07/10/2026
Three years ago today, the Jewish people experienced our darkest day since the Holocaust.
I remember standing at the site of the Nova Festival shortly after October 7, looking at the makeshift memorials and the faces of beautiful young people who had been murdered, and thinking:
I am not supposed to be seeing this in Israel.
This is something I am supposed to see in Poland, in places where Jews were slaughtered simply because they were Jews.
Yet the hatred followed us home.
The last three years have been painful beyond words. We have buried extraordinary people, sat with grieving families, embraced wounded soldiers, and watched antisemitism explode around the world.
Yet these years have also brought tremendous clarity.
We have discovered who truly stands with the Jewish people. We have seen people of every background stand up and say that the murder of Jews is wrong, that Israel has the right to defend its people, and that evil must be confronted.
Most importantly, we have rediscovered ourselves.
October 7 exposed our vulnerability. Everything since has demonstrated our strength.
Again and again, we have seen extraordinary courage and resilience. Every time I meet a bereaved family, speak with a wounded soldier, or encounter someone whose life was shattered that day, I expect to find only darkness. Instead, somehow, I keep finding light.
Our enemies are obsessed with our destruction.
We must be obsessed with our mission.
We are a people who choose life. We rebuild. We pray. We fight when we must. We dance again. We bring children into the world. We believe in tomorrow.
Three years later, my heart still breaks for everything and everyone we lost. Yet I have never been prouder to be part of this people.
I love our people.
I love our land.
I love our God.
We are still here.
We will be here tomorrow.
And with God’s help, our greatest chapters are still ahead of us.
עם ישראל חי
Am Yisrael Chai.
— Rabbi Steven Burg, CEO of Aish
