Damned if we do, damned if we don’t – so just do!

To say that I am shocked by the horrific, brutal news of two of my brethren being murdered in cold blood on the holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur is not true.

I am not shocked.

Boy, do I sound like a broken record (if you’ve read my other blog posts, they more or less start this way).

How astounding is that, and how astonishingly sad – in the year 2025.

People say the world is so advanced. Well, they said that back in 1933 Germany too. I just finished reading Eddie Jaku’s book, The Happiest Man on Earth. He could not believe what was happening before his eyes, the enlightened, civilised German people turning into barbaric animals.

You would think we would be past this. Like that was totally yesterday.

Well, it was totally yesterday, and sadly, it is still today.

Not that I am comparing now to Holocaust times, but there are many stark comparisons that I just can’t ignore.

As we all know and have sadly seen, antisemitism is a unique bigotry that doesn’t go away but festers and grows. When left unchecked, it turns into real violence against Jews.

Antisemitism can’t be classed with other marginalised groups because it doesn’t matter if the Jew is rich or poor, communist or capitalist, religious or completely secular, calls himself a Zionist or doesn’t, A Jew is a Jew is a Jew.

Hitler, Hamas, terrorists, Jew-haters – they don’t care.

What’s most frightening about the Manchester terror attack is, as my sister Chaya put it: “They woke up that morning just going to shule. They didn’t know today would be their last day.”

It’s earth-shattering. My heart breaks as I write this.

My deepest love, support and strength truly goes out to the families and the Jewish community of Manchester, England, and beyond.

No one has words. And I’ve come to realise the duality of words – how empty yet powerful they can be, how they can lead to real action.

How could such a thing occur?

Well, it’s because people, and especially world leaders, ignore words.

When Hamas says it’s going to do many more October 7ths, and when its charter openly states it wants to obliterate the State of Israel and kill all Jews, and then it acts on those words, we need to take them seriously.

When pro-Palestinian protestors claim they’re “all for peace,” yet their words and actions show otherwise, leaders of the world need to take those words seriously.

Similarly, leaders of the world with their empty apologies and slogans, “Antisemitism has no place here… blah blah,” need to stop with the words and take action.

How are you allowing these protestors to continue?!

I saw on Channel 9 News in Australia that these protestors want to march on the Sydney Opera House to ‘commemorate’ two years since the “war on Gaza.” (Um, who started this war and remember October 9, when they shouted ‘Gas the Jews’ while we were all still in shock, before Israel had even responded?)

Yes, you read that right.

I am so furious I don’t even have the words (except explicit language, which I’ll refrain from writing).

Do I need to explain more?!

Words are fascinating.

They record history.

They are a way to express.

And they lead to action.

Action, together with words, is the most powerful tool – for good or for bad.

I’ll never forget learning in school that when the Nazis burned books, it started with books and ended with people.

(This echoes the warning of German-Jewish poet Heinrich Heine, who wrote in 1821: “Where they burn books, they will also ultimately burn people).”

Right now, words are being used, and actions are following.

Unfortunately, a lot of bad words. “Globalise the intifada” is no longer just words.

I shudder as I write this.

What has this world come to?

Yet I don’t want to stay in doom and gloom, because I know how much good is happening.

As Rabbi Moss said at my shule, Nefesh Shule, on Kol Nidrei night, the social media and WhatsApp groups he follows are filled with light and positivity. One-third of secular Israelis have turned to faith and started keeping mitzvot. They are connected; their spark is lit up. Miracle stories are happening in Israel left, right, and centre. Jewish love and unity.

Yes, there is so much good, and I need to get off the bandwagon of negative social media and start subscribing to more positivity.

I feel that people put a lot of faith in the world, including our homeland Israel and Jewish community leaders. Of course, we need to work within the realms of nature; we live in a natural world. But I’ve been learning from the incredible book Shaar HaBitachon that everything ultimately comes from Hashem, and we need to start putting our trust more in Him. When we put our trust in nature, nature takes over. But when we put our trust in Hashem, He takes over and ensures that we see the revealed blessings. This is a lesson I am learning and over time more and more internalising.

I’m so grateful to CSG for all of their hard work and dedication protecting the community. I know for certain that they have stopped people who want to hurt the Jewish community and perhaps even want Jewish blood on their hands, nothing to do with Israel or Zionism, but back to that old-fashioned, steadfast Jew-hatred.

I know these attacks can make us want to shrink back and hide our Jewish identity, and of course, safety must always come first. But this is exactly what they want: for Jews to disappear, to ‘go away.’ We cannot give them that victory.

Jew-hatred isn’t going away anytime soon, nor will it.

For me, that means doubling down on my Jewishness and trying as best as I can to be an Empowered Jew, because otherwise they are winning. And they’re not going to get my joy of being a Jew.

Chavi Israel is a Jewish Studies Educator at Moriah College. She holds a Master’s in Secondary Teaching and an undergraduate degree in History and Philosophy. Passionate about Chassidic masters and the mystical teachings of the Torah, Chavi launched The Empowered Jew, an organisation dedicated to equipping Jewish individuals with the knowledge, skills, and tools to navigate today’s challenges confidently.