Stop Explaining, Start Existing

We’ve tried. There’s an entire genre of Jewish self-defence content online—speeches, carousels, infographics. Annotated bibliographies of our existence. But this was never about learning. It’s not about history. Or facts. Or getting it right. It’s about the performance of outrage—and the satisfaction of casting a villain. The people who claim to care don’t want nuance. They want catharsis. A clean story. A binary. And if you make it messy—if you make them think—they’ll find someone who doesn’t.

So why do we keep playing defense in a game that was rigged before we logged in?

We shrink ourselves, hoping softness will be read as humanity.We sanitize our fear, hoping it will finally make us sympathetic. But they don’t want to understand. Because understanding would break the fantasy. It would ruin the aesthetic.And here’s what they’re not expecting:For us to stop explaining. To stop auditioning for inclusion in a story that was never written with us in mind.To stop trying to make our existence palatable in someone else’s moral grid.

What if we were Zionist—without the over-explanation? What if we spoke like we belonged, instead of defending why we exist? What if we said: This land. This grief. This hope. This inheritance—It’s mine. Whether or not it flatters your narrative.

To be unapologetically Jewish in public is not aggression.It is not a crime. We are not here to die beautifully.

We are here because we returned. Because we rebuilt.Because this land is ours, and our memory is long. We are here in spite of every attempt to erase us. So let’s stop defending—and start living.

P.S. If this hit a nerve, wait 'til you see the tote bags.

For those of us who don’t do moral gymnastics.