen our hearts, and lead us toward a future of safety, Torah, and peace.
And may we merit the day when the navi Yishayahu’s vision is realized: “Violence shall no more be heard in your land, nor ruin within your borders.” Until that day, let us be vigilant, loving, and brave. May it be in that zchut, that we hasten the arrival of Moshiach Tzidkenu.
Mesure for Measure
By Rabbi Meir Kahane, Hy"d
[Written on March 16, 1979. From the book, “Beyond Words,” Volume 3.]
“In the measure with which a man measures, it is meted out to him” (Tractate Sotah 3b).
The most basic foundation of Judaism is the belief that there is a G-d in Heaven who created, creates and controls the destiny of the world. Individuals and nations are subject to His Will, and there is reward and punishment that flows from our actions.
But the greatness of the Almighty is manifested not only in reward and punishment, per se, but in the manner that man’s deeds are either blessed with success or foiled. In the measure with which a man measures his world and his life and deeds, it is meted out to him:
The good and the bad. The clearest manifestation of Divine Providence and guidance and control comes from the reward or punishment appearing in the very same measure with which man’s deeds were measured.
And so, there are times when the man who refused to give of his wealth sees that wealth turned to ashes. And there are times when the honor that the person seeks proves to be, precisely, his undoing and shame.
But above all, there is the measure for measure that the All Mighty metes out in the totally natural sense. It is a measure, a punishment or reward that flows from the natural consequences of our actions. Thus, a man who joins with a confederate to betray a friend will invariably find himself the victim of the confederate. It is the natural tendency of a betrayer to betray everyone, and whoever betrayed his friend and trusted in the confederate now suffers the natural consequences of his actions.
It is as if the Almighty says to the sinner: “Very well. If this is the road that you choose, accept the consequences of your own actions.”
What holds true for individuals is true, too, of nations. And the Jewish people today, the State of Israel, both stand before the G-d of measure for measure, and it is their own choice, their own conduct, that will determine for them, through the natural consequences of their actions, their fate.
Already we can see the results. Trust in the Almighty, no matter how frightening or dangerous such a course seems - or, instead, dependence on the gentile. That was and is the choice before Israel. In a world when, at the drop of a crisis, even the “religious” drop the Almighty as irrelevant to “practicality,” who opts for faith in G-d?
And so, the Jewish state, fearful of angering America, obsessed with the need to pacify world opinion (and the Jews of the Exile), refuses to do G-d’s Will; refuses to annex the territories; refuses to allow unlimited Jewish settlement; offers “autonomy” to the Arabs; offers to give up an entire Sinai Peninsula to man who praises Nazis, a Jew-hater named Sadat.
The result? The world blames Israel for being stubborn and intransigent. The world blames Israel for torturing Arab prisoners. The world condemns Israel no matter what, and our fear of the world is sensed by all our enemies, and they are inspired by this fear and encouraged to attack us even more. The natural consequences of our actions: that is what G-d gives unto us, we who choose to fear the gentile, rather than to fear Hashem.
We were faced in 1975 with the choice of telling the United States and Egypt, “no,” when they demanded a retreat in the Sinai. We trembled before Kissinger and Ford (the same Ford we now honor in Jerusalem, since he may become president again in 1980). We trembled and asked G-d to leave us alone as we gave up the oil fields of Sinai lest Washington stop its arms supplies to us. The Shah would give us oil, we said, Washington will guarantee us sufficient supplies. And so, we opted for the Shah and Washington and we now suffer the natural consequences of that choice.
The Shah is gone and so is his oil and in their place is an Iran that will soon have troops on Israel’s eastern border. And Washington? Our dependence on her is greater than ever; this is exactly what she wishes, and the pressure on Israel will grow that much more, because of it. The natural consequences of our actions are in the hands of the All Mighty, who brings things to pass according to our deeds and measure of loyalty to Him.
The more we fear man, the greater is our obvious dependence on him. That in turn leads, naturally, to his increasing the pressure and the threats - which only terrifies us more, leading to increasing surrender. And so it goes. We drink deeply of the hemlock that we chose to pour into our own cup.
We feared to drive out the Arabs, who hate us with a fearful hatred that one cannot even imagine.
We feared what the world would say, and so we kept them, in disregard of G-d’s commandment.
Very well, we pay, today, the natural consequences. We allowed them to stay and they stay to be for us “thorns in our eyes and prickles in our sides, and they harass us in the land in which we dwell” (Numbers 33:55). And they grow and threaten, by their very population, the Jewishness of the State of Israel. And they become more outspoken and militant, and demand autonomy in the Galilee and “rights,” and send blessings to the PLO, and the chief Moslem religious leader in Jerusalem wires congratulations to Khomeini and prays for the day of Moslem liberation of Jerusalem.
And all the things we feared - that the world would condemn us for driving out Arabs - occurs anyhow, but this time with the Arabs in our midst and we, naked of the faith that would have brought us G-d’s victory. As the Arabs riot and the army and police hit them and gas them and shoot them and pull them by their hair, the Times and Time and the world will feature all this on their front pages, and Israel will be savagely condemned. The natural consequences of our actions, we the people of little faith who opted for man instead of the Almighty.
The fact is that, had we opted for G-d; had we had faith in Him and truly believed; had we been blessed with great leaders instead of little men - the Almighty would have taken the same set of facts and events and caused them, naturally, to turn about.
The same events in Iran can move the United States to react in two different, opposite ways. They can cause the United States to realize that the Arab world is a paper tiger; that the Soviets are winning the Cold War; that it is time to take firm action and rely on a firm ally, Israel.
Or they can cause the gentile in Washington to think quite differently. To look at the same set of facts and arrive at a completely different position: that more than ever it is vital to preserve America’s standing in the Middle East; that America must prop up Saudi Arabia; that Egypt must be the military counterweight to Iran; that America must show the Arab world (and the Islam renaissance) that they are their friends by abandoning Israel.
The Almighty is the one who hardens the heart of a Pharaoh or softens it. He makes the gentile look at facts in one way, rather than another. He moves man and He moves events and He moves the world, and all are clay in the hands of a potter.
If only we had faith! If only the foolish secular nationalists realized how sterile and irrelevant their words and deeds are! If only we had leaders who truly believed! If only our teachers drank from the pure well of faith and trust in an Almighty who commands us to do the difficult and dangerous; to deliberately opt for isolation and condemnation; to stand alone, isolated from the nations.
“Oh, that thou wouldest harken unto My commandments! Then would thy peace be as a river . . .” (Isaiah 48:18). Oh, that we would measure our actions with the measure of faith and belief. Then would He mete out to us a measure in kind - a measure of Redemption, of peace and of a Messianic era.