If my beloved parents,  z”l,  both survivors of the Shoah in Ukraine, were alive on October 7th, 2023, they would have been stunned and devastated.

The news that Hamas had committed horrific atrocities and mass murder against innocent Israeli civilians and foreign workers on that day would have caused terrible pain, grief and fear. All the memories of what they had witnessed and experienced in the Shoah would have resurfaced and overwhelmed their senses.

My parents would have experienced shock, more grief and fear as they watched the daily news that revealed an explosion of hateful rhetoric and physical violence against Jews, both in the U.S. and around the world.

Watching televised protests and listening to repetitive shouts “from the river to the sea,” would have been heart-wrenching and at the same time, “nothing new under the sun”. 

They were never naïve dreamers. They were survivors. They were realistic, resilient and hopeful.   Immigrating to the U.S. after WWII, creating a new home and becoming proud American citizens, they believed that it was relatively safe to live here.