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A special message from Combat Antisemitism Movement CEO Sacha Roytman on the situation in Israel:
Dear Friends,
I started writing this update on Sunday night from inside our bomb shelter in Tel Aviv. As I sit here with my wife and our three young children, I can’t help but reflect on history — and my own family’s story — as well as the moment we are living in right now as Jews in Israel.
Eighty years ago, my grandfather was the same age as my son Ari is today — just six years old. But unlike Ari, who hides today from ballistic missiles launched by the Iranian regime, my grandfather spent three years in hiding from the Nazis. He lived in constant fear, waiting for the knock on the door to take him to the gas chambers. His father — my great-grandfather — was taken and murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1942. My grandfather survived thanks to the bravery of an entire village that chose to shelter him and his brother.
What I feel today is painfully familiar: once again, we are being targeted by an ideology that seeks the destruction of the Jewish people. The tyrannical regime of the Iranian ayatollahs, like the Nazis more than eight decades ago, aspires to wipe us out. But this time, the situation is different. This time, we have our own country — the State of Israel.
My grandfather dreamed of this land while hiding from the Nazis. I fulfilled his dream by making my home here, raising my family here, and serving six years in the Israeli Army — committed to ensuring that “Never Again” would Jews be left unprotected.
But the Tehran regime was planning a new Holocaust — openly preaching genocide and building weapons to carry it out. The world had seen this pattern before. In the 1930s, too many remained silent, and the consequences were devastating.
Last week, Israel acted decisively and with extraordinary courage and ingenuity to prevent history from repeating itself.
While my family and millions of Israelis have spent nights in bomb shelters, Israeli pilots have been in the skies dismantling the infrastructure Iran had built to exterminate us. Over the last several days, Israel’s Air Force has struck deep inside Iran, severely degrading the regime’s nuclear program and other military capabilities. Israel’s defense systems — the most advanced the world has ever seen — are intercepting unprecedented barrages of missiles. At the same time, our American allies are standing firmly with us, providing supplies and logistical support to back our efforts.
My son Ari may be in hiding right now, but unlike his great-grandfather, he is not alone. He has the State of Israel. He has the Israeli Army. He has our allies. And he has a world that can no longer claim it didn’t know.
As I write these words, we are preparing for our fifth night in our bomb shelter. The alerts will come again. The missiles will fly once more. And yes, we are scared. But we are also strong. We know that, thanks to Israel’s fortitude and resilience, we are changing history.
This is not only an existential battle for Israel. It is a fight for the free world against a regime that has exported terror across the globe for decades. Israel is doing what must be done — for our children, for the Jewish people, and for all those who believe in freedom.
Thank you for standing with us. Your support means more than words can express.
Am Yisrael Chai.
With strength and gratitude from Israel.
