Dr. Gil Troy spoke of being inspired by Ben Mizrachi and other young Jews, who he described as Zionist lions. <\/i>(screenshot)<\/i><\/p>\n
Vancouver\u2019s Ben Mizrachi died a hero saving others at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023. On that terrible day, and since, a new generation of Zionist lions has emerged, exemplifying the heroism that Mizrachi and so many others epitomized.<\/p>\n
This, according to the American-Canadian-Israeli academic and author Dr. Gil Troy, is one of many miracles that have risen from the tragedy.<\/p>\n
Troy, an American presidential historian and McGill University professor who lives in Jerusalem, knew Mizrachi well. One of Troy\u2019s sons participated in an Israeli program with the Vancouverite.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThey became close, close friends,\u201d said Troy. \u201cHe was one of those kids who walked into the door and straight into your heart. He was really part of our family.\u201d<\/p>\n On Oct. 7, Mizrachi, who was a trained medic, and his friend Itai Bausi, went back into the festival site and saved the lives of others before being murdered themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I learned from his heroism was, yes, the Israeli government failed that day,\u201d Troy said. \u201cYes, the IDF failed that day. But Zionism was vindicated that day. Zionism raised a generation of lions. Zionism raised a generation of Bens and Itais, who fought back, and that was the real miracle of Oct. 7. What saved Israel was Israelis. What saved Israel was Zionism, which taught them to defend themselves, which taught us the value of defending ourselves, which taught us the language of defending ourselves, which sometimes is with words and sometimes is with arms and sometimes with our bare hands.\u201d<\/p>\n Troy was speaking Feb. 2 at Schara Tzedeck Synagogue. As a professor used to daily interactions with North American college students, Troy has witnessed Jewish young people undergo an awakening on and after Oct. 7. People who had never been deeply invested either in Israel or in their own Jewish identity realized they were the object of the terrorists\u2019 wrath.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is happening to me. I\u2019m being targeted. This wasn\u2019t just anti-Zionism. This was antisemitic anti-Zionism,\u201d Troy said of how he characterizes the realization among Jewish students. \u201cSo many young Jews had an awakening, had their Herzl moment, had their \u201967 moment, had their reawakening.\u201d<\/p>\n Rather than hide from their Zionism, Troy said, Jewish young people are recognizing its centrality and resisting others\u2019 attempts to separate their Jewishness from their Zionism.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAt Columbia University, 600 Jewish students signed a statement saying Zionism is central to our identity,\u201d said Troy. \u201cZionism is who we are.\u201d<\/p>\n The signatories called out those who would define for Jews the acceptable parameters of their Jewishness and Zionism \u2013 and they called out anti-Zionist Jews in language deliberately formulated to stick it to their ideological heart, accusing them of being \u201ccolonized\u201d by antisemitic forces.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve seen, from coast to coast in Canada \u2026 Jewish students stand up and say, this shall not stand. This is not acceptable,\u201d Troy said. \u201cWe\u2019re watching new chapters in Zionist history being written. And we\u2019re seeing it in Israel too.\u201d<\/p>\n This is not easy, he acknowledged. The challenges are enormous. Jews on campus and elsewhere are being betrayed by the very groups who should be counted on as allies, he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cToo many of my women colleagues \u2013 not all, but too many feminists either decided that it didn\u2019t happen or that we deserved it, or that rape is resistance,\u201d said Troy. \u201cI can\u2019t make this stuff up. They showed at that moment that their hatred for Israel trumped, if I can use that verb, their commitment to fighting gendered violence. That\u2019s how deep the hatred goes.\u201d<\/p>\n Troy calls this the \u201ctriple double-cross.\u201d Activists threw Jews under the bus, threw liberalism under the bus and threw their own core ideals under the bus, he said.<\/p>\n The fight of which Jewish students are at the vanguard is not just a fight for Jewish security, Troy contended.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWho waves the American and Canadian flags at rallies and who burns them?\u201d he asked. \u201cWho disrupted shopping malls and the Toronto mayor\u2019s ice-skating party? Who showed a hatred for Canada, again and again and again? The fight against this academic intifada is not just a fight for Israel and Zionism and Judaism, which should be enough, but it\u2019s also a fight for Americanism and Canadianism and liberalism and for academic values.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In the face of all the hatred seen in Canadian streets and on campuses in the past year-and-a-half, he said, it could be easy to spin into despair.<\/p>\n \u201cBut, you know who doesn\u2019t allow me to despair? Our students,\u201d Troy said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen such heroism. We\u2019ve seen zeal on their part, a gleam in their eye, pride.\u201d<\/p>\n The inspiring courage of young Canadian Jews is mirrored in a million ways, he said. Reserve soldiers living abroad or traveling around the world came to the rescue after Oct. 7.<\/p>\n \u201cTwo hundred thousand Israelis flew home,\u201d he said. Many non-Israeli volunteers mobilized as well. \u201cSo many of you, since Oct. 7, instead of running away, came toward us \u2013 either physically or spiritually and financially, which was part of the language of love.<\/p>\n \u201cThere has been something mystical happening here,\u201d he continued. \u201cFor all that high price we paid, Israel is now safer than it was Oct. 6 and the United States and Canada and the world is safer than it was on Oct. 6.\u201d<\/p>\n Amid all the darkness, including the tragic loss of his son\u2019s friend, Troy sees inspiring resilience and determination.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cEvery moment since that funeral I\u2019ve had Ben on my shoulder, inspiring me and inspiring us to fight like lions and to save the state but also to make it better,\u201d said Troy. \u201cBecause Zionism is about defending the state when necessary but building, rebuilding and being rebuilt by it always. That\u2019s the power of the story. That\u2019s our good fortune amid all our grief.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dr. Gil Troy spoke of being inspired by Ben Mizrachi and other young Jews, who he described as Zionist lions. (screenshot) Vancouver\u2019s Ben Mizrachi died a hero saving others at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023. On that terrible day, and since, a new generation of Zionist lions has emerged, exemplifying the heroism […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45958,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[22638,3358,22910,22725,1581],"class_list":["post-45956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-ben-mizrachi","tag-gil-troy","tag-hamas-israel-war","tag-oct-7","tag-zionism"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}