4 | APRIL 4 • 2024 
J
N

PURELY COMMENTARY

opinion
Every Jew Around the 
World is Fighting Hamas 

This article is a reprint. It was 
originally published in The 
Jerusalem Post and on JPost.
com.
I

feel like I’m living through 
history. Like many Jewish 
kids, I grew up in the tra-
ditional Jewish day school 
and camp system. I learned 
all about Israel, Jewish histo-
ry and the Holocaust. I have 
always understood that there 
was this historical anomaly 
called antisemitism. Up until 
October, this was just some-
thing we learned about in histo-
ry class. Then Hamas attacked.
My world and the world of 
every Jewish person I know 
turned upside down. It all 
happened so suddenly. Having 
heard of antisemitism or cam-
pus anti-Zionism in the past, I 
now see it and feel it in every 
fiber of my being. Every univer-
sity campus, friend and relative 
I know is affected by a fierce 
anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sen-
timent that makes me quiver. 
With zero lead time, a vio-
lent wave of emotion erupted 

like a volcano. Neither I nor 
anyone I know has a clue how 
to handle this. We have no 
lived experience that guides us 
through this. Our parents are 
also inexperienced with this. 
In fact, my own parents tell 
me they have never personal-
ly experienced palpable Jew 
hatred before this. 
While we struggle here in 
our universities and in every 
city on the planet, our brothers 
and sisters in Israel are suffer-
ing through a long, grueling 
war. It is agonizing for us to see 
our people under such a heavy 
military burden, feel the guilt 
of not being there and have to 
find ways to survive here. Like 
I say, this is all new to me. This 
added dimension complicates 
our everyday life here at the 
University of Western Ontario 
(aka Western University) in 
Lomdon, Ontario.
So, how do I, a newly devel-
oping but rapidly maturing 
young Jewish student, handle 
all of this sudden and fierce 
emotion? All of us have had to 
find support from each other. 
We’ve had to talk much more 
with family than we ever did 
(or wanted to). We’ve reached 
out to our friends and joined 
student groups that we might 
not have otherwise joined. 
There are more students going 
to Hillel and Chabad dinners 
than ever before. 
We all want to huddle 
together and share the warmth 
that comes with togetherness. 
There’s no way to handle this 
much pain and confusion 
alone. And this strikes me as 
the silver lining in this calamity 

and poses a potential oppor-
tunity. 
It seems clear to me that, in 
a very brief moment, Hamas 
was able to convert a sharply 
divided Jewish nation into a 
tightly unified one. We now 
reach out and hold onto each 
other tighter than ever before 
in recent history. It is, I realize, 
internal division that weakens 
us and, I think, that invited this 
disaster. It is unity and better 
put, achdut, that will be the key 
to our survival here in exile and 
in Israel. 

JEWS MUST FIGHT FOR 
ISRAEL ON CAMPUS
And so, to me, the way forward 
is clear: I am no longer just 
some kid going to Western to 
get a degree. In record time, I 
have become a warrior for the 
Jewish people. It is incumbent 
upon me and every student on 
every campus (Jews and allies 
alike), to recognize the current 
state and get to work. We 
must organize. We must reach 
out, to each other and to non-
Jewish allies. We need to find 

every friend that we can. And, 
mostly, we need to stand strong 
in the face of adversity. We 
need to make noise when noise 
needs to be made.
We need to engage university 
administrations when they are 
weak or just getting it wrong. I 
feel like we are the modern-day 
Maccabees. We didn’t ask for 
this war, but we are definitely 
not going to lose it — if histo-
ry is any indication. In some 
regard, I feel a burst of energy 
I’ve never had before. 
Although we are thousands 
of miles away from the physical 
conflict, as students on campus 
we are still greatly affected by 
it. The only way to cope with 
all the hatred in the world is to 
come together as a community 
and show our strength in num-
bers.
The slogan I see on signs in 
Israel now means everything 
to me: “Beyachad nenatzeach” 
(“Together we will win”). 

The writer is an undergraduate at 

Western University studying kinesiology 

and business. 

JUDAH EISEN JERUSALEM POST

CHAIM GOLDBERG/FLASH90

ZAKA personnel work at a field with destroyed cars from the Oct. 7 
massacre, near the Israel-Gaza border, Nov. 23, 2023.

Jewish students protest at 
Western University in London, 
Ontario, demanding the release 
of the hostages held by Hamas.

JEREMY URBACH

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