Today We Cry

A heavy emotional cloud settles over Israel this week.

This week is emotionally brutal.

We just had the siren for Yom Hashoa, a day that in the past was a respectful commemoration for a national atrocity that most of us didn't live through, and most of us didn't fear a return of such atrocities.

Today, we feel it differently. Today we know that Never Again depends on us with the help of those who support the Jewish people. Today we feel like targets of a seething hatred pointed towards us from all corners of the globe. Today we feel the pain of enduring that hatred in places we NEVER expected to.

But we also know that today we are strong. Today we are more united than we've ever been in my lifetime. Today we have a voice to proudly declare that WE know who we are. We know what we value. We know that we teach our children to learn, to love, to build, to marry, to cherish family, and to contribute towards our community.

It's clear that those who hold values that are the exact opposite of ours - death, destruction, violence, and repression - those people will hate the light we try to bring to the world, and they will forever try to extinguish it. The forces of darkness have not ever managed to extinguish our light, and they sure as hell won't now.

The Jewish people have a clear understanding of what we fight for, and what we fight for is life. We will never give up, we will never give in, and we love those who stand with us.

But today, we cry.

עם ישראל חי עכשיו ולעולם