You just have to be human.

“You don’t have to be Jewish. You don’t have to be Israeli. You just have to be human – to care, to love, to take a stance.”

There are no words, absolutely none, to describe the atrocities that are currently happening in Israel. I’ve been trying to formulate my thoughts and share my feelings but I constantly find myself not even knowing what to say or how to express myself. But there is one thing that I do know and can, very easily, express. I am incredibly proud to be Jewish and will always stand with Israel.

I grew up learning about the Holocaust, visited numerous concentration camps in Poland, and was raised with the phrase “Never Again” engraved in my brain. Yet here I am, having lived through Saturday, October 7, 2023 – the deadliest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust and one of the worst terror attacks in world history. If you would’ve told me when I was walking through Auschwitz as a 16 year old, silent, shaking, in disbelief of what I was seeing with my own two eyes, that something similar would happen in my lifetime (or ever), I would’ve said “Never Again”. But unfortunately, sadly, disgustingly, “Never Again” is now.

What’s happening in Israel in this moment is plain and simple – terrorism. There is no justification for the horrific acts that Hamas is conducting. Hamas’ sole existence is founded on the desire to, quite literally, oppress and murder those who do not align with their extremist, religious, cultish, evil agenda. They have tortured, kidnapped, slaughtered, raped, beheaded, killed a painful amount (even one is too much) of Jewish people (and many others of different backgrounds/religions/cultures) in the past few days, and have been for years. This is not about politics, past conflicts, or anything else. This is purely inhumanity.

“If your response to this is “yes, but..”, you need to take a moment to ask yourself why the indiscriminate killing of civilians is defensible to you in this one and only case.” And my response to that would simply be – antisemitism.

Once again, I’m silent, shaking, in disbelief of what I’m seeing with my own two eyes. But I promise to love being Jewish thousands of times more than anyone hates me for it.

You either stand with basic human rights or you stand with terrorism.