8 | MARCH 28 • 2024 J N information is tearing our world apart. Instead of making me angry, it makes me sad. I think of Shelly Shem Tov and Yarden Gonen, who both spoke to our group from the Missing Family & Hostage Forum. The Shem Tov family established the forum with other families on Oct. 8 after their son, Omer Shem Tov, was kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival. Shelly will tell her story as many times as it takes to get her Omer home. We must never stop. We must keep talking about all the kidnapped until they are all home and safe and all our soldiers are home safe. The Shem Tov family gives us all a Good Name for sure, and we can help them by continuing to spread the word that they all must come home. To bear wit- ness to this extraordinary display is to assert to the world that this massacre happened, and we are waiting for our hostages to come home. We will not forget. That is my why. When we decide to have a family, we wish for many things and hope — we get what we wish for — and if we are lucky, we get exactly what we never knew that we always wanted and never thought was possible. My daugh- ter, Maya, continues to give me gifts that I never thought were possible. In fall 2021, Maya’s junior year at Washington University in St. Louis, she decided to apply to Birthright Excel for summer 2022. Thousands of applicants express interest every year, but there are only 64 spots in the fellowship program. Fortunately, Maya was one of those selected and thus began her meaningful connec- tion to Birthright Excel, Israel and Zionism. Before Maya’s Birthright Israel Excel experience, I had been to Israel on two occasions — a five- week summer trip in 1981 as a teenager with Temple Israel of West Bloomfield and, in 2016, as a mom with Momentum. Prior to being selected as an Excel Fellow, Maya had only been to Israel once and just for five days. While we craved to spend more time there, other vacation spots closer to home were more intriguing during those years. While Maya was living in Israel as an Excel Fellow in summer 2022, I made sure to go spend time in Tel Aviv visiting her and her new friends, seeing old friends and exploring the city. One of the highlights of my trip was dining with Maya and her cohort listening to the recap of their experience, getting caught up in their excitement and learning about their internship experienc- es, opportunities, and culture that I never realized existed in our homeland. Seeing Israel through the eyes of college students was joyful and meaningful. When Oct. 7 happened, the news affected us to our core. Our hearts broke for fear of our friends and family, yet our immediate visceral reaction was to get to Israel as soon as possible. Knowing the battlefield was in Gaza, an area off limits to Israelis and tourists, I felt just about as comfortable going to Israel as I do when traveling to other locations outside of the U.S. When Maya and I, as an inter- generational Excel family, were presented with the opportunity by Excel leadership to participate in the Birthright Excel Mission to Israel, we did not hesitate. Our people are there, and Israel needs us just like we need Israel. Without Israel, our existence as a people is in danger. I truly believe that the Birthright Excel experience was and continues to be a central element of my daughter’s life. Maya and her cohort of Excel Fellows are contemplating what they can do with this special gift to enhance their relationship with Israel and to develop leader- ship roles for their future. These amazing Birthright Excel Fellows are proud to be Jewish Zionists and step into leadership roles to support Israel’s next chapter. I’m so happy that my daughter is part of this amazing group, and I encourage all those who are eli- gible to take the opportunity of a lifetime with a 10-day Birthright Israel trip this summer. Without question, the time has actually never been better. I encourage each of you to find your why. Am Yisrael Chai. Karen Simon grew up in West Bloomfield. Her parents were founding members of Temple Israel. She and her daughter, Maya, returned recently from a special, first-of-its-kind intergenerational mission to Israel which took place in early February and was organized by Birthright Israel. Israel, the dark forces outside the university, and the unidentified “donors.” It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who are meant by the outside dark forces and the meddling donors. There was no mention of the well-documented harassment of Jews, the physical disruption of Jewish meetings, lectures, classes, vandalism of posters and extremist rhetoric calling for the extermination of Israel. WE ARE NOT ALONE I left the AEN zoom Town Hall feeling energized despite all the bad news because I felt that we are not alone, and we are not powerless. We can organize, educate and engage in civil dis- cussions against the historical ignorance and demagogic manip- ulation. Apartheid, white settler colonialism and genocide all have objective meanings and historical contexts that simplistic slogans that cannot lead to precise under- standing. BDS, Justice for Peace in Palestine and similar groups use the understandable compas- sion for the suffering civilians in Gaza — used by Hamas as human shields — to relitigate the establishment of Israel in 1947- 50. Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran do not hide their goal of destroying Jewish Israel, but other advocates for the Palestinians conceal what they want with seemingly rea- sonable calls for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the war without Hamas being defeated. The slogan about “from the river to the sea” illustrates that proposals for a one-state solution with the right of return are not innocent positions but constitute a path to violent conflict. One anecdote to conclude. At a Jewish Studies conference in Southampton, England, in 2005, only a few weeks after the “7/7” terrorist bombings in London that killed 56 and injured 784, a colleague and I tried to persuade a graduate student that Israel was not an apartheid state. Not a conference participant, he refused to believe that the Knesset had Arab and Muslim members. We urged him to look it up on his own, but he was unyielding in his conviction. As an intelligent graduate student, he had to know we were not making up these facts, but his worldview depended on a demonic Israel. I thought he was an outlier in 2005, but now I am not so sure. Dr. Michael Scrivener is Wayne State Distinguished Professor of English, Emeritus. He now lives in Matawan, New Jersey. PURELY COMMENTARY FINDING HOPE continued from page 7 HAMAS AND ACADEMIA continued from page 7