A Prayer After a Terror Attack in a Jerusalem Synagogue
Today, on a day when the world too late
acknowledges the 6 million,
offers eloquent words about saving Jews,
who will cry out for the blood of 7 of us,
shot in a Jerusalem synagogue while praying?
Or will headlines mitigate murder
by pointing to politics
or which area of Jerusalem the shul was in?
Is Jewish blood only tragic
when it's in the right neighborhood
and was shed decades ago?
Today is the day the world remembers the Holocaust
because it is the day they showed up,
years into known Genocide.
Today, as Jews are slaughtered in shul
and headlines minimize the horror,
we are reminded that no one showed up for years
while Jewish blood ran like a river through
pristine shopping districts
and Jewish ashes fell on neat European homesteads.
Jews remember the Holocaust on the day we fought back.
Jews remember every day.
Because today's terrorist
first shot an elderly woman in the street.
Then shot a motorcycle rider.
Then entered the sanctuary and fired at worshippers.
All Jews. Wherever we are.
Today the world is witness to its ongoing Jewish problem.
But today, grieving, we do not wait for their solution.
Today's horror isn't truly news.
Today's horror is why the Jewish homeland matters.
Because, as we chant in the Torah this week:
Where we go, we go with "with our young and our old" (Ex. 10:9).
None of us expendable.
We are a global family
who knows today's news all too well,
deep in our bones.
We will Never Forget.
Not our 7 fallen sisters and brothers.
Not our 6 million lost sisters and brothers.
We will never forget what we must remember:
Am Yisrael Chai!
The People Israel Lives!
