Never Again—Not in Our Name

The most important way to confront antisemitism and to respect the memory of the Holocaust is to speak the truth. We saw the truth of genocide in action when the Israelis killed more than 400 people and injured even more on a single night when they resumed bombing Gaza. These casualties joined the tens of thousands killed and those surviving without limbs, whose bodies and minds have been burned and broken, whose children have died or have been orphaned.

According to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), in an interview with Lulu Garcia-Navarro in The New York Times, those charging Israel with genocide are antisemitic. “And it is vicious of the opponents to call this genocide. Criticize it? For sure. Say Israel went too far? For sure. And you know what it does? It increases antisemitism, because they’re making Israel and the Jewish people look like monsters, which they are not.”

As I write this, doctors in Gaza are tending to shrapnel wounds penetrating the bodies and brains of children fighting for their lives in the face of genocide.

How could anyone viewing the devastation and the children’s bodies wrapped in shrouds as the result of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s most recent political games think of those responsible for this carnage are anything but monsters? Of course, those who committed atrocities on October 7 are monsters too. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are responsible for tens of thousands more deaths and by numerous estimates more than 100,000 casualties.

The latest wave of destruction and slaughter during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan was a particularly vicious way to end the cease-fire. Netanyahu and the Israeli leadership and large swaths of Israelis and Americans place as little value on Palestinian lives as the Nazis did regarding Jews. I’m not making false comparisons, but rather I am referring to what the philosopher Hannah Arendt called the Banality of Evil. The darkening of hearts that enabled the acceptance of the extermination of Jews during the Holocaust is at work in the commission of genocide in Gaza today.

“Hear o Israel the Lord our God the Lord is One” —the Shema is the most essential Jewish prayer. The 10 Commandments given by God are supposed to be the central ethical and moral tenants of Jewish life. How then can Jews massacre Palestinians when the commandment says, “Thou shall not murder?”

Consider the future of young Israelis in the military who are conditioned to see every Palestinian as an enemy whose life is worth pennies on the dollar. What will happen to those involved in war crimes and brutal injustices? Will their moral compasses ever reset? Will their hearts drown in tears or will they remain steadfast and pass on cruelty to the next generation?

Hold up a cup and say, “L’chaim,”—the Jewish toast to life. I was taught to believe L’chaim referred to the value of all human life. If so, for the toast to be more than an empty gesture we must recognize the plight of the Palestinians since the creation of the State of Israel.

The toast, which has been said for more than 2,000 years, is meant to be a celebration of humanity. We affirm the joy of living while feeling the weight of history. L’chaim must be said with conviction and passion. We toast the lives of you who have survived; we pray that someday your children and grandchildren can live as friends with our own.

As I write this, doctors in Gaza are tending to shrapnel wounds penetrating the bodies and brains of children fighting for their lives in the face of genocide.

Never Again was said after the Holocaust—Not in Our Name is what Jews opposed to genocide are shouting today.