This Is Not Just a Jewish Fight. It’s Everyone’s Fight.
Just four days ago, two staff members of Israel’s embassy in Washington, D.C.—Sarah Milgrim, 26, and Yaron Lischinsky, 30—were cold-bloodedly murdered by a man shouting “Free, free Palestine” as he was being taken into custody.
This wasn’t just another “act of violence,” as a prominent news outlet called it. It was yet another act of pure, evil, disgusting, and intolerable antisemitism—and a chilling reminder that we are in the midst of a global war, courageously led by Israel, between good and evil, truth and lies, moral clarity and moral blindness.
And yet, we are a nation of action, not of feelings. In the face of destruction, we build even more. Against darkness, we shine even brighter. Confronting evil, we spread even greater goodness. And while we cannot always reason or understand, we can—and must—learn and respond.
And so, here are five humble lessons:
1. EVIL HAPPENS WHEN GOOD PEOPLE REMAIN SILENT:
We have seen this too many times before: when good people stay silent, evil triumphs.
Today’s silence is no less deafening. Where are the protests for the murdered embassy staff? Where are the marches for Jewish students chased off campuses? Where were the “human rights” activists on October 7th? Where are the demonstrations when Jews are stabbed, shot, or burned alive?
Silence is not neutral. It is a side. And history will remember which side we were on.
2. ANTI-ZIONISM IS ANTISEMITISM. PERIOD.
Criticizing Israel’s policies is legitimate. Denying Israel’s right to exist is not. It is vile hatred, it is genocidal, and it is antisemitism in its ugliest modern form.
Slogans like “From the river to the sea” and “Free Palestine” are calls for the extermination of Jews and their eradication from their ancestral homeland.
When we chant them, support them, or excuse them, we do not stand with peace-loving people. We stand with Nazis in a new uniform.
3. JEWISH BLOOD IS NOT CHEAP
Every time we treat Jewish death as “understandable” or antisemitism as “depending on context,” we desecrate humanity. Every time we excuse terrorism because of “occupation,” we betray the truth.
Jewish blood is not more sacred than any other. But it is not less. And we must stop apologizing for demanding justice, security, and dignity, for ourselves and for our brothers and sisters across the globe.
4. THIS FIGHT IS FOR ALL OF US
This is not just a Jewish fight. This is a human fight, for truth, for light, for freedom, for civilization itself. And if we allow one group to be targeted, demonized, and hunted down with impunity, then no one is safe. Not our children. Not our neighbors. Not our future. Because, as history has proven repeatedly, the hate that begins with Jews never ends with Jews.
Legislation that protects Jews on campuses and in schools must be passed. Students and faculty who glorify terror must be expelled. Chants and protests that call for genocide must be banned. And everything legal must be done to protect our people – even if it makes us unpopular. Even if it costs us.
Because, as the Ethics of our Fathers teaches: “If not now, when?”
5. WE MUST BECOME AGENTS OF LIGHT
This war is not just physical, fought with tanks and drones. It is also spiritual, fought with the light of our souls.
Each mitzvah we do, each act of kindness, each moment of prayer, each embrace of our Judaism, is a protest of light.
Just last week, I met Sasha Trufanov, who survived the October 7th massacre and 498 days of Hamas captivity! He told me: “We must not run from our identity. We must return to it, and live it with more pride, more mitzvot, and more light.”
Let us respond to Sarah and Yaron’s murder not by retreating, but by rising, proudly, Jewishly, and by adding more and more light to our world, with determination and conviction.
