The Fight of Your Life: A Message to the Graduates of 2025

Dear Graduates of 2025,

You are about to enter an upside-down world. All over the planet there is dark confusion about what is good and evil. Protestors march for terrorists who have murdered, violated women, and taken innocents hostage. College presidents and professors defend hatred in the name of free speech. Students violently destroy their campuses, assault Jewish students, and disrupt graduations spewing blood libels against the Jewish people.

Those who call for the “total eradication of Western civilization” while living comfortably in the U.S. have become the idealists of a new generation. A young couple is killed on the streets of our capital, the murderer screams “Free, Free Palestine” and he is lauded on social media posts. Messages like “We need more Elias Rodriguez in this world” and “By any means necessary, including armed struggle” sends chills down my spine. We are watching the radicalization of American youth.

You have witnessed the celebrations after the massacre of October 7^th. Babies were burned and there was joy in the streets. You have heard the voices screaming to “globalize the intifada”. Tragically, you now understand what they mean. Terror has arrived to our shores.

I am sorry for you that vicious antisemitism has become your reality. You will follow your dreams as the world around you has become a nightmare. You will enter the work force, pursue your career, not sure if the person sitting beside you wishes you dead. You will build new homes, bring innocent children into the world, realizing that at any moment, a madman can spew his hatred and make you feel helpless against the evil that surrounds you.

But instead of pity, I offer you my words of strength.

Confront the darkness with your light. Stand up, stand tall, and know that you carry with you a rich heritage of compassion, values, moral clarity, and love for humanity.

You are about to enter the fight of your life. Confront the darkness with your light. Stand up, stand tall, and know that you carry with you a rich heritage of compassion, values, moral clarity, and love for humanity.

It is not often that we have an opportunity to make a difference. This is your moment. Your voice is needed. Speak out. Do not stay silent in the face of hatred. Educate others. Share your story, the story of our people. We have traveled the four corners of this earth, gone through every form of persecution, pogroms, inquisition, gas chambers, suicide bombers, massacres, and yet, we are here. We are a miracle, bringing our wisdom and values to every country we have found ourselves in. We have returned to the land of our forefathers after thousands of years through great sacrifice and tears. We are a nation who seeks peace but we will defy the world and stubbornly fight to live.

Educate yourself. Learn about your rich history, your heritage, your birthright. Stay connected. Your family, your friends, and your faith are a source of strength. Don’t take your Judaism for granted. Your Shabbos lights will bring you comfort. Your traditions and holidays will infuse you with strength. You will realize that you are part of a resilient nation who never gave up, even in the greatest of challenges.

Lean on me. I share with you my spirit. I grew up in a home where both my parents triumphed over the darkest of times. My father’s entire family was murdered in the Holocaust while he miraculously survived, holding onto his faith. My mother was shoved into a cattle car as a little girl and taken to Bergen Belsen. Each day standing at roll call, covered with lice and sores, famished and freezing, she knew one truth. She looked at the Nazi guards and said “Thank God I am the daughter of my people, I come from prophets and kings, and I am not one of you!”

My life has been imbued with my parents’ legacy of living with meaning and mission. I have seen what it means to live with faith under fire, to create life after loss, and dare to look evil in the eye and overcome the haters.

Be proud of your roots. You have a vital role to play. You will rise, I have no doubt. You will make a difference for our people, for the world needs good to prevail so badly now.

Leave your mark. Stay strong. Know that you are not alone. This is the fight of your life.

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