A classroom wall in a South Florida Jewish day school where I work as a substitute teacher features this line from poet Maya Angelou: “History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.”
This quote emphasizes the importance of comforting the past, acknowledging its painful aspects and learning from it to avoid repeating mistakes. Angelou was stating that only through unity and education can a people survive.
The origins of Judaism date back more than 3,500 years, and throughout our people’s history, we have been victimized, scrutinized, terrorized, persecuted, discriminated against and hated to an extent that no other people or religion ever has in the history of mankind.
More than 80 years ago, our people lost 6 million innocent souls at the hands of Nazi Germany. Jews thought such evil and terror would never happen again, then came the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, as Arabs murdered 1,200 people and abducted 251 others, taking them into Gaza, where many have since perished.
The current wave of anti-Israel ideology has not only targeted Israelis but also Jews around the world, including those in the United States of America. Anti-Jewish hatred has spread to university campuses, houses of worship and private businesses. Sadly, some Jews have even refrained from wearing symbolic jewelry, like a Star of David necklace, which they may have proudly donned their entire lives, out of fear of being targeted.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and FBI issued a public service announcement late last week highlighting potential safety concerns related to ongoing threats to Jewish and Israeli communities.
The announcement followed the murder of two Israeli embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., as well as a separate incident where Molotov cocktails were thrown, injuring 15 people during a solidarity rally in Boulder, Colo., to raise awareness of the hostages still in Gaza.
The Jewish response must be for the entire world to see us uniting together as Jews, standing tall and one for all. Only by standing together in unity can we overcome hate.
Hate relies on division and fear of differences, but unity counters that division. Joining together as one people and one nation challenges the idea that differences should cause fear.
Our world must continue to be a place where all Jews have no fear of celebrating our culture and heritage. Only unity among our people will make our future probable.