OCTOBER 19 • 2023 | 5
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essay
We Cannot Be Silent
I

never post on social media.
I have children and friends
and business colleagues
with whom I sometimes dis-
agree on politics and have
always chosen
to keep those
discussions pri-
vate. Why add
my voice to the
cacophony of
social media
opinions?
But today is
different … we cannot be
silent.
I have always been grateful
to live in a country where I feel
relatively safe, although I have
not always felt safe to be a Jew
in America. Lik e most of us, I
have experienced antisemitism
and anti-Jewish sentiment —
words carelessly strewn about
from others who sometimes
don’t even realize what they
are saying is antisemitic, and I
generally kept silent. But today
is completely different. Today,
nothing feels safe.
Like many of us, I have long
had my own feelings about
the Israeli government and
the rights of the Palestinian
people. I have felt sorrow for
a people jammed into too
small a space, with limited
rights and, in my naivety, I
have prayed a two-state solu-
tion was possible and could
bring peace in my lifetime.
But Hamas would have none
of that.
The very charter of Hamas is
centered on the destruction of
the Jewish people and the state
of Israel. How can there every
be peace when hatred runs so
deep and is the acknowledged
priority of a “government?”
When that “government” hates
Jews and the State of Israel far

more than it cares for its own
people?
There will be time to assess
what has happened. There will
be time to look at politics and
government and the role they
have played.
But not today.
I was deeply fortunate
to be involved with Steven
Spielberg’s Survivors of
the Shoah Visual History
Foundation, now the USC
Shoah Foundation, when it
was a brand-new pilot pro-
gram, working to collect testi-
monies from survivors around
the world to document the
atrocities of the Holocaust.
Among my most proud
accomplishments was bringing
that project to the Midwest in
1995. Over the years, I per-
sonally interviewed more than
60 Holocaust survivors for
the Foundation, so these first-
hand accounts would never be
forgotten. The world vowed
“never again.”
The stories and videos
flowing out of Israel and from
Hamas itself demonstrate in
sickening high-definition that
“never again” is happening

today.
Terrorists calling them-
selves “militants” and “sol-
diers” pouring over the Israeli
border, murdering civilians;
torturing children; beheading
babies; raping women in front
of their families; indiscrimi-
nately mowing down young
people at a peace festival; rip-
ping infants from the wombs
of their mothers and slaugh-
tering them. Taking more
than 100 innocent people
hostage, in the most brutal of
ways; threatening their exe-
cution, streamed live to their
families.
This is not a government
standing up for an oppressed
people. This is not a political
issue. This is not even war.
This is pure evil.
In 1939, it was much easier
for the world to turn away. We
heard stories, but they seemed
distant and too horrible to be
true. The slaughter of inno-
cents went on for years, met
too often by silence because
we couldn’t see beyond the
fences of the ghettos or the
gates of the camps. But with
the liberation of the concentra-

tion camps came realities that
shook humanity to its core. I
am still haunted by the stories
told to me from the many
Holocaust survivors I inter-
viewed. I never, ever thought
I would be haunted by similar
atrocities happening around
me today. In 2023. Broadcast
into our homes and on to our
phones, often in real time. We
cannot turn away.
This is happening in our
homeland, a place most of us
have a connection to, wheth-
er we or our loved ones have
visited or we know people
who live there or we just feel
connected because of our her-
itage. This is our family.
Now, as I watch the news,
as I listen to the unimaginable
stories of the barbaric and
inhumane acts of Hamas, I
wonder, are any of us safe?
The actions of Hamas and
the ensuing war destabilize
all of us. Antisemitism, which
was already nearing record
levels of reported incidents,
will surely skyrocket, as some
pro-Palestinian activists con-
flate the plight of their people
with these inhumane acts of
savagery.
There may be two sides to
the problem of Israeli con-
trol of Gaza and the West
Bank and the human rights
of the Palestinian people, but
there are not two sides to the
murder, rape and torture of
infants, children, women,
men and the elderly. We must
remember this.
Am Yisrael Chai.

Fran Victor is an award-winning
writer, film and video producer who
has worked extensively with nonprofit
and healthcare organizations. She
lives in White Lake and is a member
of Temple Israel.

Fran Victor