Opinions

As a social worker, I meet people every day who are facing giants.

To each person who has lost sleep over the barrage of antisemitic words and actions these past weeks and months, feeling uncomfortably not okay at unacceptable acts happening near and far, this is for you.

After last Oct. 7, I was horrified watching the atrocities on the news and reading about how vulnerable Israel became.

Seventy-six years ago, during the War of Independence, Israeli author and poet Chaim Gouri wrote, “Here they dwell together, grief alongside glory,” sparking what would be the beginning of the shaping of the Israeli psyche for many years to come.  

I still remember my first Passover Seder — it was the JCRB|AJC Kansas City Unity Seder in 2019. At the time, I wasn’t Jewish, and I was just a year into my marketing job with Jewish Federation, so I was still learning a lot about Judaism.