Know the terrain. Know the players. Not everyone moving is building.

After October 7, something shifted.

Not politically or abstractly, but internally. A low-level alarm that doesn’t turn off. The sense that something fundamental changed, even if you can’t fully explain it yet.

It’s the same instinct, I imagine, that pushed my great-great-grandparents onto a boat 150 years ago—the realization that something isn’t right, and that waiting it out isn’t a strategy.

Everything in me said to leave. Go to Israel. Put myself somewhere that feels aligned with where things are heading, not where they’ve been.

If it were that simple, I would have.

But it isn’t. There are responsibilities here—family, community, real ties that don’t get picked up and relocated overnight. And frankly, just because I feel this way doesn’t mean my wife does—or that I get to make that decision alone.

So the question stopped being whether to leave, and became what it means to stay.

And for me, that isn’t a casual question.

This isn’t a hobby. It isn’t a way to stay busy, and it isn’t a bid for attention.

It’s an acknowledgment of reality.

If you believe something fundamental has shifted—if you believe the conditions around you are changing in ways that affect your family, your community, and your future—then stepping in stops being optional.

At that point, doing nothing isn’t neutral—it’s a decision.

That’s what brought me into this work.

Not interest. Not ambition.

Doing nothing wasn’t an option.

So like a lot of others, I stepped in.

At first, you assume there’s a system. That there are clear roles, clear leadership, and some kind of structure behind the movement.

What you actually find is something looser. People moving quickly, often with good intentions, but not always with clarity. Authority that isn’t always defined. Responsibility that isn’t always claimed.

And that’s where things start to break.

Not because people don’t care—but because they step into situations they don’t fully understand.

Most of the people entering this space are not seasoned organizers or institutional leaders.

They’re people who showed up.

Which means they’re the most likely to get it right—and the most likely to get it wrong.

This isn’t a guide to theory.

It’s a guide to what you’re walking into.

Definition: The people who hold the community together before, during, and after the moment.

What They........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)