Unity in Prayer and Action to Usher in New Days of Peace

Yael Eckstein  |  January 11, 2024

Sometimes it takes a moment of tragedy to find your resilience. And after the shocking tragedy of October 7, the Israeli people found that they were able to join together as a society—even with all their differences—and find resilience.

Writing at Townhall, Yael reflects on the tragedy that Israel faces and encourages us to learn from it. Yael asks us to let go of all that divides us as a society—before tragedy strikes—so that we can focus on finding our commonalities and come together in unity, strength, and, hopefully, peace in 2024:

But from the first moment on October 7—when both ultra-orthodox and secular people were kidnapped, both right- and left-wing people were killed, both Jews and Muslims were murdered, both Bedouin and Druze were taken hostage—the people of Israel were reminded that while we might have been consumed by focusing our differences, we were blinded and fooled.

The truth is, we have so much in common.

We are all fighting for our survival. We are all sending our loved ones to battle to defend our country. We’re all in it together…

Yes, we see that that when we come together, tragedy can turn to joy, hurt can turn to healing, and dark can turn to light.

But truly, why do we need tragedy to bring us together? Why do we wait for tragedy, before we put our differences on the side?

Tragedy doesn’t need to be the common thread which brings us together. If we can unify before tragedy strikes, we will show our children a world with a lot less fighting and significantly more hope.

I believe that if there’s one goal we should all have in this new year, it’s to overcome our divisions and differences, and aim to respect one another and find common bonds before tragedy brings us together.