Make some noise

4 Jews were held hostage in a Texas synagogue during Shabbat services yesterday, January 15, 2022. I woke up to the news on Sunday morning in Israel. It was the lead on the Israeli websites. It was on every Instagram feed of my friends.

Wait.

Every feed of my Jewish friends.

Not one non-Jew posted anything about this story or the implications of Jews being held hostage in their place of prayer. In the United States. In 2022.

Yesterday, Oded and I talked about why Israel. Why do we choose to raise our kids in Herzliya and not Boston or North Carolina or Los Angeles? We talked about money and weather and culture. We talked about family and the sea. But in the end, it comes down to the fact that in Israel we are not other. Here, despite the terror, our children won’t grow up with crosses burned in their lawns, swastikas spray painted on their cars or coins thrown at them in the halls of their schools.

“Pick it up Jew, we know you like money.”

These were my experiences growing up in Virginia.

So, for all of those that were experts when the bombs were falling in April of 2021, for those who perfectly understood the landscape and complexities of Israel and Palestine, why are you silent now? Where is your outrage?

Mine is here. On this page. And I won’t be silent.