Speaking about the Black Shabbat at the Levis JCC center - Boca Raton

Some of my words at this important event:

This has been a very emotional few days with hostages returning home after being held by Hamas in Gaza for about 50 days, just imagining the nightmare these young children, infants, women, and men had to go through is heartbreaking.

We’re here to talk about the October 7th attack on Israel and the war in Gaza that followed. While it has only been a bit more than 50 days, it feels that it has been going on for years, mostly because nothing feels the same since that day.

As I was thinking about what I was going to talk about today, I started preparing a presentation with many facts, data, and analysis. But I find it more and more difficult to discuss this war in an analytic reasonable way, especially because there is nothing reasonable about it.

The horrors of October 7th are similar to those I have read about in history books in holocaust studies courses that I took when I was an undergraduate student. Back then, I thought this was only a Jewish history of persecution and hatred. Today, I am terrified to say that this is the reality of Jewish existence. Because aside from the pain, despair, and anguish that came along with these horrific attacks, Israelis and Jews worldwide are being blamed for bringing it on themselves.