Yesterday, I went to my job at my synagogue. The first thing I noticed was the heightened security. The guards were now wearing bulletproof vests. Yesterday, I had to tell elementary schoolers that never again was not true. Yesterday, I had to teach children that innocent Jews were being murdered. 

Today, I wonder when our communities will speak up. Today, I wonder if our friends in Israel are safe. Today, I wonder why only Jewish people are posting that they condemn Hamas. 

Never again is right now. 

We are taught in school that terrorism is bad, yet there are still endless excuses for why this is humane. Never again is right now. Holocaust survivors are being held hostage and killed. 

We promised them never again. They will never grow up to see the peace we all so desperately hang on to. 

These children will never grow old. They stay frozen in time, with their last memories of being terrorized. How can we, as the next Jewish generation, keep this as the last never again? 

How can we, as humans, do our best to protect the world with peace?

We must stand together now to fight this battle in our own school, to help support those fighting for the freedom of citizens, Palestinian or Israeli. 

We recite the prayer “Oseh Shalom” together in a call for peace. 

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Oseh shalom bimromav 

Hu ya-aseh shalom

Aleinu v’al kov Yisrael

Vi’imru amen. 

May G’d who caused peace to reign in the high heavens, create peace for us and all of Israel. We hope for a blanket of peace to be spread across the land of Israel. 

Amen.