Six days after learning about the massacre and atrocities in Israel, and with new details coming out every day, I remain heartbroken, sick, and unable to put into words fully what these deaths, injuries, and kidnappings mean to me. It’s still hard to process it all.
Since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when I was still a young child, Israelis—including my friends and family—lived during an era of relative safety and security. Violence and attacks did occur, but not in a manner that threatened Israel’s right to exist. That ended last weekend. And as a child and grandchild of Holocaust survivors, there is a deeply painful and haunting element to these attacks—more Jews were killed last Saturday than on any day since the Holocaust.
There is so much about these events, and what is likely to come, that breaks my heart. At the vigil held in Denver this week, I joined over 2,000 people in attendance—people from many different communities—supporting all of us who are hurting. We prayed together for a time when “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”
As I discussed at a recent commemoration of the Babi Yar massacre, now is a time of rising antisemitism—with more antisemitic hate crimes occurring in 2022 than ever before. To address that threat, we must stand together against hate of all kinds and against terrorism like that perpetrated by Hamas.
As I said at the vigil on Monday night, we live in a dark time. At this time, all of us can and must do what we can to bring light into our world—to support one another, to not demonize or attack those who are not responsible for these atrocities, to support Israel during this hour of need and mourning, and to work for peace.
During these dark times, I recall the wisdom of my grandmother, who survived the Holocaust and gave birth to my mom in a concentration camp. I would ask her “how did you continue to believe in a better future during dark times?” And she would answer–“it’s easier to believe.” She refused to give up hope. During challenging moments like this week, we cannot give up hope.
