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Dear friends,
It is not always easy. In truth, most of the time, it is not easy at all.
There is a reason so many people choose not to take a public stand, not to be vocal, not to advocate when doing so carries a personal or professional cost. I understand that choice. Speaking out can be uncomfortable. It can be isolating. And when the facts are distorted, when history is deliberately manipulated, and when hatred is disguised as political conviction, standing for truth can require a measure of courage that is easy to underestimate from the outside.
But I also know, with every cell in my body, that this is my mission and that this is my responsibility as part of HMTC.
I am not a Holocaust historian or educator. But I have seen firsthand that the lessons of the Holocaust can change people. I have also seen firsthand what happens when those lessons are ignored, diluted, politicized, or separated from the realities of the present.
Evil exists. I have witnessed evil.
I have seen the horrific videos filmed by the terrorists themselves on October 7th and I have seen the aftermath face to face. I have seen the evidence of what human beings are capable of doing to one another when hatred is allowed to consume every boundary of human decency. I have seen images and videos of the skeletal remains of those murdered across Europe in the 1940's because they were Jewish. And on September 11th, I was running from a collapsing building while human beings, trapped above us and consumed by fire, made the unimaginable decision to jump from the Twin Towers because there was no other alternative.
And history has demonstrated, again and again, that evil is not a metaphor. It is not a relic of another era. It is not something that happens only in distant places to people unlike us.
The greatest danger may be our reluctance to believe that it does.
History teaches us otherwise. That is why Holocaust education matters. Not simply as just a lesson about the past, but as a responsibility to recognize the warning signs when they emerge in the present. We cannot claim to have learned the lessons of history if we are unwilling to confront the realities unfolding before us today.
People who are fundamentally decent often struggle to comprehend the depths to which others are capable of descending, instinctively projecting our own humanity onto them and telling ourselves that surely there must be another explanation, another motive, another interpretation.
As a Holocaust museum and educational center, our obligation extends beyond remembering the victims of the Holocaust. The history we teach reminds us that hatred directed at one people ultimately threatens the moral fabric of an entire society. That is why institutions like ours must continue to stand against antisemitism, racism, bigotry, discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, and hatred in all its forms. Human dignity is not conditional.
That principle, however, is not in conflict with our obligation to speak unequivocally about October 7th and the rise in Jew-hatred across the globe ever since.
It is the very reason we must.
Three years ago, on October 7, approximately 1,200 people from more than 50 nationalities were murdered in an act of extraordinary brutality. Innocent people were raped, burned alive, mutilated, murdered in their homes and at a music festival, and taken hostage. They were not numbers. They were human beings.
They were young people celebrating life at a music festival. They were babies, children, teenagers, parents, and grandparents in their homes. They were families and neighbors who had built their lives in communities near Gaza, many because they believed coexistence was possible. Some had spent years helping their Palestinian neighbors, driving them to hospitals, providing employment in their homes, building relationships, and believing that a better future could be built for both peoples.
Their humanity must never be erased. Neither can the truth of what happened to them. Yet almost immediately after the massacre, propaganda began working to obscure that truth and to manipulate public opinion, invert victim and perpetrator, distort history, and transform the murder and kidnapping of Jews and others into a justification for hatred of Israel and the Jewish people.
We must recognize this for what it is. Propaganda does not become truth because it is repeated often enough. A falsehood does not become fact because it is amplified by millions (with the help of social media). And history cannot be rewritten simply because the truth has become politically inconvenient.
At HMTC, we will continue to teach truth over propaganda.
We will continue to confront antisemitism wherever it appears, including when it is strategically concealed behind the language of political activism. We will continue to defend the Jewish people's right to self-determination in their historic homeland. We will use our voice to challenge the false narratives that distort the realities of Israel, October 7th, and the history of the Jewish people.
When an entire people becomes a scapegoat for society's grievances; when conspiracy replaces evidence; when propaganda replaces history; when terrorism is romanticized as resistance; when murderers are celebrated and their victims are blamed; when the fundamental rights of women, LGBTQ+ people, religious minorities, and those who refuse to submit to an extremist ideology are treated as negotiable - we must recognize the warning signs.
We must not allow the language of liberation to obscure movements that seek to extinguish liberty. We must not confuse political slogans with moral principles. And we must never allow the freedoms of an open society to become the instruments by which that society is ultimately dismantled.
October 7th was an attack on innocent human beings. It was also a warning. And perhaps that is why this work is so difficult. Because standing for truth is rarely difficult when everyone agrees with you. The difficult moment is when doing the right thing comes with consequences. When speaking honestly invites criticism. Defending historical truth requires confronting fashionable falsehoods. When remaining silent would be easier, safer, or more comfortable.
That is precisely when our convictions are tested. I understand why people hesitate. But I cannot pretend that I have not seen what I have seen.
I cannot unsee October 7th. I cannot unsee the evidence of the Holocaust. I cannot unsee the visions of September 11th that have been seared into my memory. And I cannot accept the comforting fiction that evil disappears simply because decent people find it difficult to believe that it exists. It does exist. And our response to it must be grounded not in hatred, but in courage. Not in vengeance, but in justice. Not in dehumanization, but in an unwavering belief in the dignity of every human being. But it must also be present through courage, pride, and strength - yes, strength.
That is the responsibility of HMTC. We will remember. We will educate. We will challenge propaganda.
Because the lessons of history demand more from us than remembrance. They demand action. They demand courage. They demand that when hatred rises, we do not look away. When lies spread, we do not remain silent. And when the moment comes to choose between comfort and conscience, we choose conscience.
History will judge every generation by what it did when it knew better. One day, it will remember those who stood up when it mattered most.
I intend to be one of them. I hope you join me.
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