* Translation by Yehoshua Siskin ([email protected])
The awakening you are about to see in the following video has been viewed by thousands. I tried to describe this feeling after every Zoom session with a Diaspora community that wanted "to connect with Israel" at this time. At each session, I heard about droves of Diaspora Jews showing up to the kinds of demonstrations and events they never would have attended previously. And now Ilan Muallem who works in the movie industry in New York has described this awakening in the clearest possible terms as follows:
"I have a confession. And I think it's gonna be true for a lot of Jews out there, and it's a big lesson for you Jew haters. So I suggest you listen, all you anti-Zionists.
Growing up, my Jewish identity was a completely secondary part of my life. I never even thought about it really. You know my parents had told me stories about what they went through. My mom had to escape Iraq because she was a Jew, and my dad, sadly, most of his family was killed in the Holocaust. But I never personalized it. It was never something that was super, super real to me. And it was just stories of things that they went through.
But then after October 7th, seeing the way the world responded to the attack and the amount of Jew hatred that actually exists, kind of woke up my Jewish side, made me reconnect with it fully, and I think people don't fully realize just how many Jews out there have reconnected with their Jewish identity now. You know we were disappearing. We were marrying non-Jews in exceptional numbers. Most of us don't follow the religion. I mean, look at me, I'm covered in tats.
And now so many of us are activated. You strengthen us when you attack us. We were disappearing so I have to say thank you to everyone who has reminded all of us Jews what it actually means to be Jewish. Thank you for showing us the true face of anti-Semitism. And thank you for uniting us once again because I promise you, we're stronger than ever now."
Thank you, Ilan, and may we remain stronger than ever.
