My Immortality

February 7, 2013, College Campus. Confusion surrounds as I pass through the protestors, Pro-Israel on one side, and Pro-Palestine on the other. Each with their own agenda, their own drastic views, differing greatly one from the other.

Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. Students for Justice in Palestine- this is what they preach. They want equal rights, they want freedom from Israeli oppression, they want land, they want it all. They say that it is their right. Yet that very same night, Jews were kicked out of the pro-Palestinian forum even though they were on the invite list.

Let us talk about rights. June 25 2006- Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier was abducted by Hamas militants, and held in captivity for five years. He was finally released after 1,027 Palestinian prisoners were set free. Palestinians who had collectively killed more than 569 Israelis. Palestinians who went on to kill again after they were released. Israel exchanged over a thousand soldiers for one of our own, even as the Palestinians use their own women and children as shields, even as they train their kids from a young age to hate, and to kill, even as they teach them how to strap bombs to their chests, and walk into public places and kill as many Jews as they can.

And yet, they want equality? Every night when I go to sleep, I think about my little brother, who at 18 went into the Israeli Army. He wears heavy armor and gear every day, he carries a gun wherever he goes. All it will take is one stray bullet to harm or kill him. He is not an Israeli citizen, but he is a Jew, and he voluntarily took it upon himself to protect our land.

I am a Jew by birth, though at times I don't understand what is means to be a Jew.

I don't understand, but I am reminded of it every day. In 2011 the Palestinians fired 680 rockets into Israel. In November 2012 the Israelis retaliated, and killed Ahmed Jabari, the leader of the Hamas military. For a week, the Palestinians rained down rockets, and I prayed for my little brother every day.

President Obama showed his support of Israel and said, "There's no country on Earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders". Israel was pushed into a cease-fire, even though America would never back down under attack. 

Even as the ceasefire was announced, the air raid sirens were going off, letting everyone know to run and hide, that rockets were coming their way. "The definition of a ceasefire: Israel ceases, and Hamas fires". Israelis have fifteen seconds to get to a bomb shelter once the siren goes off. Fifteen seconds is the difference between life and death.

I am a Jew because I was born a Jew, even though sometimes I don't understand what that means. But the world will never let me forget it.

An evil man named Hitler killed 6 million Jews, only because they were Jewish. He wanted to create a pure Aryan race, he wanted to eliminate Jews from the world. He killed, and gassed, and mangled, and destroyed 6 million Jews, and he kept souvenirs to display as historic artifacts once the Jews were all gone. Yet We are still here.

We created museums, We have displayed those same souvenirs that were kept, We tell the world that We have survived, that We are a nation of survivors, and no matter how many times you knock us down, We will get right back up again.

I am a Jew by default, even though sometimes I don't understand what that entails.

At the Miss America pageant, the winner always wishes for world peace, to solve world hunger, to stop global warming. Matt Damon refuses to use a toilet until the whole world has clean water. These are all very worthy causes. Everybody believes in something.

The Nazis used to make the Jews go on death marches from the concentration camps in Poland, and at the end of the miles long walk, along which many Jews collapsed and were shot, all the Jews were shot and killed, their bodies dumped into pits. One day I will join the March of the Living, which runs along the very same path that the Jews were forced to walk. We remember the fallen Jews, as We show the world that We are undefeated, that we are alive and well.

I am a Jew because I was born a Jew, even though sometimes I don't understand what is means to me. But I say 'We, We, We'.

I am a Jew because I was born a Jew, even though sometimes I don't understand what that means. But I walk on the Pro-Israel side of the street during the protest.

I am a Jew because I was born a Jew, even though sometimes I don't understand what that means. But my People were killed because they were Jews, their arms were tattooed because they were Jews, they were forced to wear yellow stars that said 'Jude', Jew, because they were Jews.

As Mark Twain once said, the Egyptians, the Babylonians the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans all came and went, rose and fell throughout time, died out and disappeared. “The Jew saw them all, survived them all... All things are mortal but the Jews; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?”

I am a Jew because I was born a Jew, even though sometimes I don't understand what that means. I support Israel because it is my land, my people, my home. I defend the Jewish people because it is my identity, my core, my very being. Throughout time many people rose up to destroy us but in the end We always won. We are a strong people.

I am strong because I am a Jew. I am a Jew because I am strong. I am a Jew because I was born a Jew, even though sometimes I don't understand what that means.

But I am learning and understanding more each day of what it means to be a Jew. The world teaches me what it means to be a Jew. Jewish leaders show me what it means to be a Jew. Deep down inside my soul, I know what it means to be a Jew.

And I will never forget it.