Day 2- Muslims Leaders at March of the Living
Day Two – Poland
On the first day of this delegation, I wrote about encounter, about hope, and about that fragile but real sense that something better is possible when people choose to meet each other as human beings.
Today, on day two, I didn’t need to imagine it, I lived it.
I always teach my delegations about the righteous among the nations, those individuals who, in the darkest chapters of history, chose to stand up, to resist silence, and to bring light when everything around them was darkness.
And today I was overwhelmed.
I marched alongside 22 Muslim leaders, and each one of them, in their own way, felt like a modern expression of that same idea, righteous among the nations not as history, but as a living responsibility.
The theme of the march was standing against antisemitism. And here i was standing up against antisemitism with people I am proud to call my colleagues and friends.
Muslim leaders who are not only showing up in solidarity, but who will go back to their communities and speak, teach, and challenge. People who understand that silence is not an option and that moral courage has to be practised.
As we walked, I kept noticing the same thing.
People stopped. They stared. They asked questions. Some were emotional.
And then came the words that stayed with me all day: thank you.
Thank you for being here.Thank you for walking with us.
If yesterday was about encounter, today was about something deeper, it was about presence becoming visible. About light that is not theoretical, but carried through streets, through conversations, through real human beings standing side by side.
This is what I mean when I speak about being a shining light in this region and in this world about what it means to be a modern-day righteous among the nations. These are the people who, in today’s society, choose to stand up when it would be easier to stay silent.
People who keep showing up, again and again, in places where history is heavy, and who I am grateful every single day that Sharaka exists. It gives me hope, purpose, and the privilege of walking alongside people who are actively choosing a different path, one of courage, understanding, and humanity.
And my message, if I can leave one, is simple: be a ray of light in a world that often feels dark. Even the smallest light matters more than we think.
