Jodi Hirsh: Demanding an Israel-Hamas cease-fire

I am the Jewish grandchild of Holocaust survivors. My grandfather was in a camp. Although I was very close to them, I never learned exactly how my grandparents escaped Austria and then Vichy France, because the experience was so traumatizing that neither one would discuss it for the rest of their lives. All I know is that somehow, they fled and started a new life thanks to a total stranger — an American Jewish sponsor who lived in Pittsburgh.

But their trauma lingered — it colored everything they did and every decision they made. They raised my mother with it, and in turn, she raised me with it. This is not an unusual story. The epigenetic trauma of descendants of Holocaust survivors is real and pervasive. And when Jews see evidence of history repeating itself, it shakes us to our core.

And yet, if I’ve learned anything from growing up in the shadow of the Holocaust, it’s this: Our trauma must not become a manifesto for massacre. Killing 160 children every day is not self-defense. Bombing hospitals, killing newborns and forcing children with cancer to evacuate hospitals will not bring the hostages home.

Obliterating generations of families will not foil Hamas. It won’t make Israelis or Jews safer. Exacting unspeakable cruelty on tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians — withholding fuel, water, electricity and food, bombing universities and ambulances, journalists and health care workers, slaughtering entire families, whole generations — for their government’s crimes will not end antisemitism. Turning 70% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents into refugees will not end antisemitism. Instead, as we’re already seeing, it will dramatically enflame antisemitic embers that never fully go out, setting the whole world on fire.

My ancestors did not die in Auschwitz for me to stand down while a humanitarian crisis rages in my name. Many American Jews consider Tikkun Olam — repairing the world — a cornerstone of our Jewish identity. How can we repair the world if we’ve lost our humanity?

I know the main rejoinder to a cease-fire is that Hamas is the reason for Gazans’ long-term suffering, not Israel. I’m not here to dispute that. I’m no expert in the long, complex history of the region. But once we’re debating who is more responsible for the unspeakable horrors now playing out instead of how to immediately end them, we’ve lost the plot. We are moral beings, and when we see this level of human suffering, we know the best thing we can do now is fight to stop it, no matter who is to blame.

I know what antisemitism is. I have felt the threats it poses. I stood a block away from Tree of Life on a crisp autumn morning, in lockdown for hours, anxious and unsure what terrors were unfolding inside. And I know that many of my fellow Jews won’t like what I have to say. In many circles, Jews advocating for a cease-fire are being told we’re traitors betraying our own people, self-hating Jews or worse.

So be it. But I will not bandage my pain with vengeance. To wipe out terror, I will not embody it. I will not use grief to create more despair, in a world already dripping with it.

I will stand up for Jewish safety and Palestinian freedom. I will not agree that because the world stood silent while conflicts raged in Syria, Yemen, Bangladesh and Myanmar, we should do the same as thousands of innocent Gazans are wiped off the face of the earth. Silence in the face of mass murder is always wrong, no matter where it takes place, as those of us who felt the pain of some of our allies’ reactions to Hamas’ actions on Oct. 7 know all too well.

I will speak out against any and all acts of discrimination against Jews, but I will not let doing so distract me from the single most immediate concern any of us should have right now — lobbying our U.S. representatives to join the call pressing our government to push for an immediate cease-fire and release of the hostages. I feel fortunate to be represented by Summer Lee, one of the very few members of Congress in the country fighting for a cease-fire (something the majority of Americans also want).

I will continue to ask the rest of my representatives to focus on bringing home the hostages, not funding mass murder. I will donate to organizations providing urgently needed humanitarian aid in Gaza. And I will continue to do everything I can to demand a cease-fire. I hope my fellow Jews will continue to join me. Because never again is not just for us. It’s for everyone.

Jodi Hirsh lives in Highland Park, where she operates a small communications firm.