On Wednesday morning, I opened the door to get out of my Uber and immediately closed it because a car was driving by. Annoyed, the other driver rolled down his window, and screamed: "Only the Jews act this way!"
For a moment, I felt the sting of an age-old hatred that has followed our people for thousands of years.
Then my mind returned to the night before, Tuesday night, in Israel, at our Belev Echad House.
Ambulances pulled up outside. Shuttles arrived from the hospital. Soldiers were helped out of wheelchairs, some needing help just to walk through the door.
Within an hour, close to one hundred wounded IDF soldiers filled the room, all injured fighting in Lebanon these past months.
Some had lost arms. Some had lost legs. Some had lost their eyesight. Some carried brain injuries no one could see.
This is what Jew hatred does.
And yet the room wasn't heavy with grief. It was full of life.
Music. Laughter. Raffles. Friends teasing each other like nothing had ever happened to them. Smiles that had clearly fought through unbearable pain just to reach the surface.
There, with each other, for a few hours, they weren't patients or casualties. They were family.
No one stared. No one pitied. No one needed to explain anything, because everyone in that room already understood.
Watching them, I understood something too: we have every reason to break. And somehow, we keep choosing to build. To smile. To take care of one another.
The man who screamed at me yesterday? Maybe he had a bad day. Or maybe he truly hates Jews. Who knows?
But I wish he could have seen what I saw the night before: a room full of young people who gave everything so that others could live in safety. Young men and women who do not think of themselves, but fight for freedom, for Israel, for Jews everywhere, and for all humanity!
We have never been defined by those who hate us. And our answer to darkness has never been revenge. It has always been the Torah and its mitzvot!
Despite the pain, we dance. Despite the wounds, we laugh. Despite the hatred, we love.
We have just entered three weeks of mourning for the destruction of the Holy Temple. This period commemorates many tragedies in our history and many times others sought to destroy us. But we are still here, doing mitzvot and studying Torah.
Despite every attempt to break us — the Jewish people will prevail. Am Yisrael Chai!