I am a Jew

I am a Jew.

I am a Jew, born of a Jewish mother, going back to our Matriarchs: Sarah, Rivkah, Rachel and Leah.

I am a Jew, born of a Jewish father, going back to our Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

I am a Jew, married to a Jew of the priestly class, the holy Kohanim, going back to Aaron the first Priest, brother of Moses.

I am a Jew with Jewish children.

I am a Jew who was a slave in Egypt, who walked through the desert and received the Torah from G-d in the wilderness. I am a Jew who walked from slavery to freedom through the desert, guided by a pillar of fire, of G-d's light, to the Promised Land, led by Moses himself.

I am a Jew who survived the pogroms of early Christianity, the merciless jihad of the early Muslims, the pogroms and blood libels of Europe, the Inquisition, the Holocaust and the demonic current incarnation of antisemitism found within the Islamic world and supported by progressive Nazis in the Western world and beyond.

I am a Jew whose family was murdered in Europe because they were Jews. I am a Jew whose family friends were slaughtered on a yacht in Cyprus, orphaning their children because they were Jews. I am a Jew whose brother in law was murdered by Muslim Jew-haters because he was a Jew.

I am a Jew who is witnessing in real time, the largest slaughter of Jewish people since the Holocaust. The Jews who have been slaughtered are my sisters, brothers, children, aunts, uncles and cousins. They are my mother and father. My grandparents. Precious limbs, each one upon the body of the Jewish people, fragile human branches on the Jewish Tree of Life. Gone, murdered in cold blood because they were Jews.

I am a Jew watching bloodthirsty, demonic ghouls – children of Amalek of all colours, religions and nationalities all over the world – cheer for the murder, and rape of Jews, the beheading of Jewish babies, the kidnapping of Jewish women, children and grandparents, the incineration of humans and the caging of frightened children. Yes they are in cages if they are even still alive, in the territory of the savage barbarians of Gaza. Because they are Jews.

The hostages – I cannot think of them without my heart aching and my breath quickening. It's too much to bear.

I am a Jew who realizes that unlike the original, more initially subtle, Nazis of old, the new wicked, bone-chilling Muslim Nazi savages of Hamas and Gaza and their sympathizers and friends are openly flaunting their bloodlust for Jews, putting it up loudly and proudly on social media in allegedly civilized countries. Not just in faraway lands, but right in all of our front lawns, city centers and downtowns.

I am a Jew who sees you. I see you Jew-haters and your plans and feel the winds of your unquenchable murderous appetite in full view. You're so proud and so confidently transparent that it makes my soul feel momentarily cold. I see you baying, more primitive than animals in full view of the world with no secret Wannsee conference for you neo-Nazis.

I won't call you animals because not even animals behave in this manner. And all over the internet, I see you wretched souls daring to compare Jews to Nazis, taking a side by claiming to not take a side. In doing so, you side with terror. For you, it's satisfying that the Jews got what you feel was coming to them in your poisoned soul. But guess what? What starts with the Jews never ends with us. What starts in Israel never ends there. It's just the laboratory for terrorists. Read the writing on the wall. You are next.

I am a Jew who is watching you, friends and foes.

I see you. I hear you.

I am a Jew and we will survive. When the ashes of the evil souls who perpetrated these acts, and those who celebrated them, are scattered upon the Earth and their souls descend to hell, the Jews – the eternal Jew – will still be here for time immemorial.

~

Dearest readers, I can barely process it all.

Thank you for your many messages of concern and support, which I hope to answer personally in the coming days and weeks. The only things comforting me right now are small bits of wisdom gained from various Jewish sources and persons in the past days. I will share them with you.

One was a clip of a young Jewish girl who was diagnosed with cancer several hours before Shabbat when she was a teenager. She said she never asked G-d why – she understood that G-d had His reasons, and there must be a reason, so she just asked G-d to stay by her side during this journey.

Next, some thoughts from a Rabbi: though we may wonder "why", this is not the right question to ask. It is not a Jewish question because everything is in G-d's hands and therefore "why" is unanswerable. The Jewish response therefore must be "what?". What can I do? What should I do? I invite you all, Jews and non-Jews alike, to share in the "what" that I personally am adhering to: adding more light into the darkness, more goodness, more charity, more moral clarity, more prayer, more mitzvahs, remove fear from your life, add courage, add bravery, add your voice where it's needed. Take on an act of goodness and kindness that you haven't until now.

And if you think you don't have the words, as another Rabbi suggested, you do. Words of prayer and Psalms are the words.

Lastly, my personal and heartfelt thanks as always to Mark Steyn for the incredible essays and insights (here, here, here, here and here), and his unfailing moral clarity and fortitude.

Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.

~

North America:

Just Say No

Trudeau living the life.

The State of the Union

And gulags.

What was the role of the Iranian spy ring in all this?

~

Jews and Israel:

My people.

A fat lot of good it did her to be a leftist.

"I forgot my son was on Twitter."

What Israel needs to do now.

What happens now.

~

Europe:

Geert explains it slowly.

~

Down Under:

This is happening because your leaders want it to be happening.

~

Kooks:

They are after your children.

~

Human Grace:

I have issues with Ms. Owens, but this is a damned fine line.

Following your dreams.

It's open thread time! Log into SteynOnline and let Laura know what you think of these stories or other happenings from week that was. Commenting privileges are among the many perks of membership in The Mark Steyn Club. While going off topic is permitted on Laura's Links, do stick to the other rules as you engage: no URLs, no profanity, and no ad hominem attacks.