Here’s a jagged little pill to swallow – but swallow it we must: It’s better to live in an uncomfortable reality than in a comfortable delusion. As Diaspora Jews, our comfortable delusion imploded after October 7.
We truly believed that the post-Holocaust statute of limitations on antisemitism was far from up.
We moved through our lives with little concern for our safety, seeing ourselves as citizens of the world.
We were proud of Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David. We celebrated the unapologetic success of Israeli movie stars such as Gal Gadot and Natalie Portman.
We rocked out to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, whose original guitar player grew up in an Israeli home. We swayed to the soul of Bob Dylan.
We benefited from the activism of Gloria Steinem and were endlessly entertained by the creativity of Steven Spielberg. See, everyone? We are everywhere! But we forgot that being popular is not a Jewish value.
“Never again.” That’s what we said. That’s what we thought. That’s what we believed. But perhaps we misunderstood. “Never again” did not mean that the world would never rise against the Jews. “Never again” meant that never again would we be defenseless – without an army, without a country, without the means to fight back.
And it’s right there, in black and white, in the Haggadah: “In every generation, they rise up against us.” Maybe we just never noticed. Maybe we were happier living in comfortable delusion rather than honest discomfort.
Imagine the dissonance that we, Diaspora Jews, experienced after Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
None of our global citizenship or our cultural icons could hold back the tide of Jew-hatred we faced in our towns and cities, on our campuses, and in our social media feeds.
Some of our beloved icons refused to speak out at all. We were blindsided.
Worse still, we didn’t know our history well enough to understand that it repeats itself – no matter how comfortable we may feel.
Esther's herosim
As we approach Purim, we would do well to remember Mordechai’s words to Queen Esther when she hesitated to reveal her Jewish identity in a time of impending doom:
“Do not imagine that because you are in the king’s palace, you alone will escape the fate of all the Jews. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows if perhaps you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
We Diaspora Jews believed we were safe in the palace of this new Jewish reality. Jerry, Larry, Bob, Gloria, and Steven kept us behind the moat.
And now, our delicate, uncalloused hearts and minds have been torn to psychological shreds. We are the first generation ever that did not see this coming.
There’s no helicopter or snowplow parent who can clear a path through this dilemma.
How do we hold ourselves in this new/old world? How do we prepare our children to face it? How do we keep them safe?
Momentum: Empowering women
IT WAS in this environment that I set out on a month-long, multi-city tour for Momentum, an organization that empowers women to lead a Jewish life fueled by Jewish values, where I spoke about Jewish identity and education as tools in the fight against antisemitism.
The program, which we called Momentum on the Road, was an opportunity to remind people not to forgo the joy along with the “oy.” I wanted to teach us to contextualize and reframe the oscillating narrative of Jewish peoplehood, to see ourselves and our history as resilient and beautiful.
To recognize, as Dr. Zohar Raviv so powerfully puts it, that the crisis we face now – and have faced before – is merely an interruption in a much longer, holistic, brave, and extraordinary narrative.
We are not October 7 Jews.
We are October 8 and beyond Jews.
Momentum believes in the power of the Jewish mother. If you can influence a mother, you can impact her entire family.
If you impact enough families, you can transform entire communities. And if you transform enough communities, you can change the world.
Momentum focuses on four primary pillars, teaching them through eight core Jewish values.
We take women on a journey of growth – including a highly subsidized trip to Israel – encouraging them to connect with Jewish values, engage with Israel, foster unity without uniformity, and take action in their communities.
More than 23,000 women across 30 countries and five continents have experienced the Momentum magic. And thousands came out across the United States and Canada for what we called Momentum on the Road.
They came from Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox communities. They came from their Jewish community centers, their Hadassah chapters, their federations, and their outreach organizations.
They came in hair coverings and long skirts, and they came with piercings and tattoos. They came with their kids, and they came with their Momentum sisters.
And though they have become an army of women who, because of their Momentum experience, have decided to speak up, show up, and act up for their communities, they also came with their hearts on their sleeves and pain in their eyes.
They were choking on the jagged pill. But they were living in reality.
THEY WANTED to know how to hold themselves and their families through this time; what to say to those who speak against Israel and the Jews.
How to handle the hate on social media. How to help their children navigate campus hostility. They needed to be strengthened, motivated, and guided back into the light.
Because Jewish life must be more joy than oy.
Oy saps us of our vitality and our purpose.
When we understand that the oscillating narrative of Jewish life was foretold and codified in the Torah, we are no longer taken by surprise.
Rising in the face of challenge
The question is not: “Why is this happening?” The question is: “Who shall I be in the face of what is happening?”
There is an old saying: “The antisemite does not accuse the Jew of stealing because he thinks he stole something. He does it because he enjoys watching the Jew turn out his pockets to prove his innocence.”
Momentum women do not turn out their pockets to anyone.
We know who we are, and we teach it to our children.
It is said that in the merit of the righteous Jewish women of Egypt, we were redeemed from slavery.
And it will be in the merit of the righteous Jewish women that we will bring redemption to this world.
Here’s to living in reality. It starts with women.
The writer is the director of experience and engagement at Momentum.