Resilience Unites: The Enduring Spirit of America and Israel

The Olympics are a time when nations unite to cheer for their athletes. While watching Team USA and the myriad of vignettes showcasing our athletes’ stories, something struck me. Whether it was Noah Lyles and his childhood asthma, Sunni Lee overcoming kidney disease, or Simone Biles’ “redemption tour,” every athlete’s story focused on their ability to overcome adversity and their incredible resilience. We Americans laud the resilient, and for good reason.

The heroics of a particular American Olympian, Louis Zamperini, are exceptionally poignant. Louis ran the 5000-meter for Team USA in the 1936 Berlin games. He then served in the US Air Force during WWII, where his plane crashed into the Pacific. He was stranded at sea for 47 days before being captured by the Japanese, taken to multiple prisoner-of-war camps, beaten, and tortured. He survived, and his story is the subject of the best-selling book “Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand and multiple feature-length films. Zamperini epitomizes unimaginable resilience.

Olympians are idealized and made into heroes in our culture, in large part because of their ability to overcome adversity and achieve great success.

The story of Israel, and frankly the Jewish people, is also one of resilience. It is this fundamental shared value that unites the USA and Israel. The founding narrative of both countries is one of pioneers transforming arid land into thriving nations; Israel’s journey mirrors the American ideal of bootstrapping and perseverance. 76 years later, Israel is far from perfect in achieving this ideal, but then again, so is America after 248 years. For both, building an ideal society is a work in progress.

When American politicians talk about the shared values that bind us with Israelis—freedom, democracy, equality, and pluralism—that is true. But I suggest there is a more foundational value that we share: resilience, and within it, the idea that we are part of something bigger, to be a source of good in the world. It is this shared cultural value that George Washington expressed to the Jewish community of Rhode Island in his oft-cited letter in 1790: “The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation… May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the goodwill of the other Inhabitants.”

In July, during a visit to Kibbutz Nahal Oz, I witnessed firsthand the stark realities faced by Israelis living near Gaza. As soon as we stepped off our bus, it was clear we had entered another world. We heard the non-stop buzzing of IDF drones above, apache helicopters, and the echoes of explosions. But it was the whiz of projectiles that was the most jarring.

As an American, I am not used to hearing rockets, missiles, or any other projectiles. Neither were the other 60 Americans I was with. Many in the group were gripped with fear; others understandably sobbed. But for the residents of Nahal Oz, the sounds were routine. These Israelis, who had recently endured unimaginable loss, demonstrated a resilience that felt almost superhuman. Much of the same can be said of the almost 100,000 Israelis who have been displaced from Northern Israel while their communities are bombed and burned by Hezbollah. Israelis’ ability to continue living fully amidst such turmoil is a testament to the indomitable human spirit—a spirit that Americans can understand and respect.

It must be said that Gazan civilians suffer the tragedy of living on the other side of this equation. Because Hamas uses the morally hideous practice of human shields—hiding in tunnels beneath a civilian population that is often forced to stay in harm’s way—those same sounds of explosions and projectiles are headed in their direction. The catastrophic reality is that innocent Palestinian civilians have suffered and died at the hands of their terrorist overlords’ strategy. Innocent Palestinian civilians were the first hostages of Hamas, and Gd willing, they will be freed, along with the Israeli hostages, from their tormentors soon.

A group’s leaders have a choice: to promulgate a narrative of resilience and agency or a narrative of victimhood—an idea I expanded on in my January 2024 piece, “Hamas has Palestinians caught in victimhood mentality.” Building a narrative of agency and resilience is critically important.

“That’s true for nations and it’s true for families,” says Professor Robyn Fivush, Director of the Family Narratives Lab at Emory University. Along with Emory psychologist Marshall Duke, Fivush has led research showing that to build resilience “They need to know that they come from a long line of people who are strong, who are resilient, who are brave.”

In discussing the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Fivush said this of our country: “A horrific event happened; we were attacked. But we came together as a nation, persevered, and rose back up together.” The same is said of Israelis post-October 7th.

