I’m at a loss.

On October 7th, 2023, Hamas, an internationally recognized terror group, invaded Israel and committed unspeakable, inhumane atrocities against innocent Israeli civilians – an act that has left the global community in heart-wrenching shock.

Babies snatched from their mother’s arms, shot and beheaded.
Children axed, murdered while sleeping, tied and piled, burnt alive.
Girls raped and maimed, paraded as trophies.
Parents and children, bound, beaten, tortured in each other’s sight.
Men and women, young and old, kidnapped to a fate unknown.
Families terrorized as they answered calls, witness to their loved ones’ execution.

Pure evil.

All of this, while civilians in Gaza cheered and celebrated, proudly waving their flags and antisemitic placards. All the while, here in Canada, on our streets and school campuses, terrorist sympathizers celebrated the massacre of innocent lives, echoing vile sentiments of Jewish genocide.

Vicious. Heartbreaking. How on earth did we get here? Here, where rape is celebrated by other women. Here, where shooting Holocaust survivors is cheered post a Never Again era. Here, where slicing a mother’s womb and taking a life not yet born is glorified.

While most of the world came together in love and support, heartless human beings celebrated; celebrated the shooting, burning and beheading of children and babies!
There are simply no words.

In times of heart-wrenching tragedy and chaos, it is often educators who find themselves at the forefront of efforts to make sense of a world gone awry. I often reach out to you to recommend books for kids, enlighten you on important people in children’s literature and sometimes comment on how we see the world and how it could make sense for kids. Today, I’m reaching out to you for something completely different. Today I seek your support to help change this devastating trajectory, where the global moral compass has gone askew, where young minds can no longer decipher truth from corruption, where the media infects to breed a heartless society, while others yet, sit silently and watch.

The ensuing celebrations by terrorist sympathizers is absolutely abhorrent and inexcusable. It is indicative of an ethical decay permeating our “woke”, yet morally adrift world. While Jewish communities worldwide mourn the death of their loved ones, Hamas supporters taunt and inflict more pain to the wounds, chanting, Gas the Jews, holding signs that call to wipe Israel off the map, handing out sweets, dancing, cheering, celebrating. How on earth did we get to a place so callous and vile, a world so detached from what it means to be human? A world where the barbaric slaughter of innocent Jews is met with a call to murder all Jews worldwide? Where is the outrage?

Regrettably, this horrifying call for genocide echoes a dark and haunting chapter in history. It is a disturbing reminder of the sentiments and principles that once facilitated the systematic extermination of six million Jews during the Holocaust in Nazi Germany. This malevolent ideology thrives on vilification, dehumanization, desensitization, and unwavering justification, shamelessly parading on our streets still today, infiltrating school campuses, dominating news outlets, and permeating social media platforms.

The relentless indoctrination of young minds has left an indelible mark, grooming them with an onslaught of hate-filled propaganda directed at Israel, and by extension, Jews across the globe. This prolonged exposure has reached a point where distinguishing fact from fiction, discerning good from evil, has become an overwhelming challenge. Tragically, this distorted reality finds its expression in the odious rallies that endorse terror and violence. We witness a disheartening culmination of toxic messaging, misleading teachings, revisionist history, fake news, biased media narratives, celebrity endorsements, the intersectionality of minority groups, and the exploitation of a victimhood mentality.

In the dynamic realm of social media, words are powerful, capable of building or destroying with precision. As educators, we bear the responsibility to ensure that our students understand the gravity of their digital expressions, not falling prey to the insidious influence of memes, hashtags, likes and facile buzzwords. Words fired without comprehension are akin to firing bullets oblivious to where they land, an action both reckless and harmful.

It is our role to guide students in comprehending the impact of their words. We must equip our youth to resist the allure of the herd mentality, to withstand social pressures that may lead them to parrot ideologies they do not fully understand. The path to moral literacy in our present world necessitates the ability to discern and sift through propaganda and bias, in pursuit of what is genuine and truthful. Our mission is to raise a generation of critical thinkers, not keyboard warriors whose words aim to hurt and destroy from a detached distance.

As teachers, we must ask ourselves, where have we lacked? Where do we need more education? Is it science or math, or perhaps the injection of emotional intelligence and a sense of morality? We’ve seen this before, we’ve lived through the horror, yet the world is sleeping. The murder of six million Jews did not begin with gas chambers, it began with a wicked idea and people turning a blind eye. It began with finger pointing and blaming. It began with lies. What we see today is a new oppressor, but an old propaganda.

I remember the terror attacks on 9-11. It was 22 years ago and my first year teaching. I had a grade two class. The announcements came on and I froze as I tried to digest what I was hearing. How would I explain this to my students? After our lessons about love, respect and kindness, how would I make meaning of something that lacked all of that? Then driving home that day I heard someone on the radio quote Mr. Rogers, “Look for the helpers”. And so after the questions and digesting the facts, we focused on rebuilding with the love that poured out.

Twenty two years later, another evil has crept on our doorstep, this time targeting Jewish communities worldwide. I can only hope that my students remember my words today, and look at the massacre in Israel with nothing but compassionate eyes. I pray that today they are the helpers. This gives me hope in a world gone awry.

I’d like to end with an excerpt from a book by Dr. Chaim Ginott’s, “Teacher and Child.” It speaks to our role as educators, and what the world needs more of right now.

I am a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no person should witness: gas chambers built by learned engineers. Children poisoned by educated physicians. Infants killed by trained nurses. Women and babies shot by high school and college graduates. So, I am suspicious of education. My request is this: Help your children become human. Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths or educated Eichmanns. Reading, writing, and arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children more human.

As Remembrance Day approaches, we are reminded of the sacrifices made for a better tomorrow. This moment of reflection serves as a poignant reminder of our duty as educators to steer our students away from moral decay. Let this day inspire us to embrace our role, engage in meaningful conversations, and cultivate empathy in the young minds we nurture. As we remember the past, let us also shape a more compassionate and ethical future, where the values that underpin our society are not commodities, but pillars of our shared humanity.

With deep empathy and hope for a kinder future,

Lora