We are blessed to have an Israel

 We are today blessed with having Israel. I have often wondered about our people walking or being herded to their deaths, knowing they are about to die and not attacking their guards, suicidal as it might have been. We recently saw the same thing with ISIS herding almost naked Iraqis to lie in ditches a la the Nazis, force them to lie down on their stomachs and machine gun them.

I always think of Dylan Thomas’ poem:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

RIGHT: My father, Mike Hersch, during WWII before going north to Egypt and Libya

Let us be strong and determined. Let us be the new Jews, Israeli Jews who stand up and fight, stand up to be counted, stand up to be decent human beings and stand up to really be a light unto the nations, even if at this time those nations are still blind and blinded by their irrational hate born of old and ancient madness, jealousy and misguided religious competition.

I am proud to be a Jew and stand up and fight for my people and our beloved land of Israel.

May it never happen, but I will rush the ramparts and barriers of our enemies. I will apply the intelligence and ability I have been blessed with as the battle is not always physical. I will fight for our right as a people without question or pause.

I saw how my late father always cried during Yizcor on Yom Kippur mourning the murder of his mother and family by the Germans.

LEFT: My paternal grandmother, Flora Rutkowitz

Today it is I who stand there and mourn our people and also shed a tear and I am more determined than ever that we will fight this scourge that repeats itself with every generation and we should and must fight it till it no longer can exist in this world.

I will not go quietly into the night and will rage and rage until my light fades. Life is precious and I will love and preserve our Jewish life and lives.

DAVID HERSCH