Strengthening our home

“The land around Route 232 is stained with the blood of innocents and that of their tormentors, the tools of the crimes lying along the side of the road, telling a ghastly tale that will be etched into Jewish memory for centuries to come.”

Route 232 used to be a main road connecting the various kibbutzim of the South to one another.

I lived along this route in Kibbutz Magen from 2011 – 2012.

This route connected us to other Kibbutzim in the area for festivals and parties + hiking routes and beautiful nature parks.

This route connected us to our Army bases and friends in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and all over our beloved homeland.

What happened is truly devastating, tragic, and traumatizing. Those words fail to truly describe the situation.

But this is a war of survival, we have nowhere else to go.

This is our War of Independence and we will be victorious.

Israel and the Jewish people around the world are united and strong.

Off-duty soldiers rushing into combat; 300,000 reservists pausing their lives and showing up, volunteers in Israel preparing food 24/7 for soldiers and hospitals, Jews in the diaspora pouring money and their entire days into searching for life-saving equipment and necessary supplies.

We are all in this together.

Route 232 that used to connect flourishing communities of the South together might have turned into an unimaginable nightmare. An entire country walking around with broken hearts and eyes that cannot unsee the hell unleashed on their neighborhood.

But our spirit is not broken. What bonds us together has only been strengthened: Israelis, the global Jewish community and people of conscience around the world. We will fight, we will mourn, we will weep and we will triumph. This is the Jewish story. This is our way home.