Erika Dreifus

“A friend mentioned that October 7th has revealed everyone’s truths.

My truth is this: I am a Jew.

It’s not lost on me that these are the same words Daniel Pearl, z”l, was forced to say before he was brutally beheaded by ISIS.

But also – in my core, if I am to be stripped of all identities but one, I CHOOSE to throw in my lot with my people, with all the beauty and pain and scarring that comes with it. I am a Jew. More than my identity as a woman or a feminist or a mother / wife / daughter / sister / friend or as a writer or biker or reader or high tech product marketer, though I am all of those things. Being a Jew is the most defining thing of my life.”

Source: Julie Zuckerman, “My Truth” (Writing on the Wall). Please do read the full piece—what’s above is, as is typically the case, just an excerpt.