I’m not Jewish, but there’s a reason that I’ve risked everything to speak up for the Jewish community. And when I say everything, I mean everything. I mean being blocked by friends that I grew up with, unfollowed by most friends and associates, accused of being a spy for the Mossad, IRGC, CIA etc, having my family accused of the same and having their lives put at risk to the extent of having to contact the FBI, being subjected to unthinkable smears, conspiracies, and rumors that are intended to blacklist me from everywhere and by everyone, but I still speak up despite it all, you know why? Because the same time that Jews had to watch their children being shot and kidnapped on October 7 Is the same time they had to watch half the world protest against the existence of their tiny Jewish state that is their only refuge from global genocide Is the same time they had to watch their friends, associates, celebrities, and the world’s body politic post paragliders in celebration of their massacre Is the same time they had to watch their synagogues go up in flames amid renewed pogroms in Europe Is the same time they had to be banned and blacklisted as persona non gratas of the world by trading the word “Jews” for “Zionists” Is the same time they had to be pushed back by human chains on college campuses and beaten unconscious for defying chants for their death Is the same time they had to watch a mentally ill rapper tell millions of his followers that he loves Hitler and supports the Holocaust Is the same time they had to watch the likes of Dan Bilzerian, Candace Owens, Jake Shields, and the rest of the “woke right” claim “Jewish supremacy” is the world’s biggest problem by citing obscure texts of the Talmud & claiming to “seek truth” while regurgitating antisemitic Soviet disinformation to justify their persecution Is the same time they had to watch the woke left claim that the victims of Islamist extremism deserved the October 7 horrors because their grandparents who fled Nazi Germany back to Palestine in refugee boats were actually “white colonizers” All while the world looks on and glibly asks, “what antisemitism?” That’s why I speak up. The most important thing I’ve realized is that nobody can take from you what doesn’t belong to them. They can silence, intimidate, threaten, and accuse you, but they can never take away the power of your voice when it bellows into the scorched earth the last hopeful, fragmented glimmers of truth. That belongs to you and nobody else, and in our lifetime, it may never be more important than now.

Turn your phone off. Lose yourself in a book, conversation or game. You’ll feel rejuvenated. The feeling of missing out is an illusion and a trick being played on you.