No matter what.

My dad signs off every one of my birthday cards with “keep doing the right thing” and my mom ends every conversation with “love you more”. Both of them. Without fail. Every single time.

I was raised to stand up for what’s right and to love deeply, no matter what. It’s in my blood and it should absolutely be in yours too. Because in times like these, when the world is faced with so much hate and despair, it feels like if you don’t do those two things, no one else will.

For the past few weeks, I’ve spent hours and hours reading articles, watching videos, looking at graphics and listening to interviews. Post after post, I continuously think to myself “how?!” – how can such evil exist and HOW in the world can people justify it. I’ve felt such a range of emotions, from sadness and anger when seeing pictures of missing hostage posters being ripped down to pride and hope when watching videos of soldiers praying and singing together as they prepare to go into war zones (literally) to defend themselves.

I feel for every human being who has been affected by what has happened since this war began on October 7th. And for all those around the globe who are constantly faced with senseless hatred for that matter. But we must get one thing straight – it’s Hamas against the world. It started toward us Jews and that was loud and clear. Unfortunately, it always has been. The pure hate has spread in unimaginable ways and us Jews are way too used to people simply not believing in our right to exist. And receiving backlash for consistently having no choice but to fight back. It doesn’t end here though, the evil will continue in every way/shape/form and they will, no doubt, come for you too.

So when us Jews urge you to simply condemn a terrorist organization (which is even heartbreaking having to ask of someone), please take a second to think of why it is SO hard for you to do that. For you to accept our right to exist. For you to just do the right thing. For you to love deeply. It seems like you will just never care for us as much as we have cared for you.

And I’ll end this the same way I did last time on here – I promise to love being Jewish thousands of times more than anyone hates me for it.