06/24/2025
From a Jew whose mother was born in a concentration camp
-Tamas Vajda
Let’s just say it plainly:
I’m not here to comfort your conscience.
I’m not here to decorate your moral decay with kosher sprinkles.
And I’m certainly not here to apologize for existing.
You’ve made your position clear.
You want dead Jews or, at the very least, silent ones. Quiet ones. Ones that don’t raise their voices, don’t raise their fists, don’t raise their flags.
We tried that.
We tried being meek, compliant, grateful.
We lit candles in basements. We whispered prayers behind closed doors. We hid our children. We swallowed humiliation like bread and called it survival.
And still - you hunted us.
You gassed our parents. You mocked our pain.
You flattened our homes, stole our names, and then asked us to sign guestbooks at our own memorials.
Now you want us to go back to that?
You, the “enlightened” world, who can’t decide what a woman is but has bold opinions about Jewish self-defense.
You, who cries for the “Palestinian cause” while your cities crumble and your values rot, drunk on identity politics and TikTok revolutions.
You, who funds terrorists with one hand and lectures us about “restraint” with the other.
How generous of you to let us die with dignity.
Except this time - we won’t.
We’ve had our fill of your tolerance theater.
We’re full up on your performative outrage, your fake tears, your fe**sh for “Jewish trauma” -as long as it’s historical, sanitized, and buried six feet under.
Well, sorry to disappoint.
We’re alive.
And we’re not in the mood to die quietly.
Yes, we are angry - incandescently angry.
But don’t mistake that for hatred. Because here’s the part you always miss:
We still light candles.
We still sing on Shabbat.
We still name our children after those who never had graves.
We still plant trees. We still build schools.
We still write poems, cook for strangers, and cry when rockets fall.
We haven’t forgotten how to love.
We just learned how to survive with a spine.
The world taught us brutality.
But we answered with resilience.
The world tried to strip us of our humanity - and we responded by becoming guardians of it.
Yes, we carry rifles. We also carry stretchers.
Yes, we fight wars. We also offer aid -even to those whose leaders pray for our destruction. And every time you paint us as monsters, we keep showing up with bandages.
We are not the problem. We are the proof.
The proof that you can endure every empire, every exile, every pogrom, every gas chamber - and still choose life.
But don’t confuse that choice with passivity.
We’re not your punching bag.
We’re not your scapegoat.
We’re not your lesson in historical guilt, your moral mascot, or your diversity hire.
We are a people who’ve buried enough children.
And we are done listening to sermons from those who never sent theirs to war.
You ask, “Why are Jews so angry?”
Because we know the price of silence.
Because we’ve read the footnotes of your history books -the parts you leave out.
Because every time we dare to live with pride, you paint it as provocation.
Because you chant “From the river to the sea,” and pretend it’s poetry, not a death sentence.
Because we come back from the ashes - and that offends you more than our deaths ever did.
So no -we won’t go back into your moral cage.
We’ll build. We’ll sing. We’ll protect. We’ll celebrate life even when surrounded by those who worship death.
And if that makes you uncomfortable?
Good.
Maybe you’ll finally pay attention.
Because we’re not going anywhere.
Not for your comfort.
Not for your approval.
But for our children.
For our future.
For our eternity.
Am Yisrael Chai
* [ Since FB has restricted my ability to share in groups, I’d be truly grateful if you shared the post on any of your own groups.
My hope is that it might encourage more of our friends who are still afraid to speak up.
Let’s help each other find the courage to stand tall. 🪬]
