It was quite strange to sit at the Seder table a few weeks ago and say, “Next Year In Jerusalem” because this year was the only year in my lifetime that we could not in fact physically get to Jerusalem. It was a stark reminder of what my ancestors used to feel in exile, unable to get to Israel, and until 1967, the Old City of Jerusalem.

 

How difficult it was to look on YouTube at the live pictures of an empty Kotel plaza waiting for our return.

As Israel turns 78-years-old, I am reminded of how this small home of ours brings together the Jewish people from all corners of the earth. 

Nineteen years ago, I led a group of teenagers to Poland, Budapest, Hungary, and Israel, as the head of a USY Eastern European Pilgrimage trip to Israel.

When we came to Treblinka, the Nazi death camp where over 800,000 Jews were murdered, the tour guide asked us to place a rose next to a stone that we found meaningful.

My grandfather came from a town called Ostrowiecz and came to the United States before the Holocaust. He was still living at the time I visited Poland in 2006, and I sent him the picture of his town’s memorial stone. As I told the campers about the significance of that stone, one of the teens said, “My grandfather was from there, too!” That summer, we spent five weeks touring all over Israel. After the trip, we lost touch.

Just last year, while speaking at a rally for the October 7th hostages in front of Beverly Hills City Hall, someone approached me and asked if I remembered them. I was embarrassed that I did not!

She told me her name–she was the student whose grandfather was from Ostrowiecz.

Today, she is known on social media as Roots Metals, with over 150,000 followers, a proud Zionist in the social media space. Fast forward to this past week, when I invited “Roots Metals” to come to teach with me at the class called “Zionist Ideas” at a local university.

How proud our grandfathers would be that today, their grandchildren continue to tell their story, the miraculous story of the Jewish people, united by a 78-year- old vibrant state of Israel.