Sea Change: Addendum
After a day of shock and awe for many (and for me several enraged all-caps emails, among other mind-curdling unexpected private clashes), I wanted to add a further note to my piece from earlier today (which was also widely shared and appreciated, and trust me that is where my focus lies). A short addendum if you will, meant as a source of comfort to anyone here who is struggling today, and in general to all as a plea for unity and understanding.
I’m a feminist. I’m a lesbian. I’m a liberal.
On October 7 I learned that none of that matters when I’m a Jew.
Everyone we fought for and alongside abandoned us. They did not speak up. They did not do for us what we did for them. In 2014 I left one country for pandering to what is termed the “community of the good” (a term coined by academic David Hirsh, in the UK). I saw no future there. The last decade has shown me to be correct. The community of the good is one that welcomes everyone except Jews. A community that ultimately therefore welcomes no one, apart from those who fall in line and accept everything they’re fed, with a side of fear and doom.
I don’t have a vote and I never engaged in any political advocacy during this election. Trump won. I have offered analysis as to why I think he won. Trump is what we have and it’s what we must work with. And I’m committed to doing that work, and I’m accepting of the status quo, because we have spent the last year-plus of our lives fearing for our futures, freedoms and safety in plain sight to shrugs by our would-be peers. We haven’t slept for over a year while others continued as normal. That is not a community of the good. The anxiety of many today is nothing new to us. I have hope because I HAVE to have hope. Otherwise it’s all for nothing.
So whatever you feel today, know that many of us here have experienced your emotions for a long time and have faced our own isolation and existential dread. What I’m here to tell you is that further discord isn’t the solution. The only solution is working together for a better world and learning how to communicate again, how to dialogue, and above all how to love.
Peace and strength to all.
Eve 💕
Today I received an email from Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the head of the Reform Movement in America. He wrote to console his Jewish brethren after the Trump victory. No mention of the October 7 massacre in Israel and its aftermath. No mention of the horrible antisemitism that has reared its ugly head, especially on our college campuses and on major city streets. For Jacobs, a Trump win was worse. And according to him, we all need comforting.
I think Jacobs and his ilk live in fairyland. He works and (probably) lives in New York. Where has his outrage been all year? Why hasn't he been out there with the Jewish students at Columbia, NYU, and CUNY, counter protesting and providing a example of strength? What are his priorities? Why is a fair election more terrifying to him than the existential threat to the very existence of Israel and the Jews?
Wake up, leftist Jews! Your despair is embarrassing and unfounded. Until Covid constrained all of us, in March 2020, we had a bustling economy under Trump. We had low gas prices due to fracking. We were building the Keystone Pipeline, which provided thousand of jobs. Unemployment was low.
Prices were fair. We were, for the mot part, at peace,
Trump pulled the US out of the disastrous Iran nuclear treaty. He moved the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to its rightful place in Jerusalem, Israel' capitol. He recognized the Golan Heights as being part of Israel proper. He created the Abraham Accords, which opened a road to peace for Israel and its Arab neighbors.
Let's give Trump a chance to right the wrongs of the Biden-Harris years. And let's be strong and fearless, like our Israeli brethren, as we look forward to better times for America, Israel, and the Jewish people.
When I was younger, I was a Canadian Jew, daughter of Ashkenazi parents. As I got older, I was a Jewish Canadian along with my staunchly Zionistic, now middle aged parents. Now middle aged myself, and post Oct 7th, I am an Israeli by choice.