21 Comments
User's avatar
Annie Johnson's avatar

The schoolgirl kind of breaks my heart. Thank you.

Expand full comment
Rachel Hills's avatar

Yes. I keep sitting with her question, too.

Expand full comment
Anya Kamenetz's avatar

i was talking it over with the person next to me. We just couldn't fully parse her tone of voice as she walked away.

Expand full comment
K Salois's avatar

None of the options I can imagine sit well. But what a mirror to hold up to your group and us. We all grow up learning some lives are disposable, but somehow I find myself thinking we protect children by not telling them outright.

Expand full comment
Carolyn McGrath's avatar

Thank you for being there, for writing this, for holding space for the pain of this moment.

Expand full comment
Anya Kamenetz's avatar

thank you for reading, Carolyn!

Expand full comment
Susie Kaufman's avatar

Your writing is so visceral. It's not academic or ideological. It describes your own engagement with this terrible suffering. There's more than enough suffering to go around and you've found powerful a way to inhabit what it's like to be a non-Zionist Jew in the diaspora. Thank you for that.

Expand full comment
Anya Kamenetz's avatar

Thank you for reading and keeping your heart open.

Expand full comment
Gillian & Li'l Bean's avatar

Thank you Anya, for participating and sharing.

Expand full comment
Miriam Joffe-Block's avatar

Thank you for showing up with Standing Together and facing the wrath of the parade. As a Jew completely opposed to what Israel is doing in Gaza with every fiber of my being, it is heartbreaking to see young people absorbing this narrative of violence. I have to believe that even if you were spat upon, you made people think and question and doubt their narrative - even if just for a split second.

Expand full comment
Anya Kamenetz's avatar

Thank you for reading. I do hope for that chink of doubt.

Expand full comment
Stephanie Harrison's avatar

This is such a beautiful and important piece - thank you for doing this and writing about it ❤️

Expand full comment
Anya Kamenetz's avatar

Thank you for reading Stephanie!

Expand full comment
Liz Thelen-Torres's avatar

Thank you. Really powerful and revealing. As a mother and a human, it’s so hard for me to understand how anyone could shout “despicable” at a person holding a picture of anyone’s dead children.

Expand full comment
Anya Kamenetz's avatar

Thank you. It is a very difficult moment.

Expand full comment
Elizabeth Lukehart's avatar

This was really powerful. Thanks for showing up, doing a hard thing, and sharing your experience with us 💚

Expand full comment
Anya Kamenetz's avatar

Thanks for reading!

Expand full comment
Rebecca Lynn's avatar

Thanks for being there and for writing this.

Expand full comment
Anya Kamenetz's avatar

Thank you for reading!

Expand full comment
Anya Kamenetz's avatar

A reader helpfully pointed out that the killing of the two Israeli embassy workers happened outside the Capital Jewish Museum. I regret the error.

Expand full comment
Nia's avatar

I recently saw coverage of the similar protests in Israel and was awed by the courage of it. It is an incredible thing to stand up when the majority of people around you are telling you that you are evil for doing so. Thank you for sharing this experience.

Expand full comment