Where Were You, World?

Where were you when you found out about the assassinations of JFK, MLK Jr, Princess Diana, on 9/11, when the space shuttle Challenger didn't clear our atmosphere? I bet you know with distinct clarity.


What about October 7th 2023. Is that date etched in your mind? Or is it just another day - like maybe that's the day that a war started and you understand its historical significance?  But do you know where you were, what you were doing, what you were feeling in those exact moments when you were seven or more hours behind in time zone and you woke up to news?  I know.  I remember that weekend with intense clarity.  The highest and happiest of highs combined with some scary lows that have yet to dissipate even three years later.

We skipped parents' weekend Alex's sophomore year because we scored U2 tickets at the Sphere and since we were already going to be out west we made plans for our own CU Boulder Parents' Weekend.
It all started on Thurs Oct 5, we had an early flight to Vegas.  This may have been my favorite U2 concert ever. I still remember that feeling of not knowing if the stage was moving or the floor.  Trippy and amazing and a night I will never forget.
Fri Oct 6, we texted Shabbat Shalom to our kids, told Avery we wanted lots of blocks and kills in her volleyball game and then had one of those great Vegas dinners that last for hours and include lots of cocktails and oh hey, you are at a restaurant in a hotel with a casino, so maybe just a little bit of gambling before your early flight

And then we woke up early for Pacific time, but a lifetime had already happened in Israel.




October 7, 2023.
We flew to Denver. We had a whole weekend of festivities planned with Alex. We were not feeling festive. We did not want to stop looking at our phones. We tried to keep smiles on our faces.  We didn't understand the magnitude. We didn't know who to talk to. We didn't know who to turn to. We didn't know who to trust. We were happy that we were with Alex and could hug him tightly. We wanted Avery with us so we could shield her.
We tried to act normal. We were forever changed. We became shells of ourselves. We clung to our community. We were shocked when some of our friends and neighbors would no longer be our friends. A divide, no, a chasm had formed. We realized that a lifetime of our saying Never Forget. Zachor, Zachor, was not enough. People chose to not protect us, to turn on us, to hate us. Told us that we needed to be American, not Jewish and definitely not "genocidal" Zionists.

Three years later and the world wants us to have already forgotten. Synagogues and Jewish Communities will commemorate (I hope), but it has become an Us vs Them world.  And if your algorithm is not of the "us" variety, it will be just another day. 

Where were you?  Like both physically what were you doing on that day and also WHERE WERE YOU - why weren't you there for us? Even more profoundly worse, why are you blaming us?

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