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More than with most countries, to really know and understand Israel, you need to be there, even if only temporarily. For all the constant media coverage, there’s no substitute for seeing it in person, especially since October 7. This week, despite having visited there dozens of times in the past, I saw and experienced Israel in a different, more emotional way, which I’m still processing ahead of my return to Toronto on Monday.

Last Sunday, I joined a group of Canadian Jewish lay leaders and members of FSWC’s Board of Directors and Ambassadors Circle on a flight to Tel Aviv for a solidarity mission at a time when Israel needs visitors and supporters more than ever. While I thought I had a pretty good sense of what’s been happening in Israel since October 7, little did I realize before the trip the impact of what we would experience from the moment we landed at Ben Gurion Airport until today.

Each day was packed with encounters, some planned, others spontaneous, with a wide range of people and visits to places connected to what the country has endured over the past nine months. Much of it was heart-wrenching but seeing the response of Israelis to such a soul-crushing catastrophe gave me hope that their remarkable resilience and fortitude will ensure that ultimately Israel will overcome the current adversity. And make no mistake, the country is going through one of the most difficult periods in its challenging history, which we saw up close every day.

One of the most poignant and painful aspects of the trip has been witnessing the sense of vulnerability and the need for support that so many of our hosts, speakers and other people we met shared with us. It’s something I’d never seen before among Israelis who typically have a certain swagger and edginess to them. You can feel the damage caused to their society as a result of the Hamas invasion and atrocities and all the things that came along with that dark day. Israelis are not over it yet, and they need our help and support, and we must stand with them, and push back with them against those seeking to harm Israel.

Understandably, Israelis are deeply hurt, still traumatized by October 7, made worse by the ongoing hostage nightmare, the war in Gaza, the daily missile attacks from Hezbollah, and the plight of tens of thousands of displaced citizens who don’t know when they’ll be able to return to their homes in the north and in the south. And that’s just stating the obvious. All this is compounded by the sense of isolation and abandonment Israelis can’t help but feel in the face of extreme hostility from much of the world so fast to portray and condemn the Jewish state as a demonic villain.

This trip has been, above all, emotional. For my part, I live my life with a bit of chaos at all times, extremely busy in my work. It's one of the hazards of having been in politics and now being so involved in the intense, all-consuming fight against antisemitism and Jewish advocacy, that I don't usually spend a lot of time reflecting on the emotion of it all. In contrast, for the past five days, I’ve had the opportunity to really look around, to breathe and feel what I’m seeing, to feel the pathos of the reality here and also appreciate the incredible courage and strength on display, especially from young Israelis, which bodes well for the future of the country.

To be sure, sadness abounds. Walking the grounds of Kibbutz Be’eri and the Nova Music Festival, both sites of previously unimaginable massacres on October 7, evoked feelings similar to what I felt when walking around Auschwitz. Not that the scale of death is comparable, just the notion that this was a place where so many people had been murdered with such terrifying cruelty. It was shocking. I felt that this ground was hallowed because many people had been murdered there. The pure evil that had caused their deaths left me numb.

I will never forget what it felt to stand in places that suffered unspeakable tragedy on October 7 and to feel what our presence, small as it was, meant to those we met, who repeatedly expressed appreciation for people visiting from abroad and the solidarity they bring. For all of us on this trip, it’s now our responsibility to bring back to Canada what we saw, what we heard, what we learned about Israel’s existential struggle. When you speak to Holocaust survivors, they often talk about the importance of bearing witness to what they lived through, and of how when you bear witness, you become a witness, with an obligation of spreading that message. And that's exactly what we bring back from this trip. It also a powerful reminder to me of the importance of the work we do at FSWC in fighting antisemitism, often cloaked in anti-Zionism.

It’s hard to do justice in this limited space to everything I took in over the past five days. I still have so much to unpack and will be reflecting on this trip for weeks, if not months. As difficult as it was, I’m so grateful for the opportunity to have been in Israel when it matters most. I encourage anyone who can make such a trip to do so. I can assure you it will be one of the most meaningful experiences of your life.

Am Yisrael Chai!

Shabbat Shalom,
Michael

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