Couldn’t you hear them calling?

Listening to Ronen Shoval describe his October 7^th morning, I was stunned by how profoundly it crystalized the divide between Israeli and American Jews.

Ronen Shoval is the founder of Im Tirtzu and is currently the Dean of the Tikvah Fund and head of the Argaman Institute. On October 7^th he was in America because he is now an Associate Research Scholar and Lecturer in Politics at Princeton University.

Simchat Torah morning, Ronen’s daughter woke him up with a strange statement. She said: “Daddy, Mommy, says there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that there’s lots more time left to go to the synagogue and pray.”

“And what’s the bad news?”

“The Rabbi is crying. He says there’s a war in Israel now.”

Ronen described himself thinking, ok that’s not good but I’ve seen that before. What she added after stopped him in his tracks: “30 soldiers have been taken hostage,”

Morning in America was the afternoon in Israel – when we were beginning to understand what was happening. The battle for Israel was raging. We still didn’t know the magnitude of the horror but it was becoming clear that we were in the midst of an all too real nightmare.

Ronen packed his bags. The next day he was on a flight to Israel. The plane was packed with Israeli soldiers rushing home to fight.

When he returned to his family in America, he the people in the synagogue asked him: “Why did you leave so quickly? Did the IDF call you?”

He was stunned by the question.

“Call me?! They didn’t have to call me! The blood of my brothers and sisters was crying out to me from the ground! Couldn’t you hear them crying out?!”

And then, with the bluntness of an Israeli who has seen horrors and has no patience left for niceties, he told them: “If you couldn’t hear them calling to you, something is wrong with you.”

When there is a battle, it is natural to run away from the danger. Who wants to put themselves in danger?

Israelis drop everything and run towards the danger because that’s where our family is.

On October 7^th, Israelis didn’t wait for the army to call them. It didn’t matter if they were an hour away or halfway around the world. There is something profoundly painful about American Jews who don’t understand that feeling, don’t have that instinct.