My Parents Were the Argument

Theodor Herzl, wrote in 1896, more than forty years before the Holocaust:My happier co-religionists will not believe me till Jew-baiting teaches them the truth; for the longer Anti-Semitism lies in abeyance the more fiercely will it break out.Herzl, Theodor. Der Judenstaat. English, Location 873. Kindle Edition.Herzl was right. He understood antisemitism not as a passing prejudice but as a permanent force that resurfaces with renewed intensity after each period of quiet. His answer was a Jewish state — not as an ideological project but as a practical necessity: a place where Jews could defend themselves.As the child of Holocaust survivors, I have never needed convincing. My parents' lives were the argument. Antisemitism is not a historical artifact. It is a living force, and the Jewish people need the means to defend themselves against it. That is why Israel exists. That is why it must.