Never Forget

That was part of the day’s trauma — the revelation that Israel, whose very premise was elementary safety for the Jewish People, should prove such an unsafe place for Jews.

Never Again — possibly the only words that united Meir Kahane and his Jewish establishment critics — was always hubristic, forgetting the Divine role in Jewish history. Now it’s outdated hubris.

I’d like to propose another watchword.

Never Forget.

These two words should be emblazoned all over our communal agenda, both in Israel and beyond. They don’t mean memorial services, although those are important. They don’t mean honoring the murdered, the tortured and the fallen, however crucial that may be.

These two words mean the capacity to gaze unblinkingly at the reality of what we’re dealing with. They mean the maturity not to fall once again for the wishful thinking that gripped us in the past.