Faith, Justice, and Israel: Being Proud

I was shocked when Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, named me one of 2025’s 18 American Zionist Women You Should Know. I don’t feel I deserve this honor. I came to Jewish philanthropy late in life; there are many women who have been doing this work far longer. 

So why am I on this list? It all started on October 9, 2023, when my then 13-year-old daughter came home from school and asked me questions about Israel and Palestine. Almost all of what she was saying was inaccurate, and we had a long conversation about the formation of Israel, the history of Gaza, the occupation of the West Bank, and the status of the two-state solution. My daughter’s questions surprised me. We had been to Israel the year before for my son’s bar mitzvah, we have Israeli friends, and my father is buried in Jerusalem. Israel is a good memory for my children.

Later that night, my daughter told me more. Two days after October 7th, kids at school searched her name online, found her bat mitzvah announcement on our temple’s website, and teased her about being a genocidal colonialist. It bears mentioning that my kids are Black Americans.

That Friday night, I took my children to services at our temple. I was hoping that being in a synagogue would give them a chance to be in a place of solace, not stress.

Instead, we listened as various members of the congregation denounced Israel. Some of what they said was accurate, and some was definitely not. 

I couldn’t let that be my kids’ experience that Friday night. I wanted desperately for them to have a break, to be able to feel pride in their identities. I asked for the microphone and began listing what makes me proud of Israel. There was a lot to say then, and there is a lot to say now – even if the government of Israel also does things I deeply disagree with. 

After I spoke, people came up to me and said thank you, including Israelis who felt that they could only thank me privately.

Speaking up that night started a waterfall of events. My rabbi invited me on a trip to Israel with the leadership of the URJ. That led to a seat on the URJ North American Board of Trustees, more trips to Israel, and getting involved with organizations fighting to make Israel a beacon of democracy.

I share my thoughts here because too few of us are willing to say out loud that we support Israel. I am proud of Israel just as I am a proud American. I am proud that when Gazans needed clean water, Israel hooked up Gaza’s desalination plant to Israel’s electrical grid. I am proud that the IDF spent over a year trying to get humanitarian aid into Gaza, even though some members of the unit were attacked on October 7th.

I am also proud of the lawyers at the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) who bring discrimination claims on behalf of Arab Israelis. I am proud of the rabbis in the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism (IMPJ), who mark both Jewish and Palestinian deaths, walking through screaming mobs to get to memorial services. I am proud of all the Israelis who march in Jerusalem’s Pride parade. 

I am proud that the Israel Policy Forum brings together Jews, Palestinians, Egyptians, Saudis, and anyone else who wants to discuss ways to achieve peace. I am proud that women can get birth control, abortions, and divorces in Israel. I am proud that when I walk along the beach in Tel Aviv, I see Muslim women playing with their children a few feet from a gay couple holding hands. 

And I am proud of Hadassah. I first entered Hadassah’s Ein Kerem hospital in Jerusalem to visit victims of October 7th. It is a hospital where Jews, Christians, and Muslims work side by side to heal one another. Hadassah itself works to “help women find their voices to advance health equity, and fight hate and antisemitism in the U.S., and model shared society in Israel.” It is not hard to be proud of that. 

Saying you support Israel doesn’t mean you agree with its government. Supporting a place, a people, a country, means loving it. It means fighting with it and for it. It means not giving up in tough times, working to fix what is broken, and celebrating what is good. 

I am writing this the day after two young Israelis were gunned down outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. by a man yelling “Free Palestine.” Some people will say Israel caused this or deserved this. Some people will begrudgingly say that we need Israel as it’s the only land where Jews can be safe. 

I say that we want Israel. Israel’s Declaration of Independence says that it will 

“Ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race, or sex; guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education, and culture; [and] safeguard the holy places of all religions.”

In a region where most countries don’t even aspire to these things, Israel says them out loud. That Israel stumbles on its way does not mean we should abandon it. A country surrounded by enemies who seek to destroy it, that has had to fight six defensive wars in 76 years, yet whose national anthem is called “The Hope,” is something to be proud of.