Even in the darkest times in history, there were always people like you who stood by us. Thank you, thank you. We notice you, we appreciate and remember your kind words and brave actions, your understanding and your support. What's happened in the past doesn't matter for much more than to inform what could happen in the future. The Christianity of the past is not the Christianity of today.

Judaism teaches us that every single person is worthy of love and kindness; everyone on earth was made in God's image. I don't think its the majority of people that hate us, its not. The reason I don't feel safe is because the majority of people simply don't understand, and won't do a damn thing to stop the few terrible people who are responsible for the most damage.

As far as Israel is concerned I'll be honest, I'm not even religious anymore. I don't think the idea of a "birthright" or whatever is really doing us any favors. Id be fine to share Israel with anyone who feels strongly that their religion ties them to that land. I remember as a kid flying to israel, and sitting next to a lovely woman on the plane for 11 hours. I must have been about 8 or 10 years old. She was so kind, and we played games and talked the whole time. I assumed she was Jewish because she was going to Israel but she told me she wasn't. I learned from my mom that she was a missionary, going to Israel because it's a holy place for Christians too. I thought that was just the coolest thing, I didn't realize at the time that Israel was special to people other than Jews and I remember feeling so proud that someone not Jewish felt so strongly positive about Israel.

This idea that Israel somehow belongs to one group of people and not another is just... utter bullshit. Israel was built by socialists who wanted to build an open and accepting society, and in many ways succeeded in that regard.

The problem Jews face globally is that there's never been a country where we could be ourselves safely and for our own survival we desperately need a country where we can govern ourselves. Even in the US, where we have enjoyed religious freedom our ancestors could only have dreamt of, the culture is not structured to support Jews. As an example, to celebrate our Holidays we have to take time off of work and school. I remember early in my career, I was given 14 days of PTO per year and used 12 of them for Jewish Holidays - before the year started almost all of my PTO was spoken for. But at least I was allowed to take off. The rest of the world has treated their Jews far worse, and the reason we need Israel is because we really have no where else to go. My family fled Iraq (we are Kurdish) to Israel. As far as I know my Grandparents never stepped foot in Europe. My grandmother came to the US once when I was born, my Grandfather never left Israel after fleeing Iraq. They couldn't go back to Iraq obviously. So where are Jews supposed to go if not Israel? The only conclusion I can come to is that if it weren't for Israel, we'd be dead, and people want Israel gone so that we can disappear. Shameful for those who choose to be on that side of history.