My Jewish Background
Many peoples have done evil things throughout history, but these are my own people. You could call it my race, ethnicity, tribe, or “ethno-religious peoplehood.” Whatever you call it, it’s inarguably mine. I’m a member by genetics, if not by ideology. It’s the group I was raised to identify with as a child — and did identify with for at least 30 years.
Both my parents are Jewish. All four grandparents were Jewish. Every documented ancestor was Jewish. I have zero documented non-Jewish ancestry. I went to Hebrew school for 12 years, had a bar mitzvah, hung out at Hillel in college, went on a Birthright trip, worked on a kibbutz. I was religious for a time. I even went to Zionist summer camps where we saluted a foreign flag on US soil and sang a foreign national anthem every evening before dinner.
My Jew cred is impeccable.
So when I see Jews committing horrific evil, it’s especially significant for me. The natural reaction is to condemn those vile acts and do whatever I can to stop them. It’s a universally accepted axiom that good people recognize the duty to intervene against evil.
What I See Every Day
I consider it a universal human duty to stay informed about what’s happening in our world. So I do that. And what I observe every day is Israelis doing things so terrible they shock the soul.
I see “my people” committing horrific atrocities — acts so beyond the pale that you’d think they were possessed by demons. They not only kill people, but they laugh about it. They film themselves joking about it, mocking their victims, celebrating their deaths and suffering with songs and dances.
At the 2025 Jerusalem Day Flag March, crowds chanted “There’s no school in Gaza, there are no children left,” along with “May your village burn” (Haaretz, via FMEP). Another song, “Ali Is On The Grill,” mocks an Arab toddler burned alive by Jewish extremists – and was sung at Jewish weddings.
[Source to add: "Ali Is On The Grill" and the wedding videos]
We have it all on video, multiple times in multiple places. They film themselves doing it and proudly post the videos to the internet. And it gets worse daily. It’s like a gain-of-function laboratory for taking human depravity and amplifying it in ever-expanding variety.
They lounge on hilltops, having parties watching bombs fall on Gaza. Every time an explosion occurs, they applaud and cheer. They take boat trips just off Gaza’s coast to watch. They make videos of themselves licking water from running faucets while mocking Palestinians without water. While diplomats tell us they’re not starving anyone, their own people brag about it.
[Link: library of videos documenting this behavior]
Israeli Leaders Saying It Out Loud
We know this isn’t merely a “fringe minority,” because Israel’s leadership openly declares the same intentions. The president, the prime minister, cabinet ministers, Knesset members, army leaders, ambassadors, mayors – public figures at every level have stood behind podiums, looked directly into the camera, and announced their intention to remove the Palestinian population of Gaza. Everyone down to the kibbutz dog catcher.
These aren’t hot-mic recordings from intrepid reporters. These are public announcements on stage, with the red recording light on.
[Sources to add: quotes from each official]
And the public agrees. In a Penn State survey published in Haaretz, 82% of Jewish Israelis supported expelling Gaza’s population, and 47% agreed the army should kill every inhabitant of a conquered city, as Joshua did at Jericho (Jerusalem Story).
Meanwhile, my cousins tell me “This is a defensive war” and “We’re only targeting terrorists, not civilians.”
Interpretations of this information can be debated, but the observations can’t — because I’m watching it every day. I can’t not do anything with it. I have to do something.
My Family, and the Diaspora
But how do I intervene? I don’t have an army. I can talk about it. But who can I talk to? People already opposing it? That’s preaching to the choir. The only people I can talk to who might make a difference are those supporting it.
And many people are supporting it — many Jewish people worldwide. Many Jews oppose it vocally — I don’t overlook them; I honor them for their compassion and courage — but in my experience, they’re the minority.
[Source to add: polling of diaspora Jewish opinion]
That includes almost my entire family. With the exception of my mom and maybe one adopted cousin, everyone in my family I know of is “standing with” what I’m watching. They make excuses for it, and call it “good” and “necessary.”
So it’s not only “bad apples.” It’s also regular, everyday members of my tribe, openly and publicly supporting it.
The Duty to Speak Up
I learned in Hebrew school that when your country has fallen into murderous madness, you have a duty to speak up. They were talking about the Germans, of course, but the lesson is universal.
We consider the Germans who said something or tried to resist the good ones. We have monuments to them — the Righteous Among the Nations, Oskar Schindler, and others. We recognize that when one’s own people commit atrocities, individuals have a responsibility to do what they can. Even without an army, they can still use their voice. Those are the good guys. So I want to be a good guy.
We were taught that Germans who did nothing were responsible too. They gave us the quintessential example of the German farmer in his field, watching cattle cars go past, knowing who was on them and where they were going and why, but keeping his head down and continuing to farm.
Neutrality was complicity. That’s what they taught us in Hebrew school. And the duty compounds when it’s your own people doing it.
“Never again” was the slogan we heard in Hebrew school. Well, now it’s again. And it’s being done, ostensibly, in my name and on my behalf.
That’s why there’s a Jewish peace movement under the banner “Not In Our Name.” Because they got the same lessons in Hebrew school that I did. Every Jewish kid in the modern world got this curriculum. You got the traveling Holocaust survivor lecturers. You read the books. You saw the documentaries. You got the same lesson I did: silence is complicity.
And yet you're silent. Well, I don't accept that. I will not stay silent.
I’m doing my duty, as both a Holocaust-educated Jewish kid, and a regular, normal, decent human being.