Jews around the world know this formula well; it is at the center of most of our holidays, whether that be celebrating the exodus from Egypt during Passover, the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem for Hanukkah, or the survival over a genocidal Persian decree for Purim. Our liturgy promulgates this formula throughout: teach each subsequent generation the trials and tribulations of their forefathers, and you will teach them resilience.

There is an important element to the way these stories are taught, says Duke and Fivush: they are all oscillating narratives, as opposed to ascending or descending narratives. They are stories that talk about struggle and overcoming adversity. An idea Duke and Fivush received great attention for in the New York Times piece titled, “The Stories That Bind Us”. These oscillating family narratives not only build resilience but also teach that the person is part of something bigger than themselves—the “intergenerational self.”

It is for these reasons that, despite an active war against Iran and its proxies, on the surface, the population in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem “looks” normal, with beaches and restaurants full. It is the reason that, despite Iranian rhetoric that they will deliver a “crushing response” and that Israel “will weep terribly” for the assassinations of Hezbollah military chief Fuad Shukr and Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, Israelis were found spontaneously singing “The People of Israel Live” in the crowded Machane Yehuda market last Friday afternoon. The Islamic Republic of Iran has done everything it can to sow fear in Israelis, and their response? “We Live!”

These shared values unite the two countries, whereby America’s enemies are Israel’s enemies, and Israel’s enemies are America’s enemies. Together, we stand as teammates in the global fight against evil, much of which is driven by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

When the theocrats of Iran talk of wiping Israel off the map, one must remember that Israel is just the “little Satan.” It is America that they call the “big Satan.” When they chant “death to Israel,” it is immediately followed by chants of “death to America.” The theocrats of Iran understand our shared values and aim to destroy us both. The seven-front war that Iran is currently funding against Israel is merely their first stop on their way to our doorstep. Iran’s nefarious tactics have been put on full display when they were caught “masterminding” anti-Israel/antisemitic protests at Canadian, and likely American, universities, as well as in a recent Microsoft report which confirms “Iran Targeting 2024 Election.” In short, Iran has already penetrated American society and is attempting to divide us.

4,000 years of Jewish history is consistent in that Jews have never been allowed to stay in one place indefinitely. In post-WWII America, Jews built the narrative that we will be social justice warriors, fighting for the rights of all minorities, and in turn, also protecting our own future. Examples such as Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel marching arm in arm with Dr. Martin Luther King in Selma, the leaders of the ACLU, or the great Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The dream was that if the Jewish community fought for the rights of others, those minorities would come to the Jewish community’s defense.

October 8th, and every day since, proved that to be fallacy. Starting on October 8th, even before Israel had militarily responded to Hamas’s terrorist attack, antisemitic vitriol had already spiked across America. In an October 2023 statement to the US Senate, FBI Director Christopher Wray said that “This [antisemitism] is a threat that is reaching, in some way, sort of historic levels,” and that “In fact, our statistics would indicate that for a group that represents only about 2.4% of the American public, they account for something like 60% of all religious-based hate crimes.” One of the most tragic events occurred in Thousand Oaks, California, in November 2023, when Paul Kessler, a Jewish man attending a pro-Israel rally, was attacked and killed by an anti-Israel protestor (the attacker was subsequently charged with involuntary manslaughter).

In March of 2024, The Atlantic ran a feature article titled “The Golden Age of American Jews is Ending”. For The Atlantic, they call out a descending narrative. This need not be the case. As with Jewish history, Israeli history, and American history, we have oscillating narratives, and if this be a valley, we can work to bring us back to a new, higher, peak. Both countries can inspire each other to fight evil, push back hatred, and fulfill President Washington’s promise.

In 1988, Louis Zamperini returned to Japan, the country of his tormentors, as an Olympic torch runner. He ran through the streets waving to the Japanese citizens who were cheering him on. Within his own lifetime, he returned to a country that once abused him as a prisoner of war to experience them celebrating him as a hero.

The resilience that binds America and Israel is more than just a response to adversity; it’s a commitment to something greater than ourselves. It’s the belief that we are part of a larger story, one where we are called to be a force for good in the world. This shared value is the foundation of the US-Israel alliance. As we face new challenges, let us remember that we are stronger together, united by the resilience that defines both nations.