In a group chat this morning, we discussed the concept of safety. To be specific: where is it safer to live – Toronto, Canada or Israel? 

This is not the first time the discussion happened on our group and as usual there was a lot of back and forth and plenty of disagreements as to what is the definition of safety. 

Their argument: Toronto is safer than Israel. This was just after the news report of 2 Orthodox synagogues in the Toronto area getting shot at, in addition to the almost doubling of Anti-Semetic events that have happened there over the last 2 and a half years. 

We were discussing this part of the time while sitting in shelters due to the missile attacks from Iran. 

So the argument was clear: there are no missiles raining over Toronto, and synagogues getting shot at doesn’t compare whatsoever to running to shelters under fire. 

So I lose and they win. 

Okay.

But there’s no nuance there and there’s plenty of nuance when you think of what it REALLY means to be safe. 

Physically, yes, it’s hard not to agree that it is safer to be anywhere but in the Middle East right now. But there’s more to feeling safe than whether you have missiles aimed at you or not. 

And yes, I realize how insane that sounds.

I might be on alert for a siren, but at the same time, I actually have a place to go to in the case that there is a missile attack. We have shelters everywhere – in fact, if you are out doing errands away from your personal safe place, you can type in “shelter” into Waze and it will direct you to the closest one. Safety has been made a priority in this country, and the insane amounts of public service announcements that tell us exactly what to do in every given scenario is enough proof of that. 

Iran – until this war started – was building, amassing, and developing missiles that were going to reach North American soil. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but in the not so distant future. Imagine the first missile aimed at the US or Canada – where would its citizens go for safety? We’ve seen the devastation of a missile that was not intercepted. The Weitzman Institute. Beer Sheva’s Soroka hospital. And more. It’s deadly. We are lucky enough to have the technology and ability to knock *most* of them out of the sky before they cause irreparable damage. But just imagine if we didn’t. 

US and Canada do not. They do not build houses with safe rooms that are meant to withstand a rocket, with sealed windows and heavy duty locks. 

The other thing that the rest of the world does not have is the Israeli army – the IDF. When your local police release a statement saying that they have a budget to stick to and that they have had to pull officers away from “other work” in order to protect you – read between the lines. You are not their priority. In contrast, as an Israeli, you have an army that is profoundly moral and will not stop at anything to protect its people. 

But let’s put physical safety on the side for a moment. Because I already know their argument: the fact that we NEED to build safe rooms indicates our lack of safety in the first place. 

Okay.

So let’s talk about emotional safety. 

There’s not one Israeli who walks around Israel tucking in their Star of David, or removing their kippah. No one here is removing a mezuzah, and yet yesterday I had a conversation with a friend from Toronto that is seriously considering removing her mezuzah – she is that terrified. 

How many Facebook posts have I seen of Jews in the Diaspora that are seriously thinking of removing their mezuzah? Or the Jewish family from France that is being FORCED to remove theirs from their apartment door? What about the thousands of Jewish students that are terrified to walk onto campus with their kippah, or their Star of David necklace? How many Jews in the Diaspora are afraid to tell their employer that they need to take off work for the high holidays because it will reveal that they are Jewish? How many Jews in the US or Canada have said they are afraid to see their Dr or dentist because they saw that they had posted support for the October 7th massacre? How many Jews are afraid to get into an Uber alone for fear that they will be thrown out of the vehicle in the middle of nowhere because they are Jewish? (FACT – This actually happened to my parents in Belgium). How many Israeli parents are terrified that their children will speak Hebrew too loud when they are vacationing outside of Israel? The repercussions of that have shown to be scary: having your Airbnb kick you out, or worse, being kicked or assaulted in public with no one coming to your aid. 

While a lot of this IS physical safety, most of it is emotional. And it greatly affects how you live your day to day lives.

We might be looking warily into the sky for something foreign that shouldn’t be there, but we’re NOT looking over our shoulders constantly – at our neighbors, our professors, our doctors, our classmates, our fellow subway travelers, and wondering who is a threat. 

That’s not living a safe life.

Yes, it might be safer to you than missiles, but the missiles won’t last forever. This will end and we will be back to living (God willing soon!) a safer life. The safety issues facing the Jewish people in the Diaspora are much more complicated.

It is the world outside of Israel saying we may not be throwing missiles at you, but we are going to terrify you. Constantly. We are going to make you afraid to leave your house or speak Hebrew out loud, or light a Menorah with Chabad at the beach, or pray in your synagogue on Shabbat. We are going to chase you into the Amsterdam canals, and attack you while you peacefully protest in Colorado. We are going to attempt to assassinate you at a pro-Israel event. We are going to turn the word Zionist into a dirty word and then spread that around until everyone believes it. We are going to platform all the Jew haters out there non-stop, and then we are going to share videos of people like Dan Bilzerian saying that all they want to do is arm themselves and go kill as many Jews as possible. 

So yes, missiles are deadlier and scarier and more terrifying, and are most definitely not safe. 

But don’t kid yourself about your “safe” life. 

I’ll take mine over yours any day.