A TALE OF TWO HOODIES

  Upfront, full confession. I am a sucker for hoodies, shirts or sweatshirts which have a hood and I love the pockets as well. However, the best thing about my love of these items is the writing. Hoodies can carry important messages and even in humor can convey much. All people need do is pay attention and understand the messages portrayed and conveyed.

As usual, the war begun by an animalistic bestial attack on Israeli civilians asleep in their homes on a Saturday holiday, or dancing at a music festival, has given growth to a related offshoot. That is the use of the hoodies and other garments to send messages out there, clear and obvious, about the feelings re this horrendous war and the ugliness it has revealed within the hearts and minds of too many, a hatred which they have carried over into every aspect of life. It is a system of dehumanization of Jews round the world and a growing demand to excise them from society, banning them from any and all activities, from sports to song competitions. Every deed, every word, spoken by an Israeli, or any Jew, is examined under a microscope using the magnification of hate and treated as poison or garbage, any negative attachment works.   

 Well, now there are those clever enough to create slogans to be worn openly, proudly, defiantly. The messages are clear and cannot be misconstrued as to import of the printed messages. They are clear and loud and out there for all to see and know. The messages relay this: we will not allow you to sideline us. We will not allow you to dehumanize us. We will not let you push us into ghettoes of speech and activities, then into places of forced residence and finally the last step - emptied into the same Final Solution championed by Hitler.

 No, been there, done that and we will not have it again. This time, forewarned, forearmed, with the bitter knowledge how 'friends' can turn on us, we are prepared. We will outlast you, out talk you, out do anything you can do or say or think. History is on our side, has our back, so to speak. Even as it details the millennia long JewHatred, it also delineates the fact that Jewry has survived all that has been thrown at it, while its powerful enemies have not.  

As for those Jews who shamefully try to divest themselves from their Jewishness, a note to those who think that a winning strategy. No, it is not and has proven its fallacy through the ages. Rescue and survival come only through unity, with recognition that we are a family, like it or not, squabbling in sibling rivalry, nonetheless, related.  First, last and always. Should we forget that, you can be sure that others out there will remind us of that fact. Might as well embrace it and flaunt it. 

Hence the tale of two hoodies or actually more than that. The slogans began with the heartfelt plea to bring our captive people home, to free them from their living hell. As usual, pleas to save Jews, fell on deaf ears. Also as usual, when Hamas were being beaten back, the world began to cry for them. Jews triumphing cannot be!! Never mind the babies and children, the wounded, the elderly, the young adults, the foreign workers - all were deserted by the world, ignored and betrayed by their countries of citizenship. Merely Jews. Pff! They do not count, even as the rampant and brutal sexual attack became known via evidence, words and videos taken by the beasts themselves as they reveled in their bestiality. 

Once again, the world stood silent until it spoke -  words of condemnation of Israel as it attempted to retrieve their lost people, to destroy an enemy who refused to end the war by sending back the hostages and who have an avowed open tenet to destroy ALL Jews. ALL. Even the Jews who refute their Jewishness. Even those who stupidly stand alongside, in their confusion.  Jews they are and Jews they will be, like it, deny it or not.

Back to the hoodies. As the fever pitch rose, more slogans and apparel. Dog tags with the names of captives and soldiers, with the slogan of unity, of standing with Israel. As the wave of hate and violence spread, infecting nations, our anger grew, but even as it did, we addressed it with increased visits to Israel, purchases of products of the country, serving as aides in kitchens, teaching in classrooms where teachers were missing.  

And we put it on hoodies. A popular one is We Will Dance Again. Yes, the music of the Nova Festival will return, as will the joy of dancing with the Torah on its holiday and the peace of the Sabbath will be once again. And we had this slogan.

   FCK  HMS

 Love that one and my hoodie with it is on the way. To be worn as openly as I wear my Jewish stars,  my 'Curbyourantisemetism'  shirt or my Stand with Israel hoodie. As visible as are my pins, from slogan pins, to dogtags, to yellow ribbons re sexual abuse. I do not wear blood red pins commemorating the lynching of two lost soldiers in an Arab village. Shame to those celebrities who wore the that pin, endorsing a new oh so chic trend of condoning violence and slaughter.    

We are Israel.

We are Jews.

We stand tall.

We stand proud. 

Am Yisroel Chai.

Lanetzach.

We Will Dance Again.  

 Someday. Someday. Someday.  

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Yitzy, you too live on with us, with the people of Israel, always proud of your Jewishness, of the values contained within.

Always, you will be a stand tall and proud member of the family.

Always loved and treasured.

Alway and forever. Always and forever.