“My name is Gal and I’m Jewish and we have had enough of Jew-hatred. Never did I imagine that we would witness such a day of such death and destruction of Jews in our lifetime. And never did I imagine that on the streets of the United States and different cities around the world, we would see people not condemning Hamas, but celebrating, justifying, and cheering on a massacre of Jews. I know I’m not the only one in this room when I say that this was a wake-up call. ‎Here’s the thing. However much you try to avoid it before, even if speaking up wasn’t really your thing, none of us can ignore the explosion of Jew-hatred around the world anymore. We will confront antisemitism, we will call it out but we will never let it not only defeat us, but define us, because our love is stronger than their hate. ‎October 7th showed us that what happens to Jews anywhere affects Jews everywhere. And this goes both ways. Not only what happens there affects us here, but what happens here affects them there. So here we are in this room together calling for the release of every single one of our hostages. We have to bring them home. ‎With every hostage release we hear new testimonies of the horrors they’ve been through. Every minute for them is hell. Their lives are in danger and we need them home. We want the hostages and their families to know that we have your back, that we are here for you. And we need them to know that wherever they go in the world where there’s a Jewish community, they will always find people who campaigned for them, who love them and who will never let them walk alone. Because this is who we are and this is who we will always be, taking responsibility for each other. ‎Along with my husband Jaron, we’re bringing up four daughters to also be proud of who they are, to take responsibility, to love themselves. Rabbi Hillel famously said, אם אין אני לי מי לי If I’m not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I’m only for myself, then what am I? So even if we don’t hear others speaking up for us, we have to keep speaking up for ourselves and reaching out our hands to everyone to join in. That is what I tell my daughters. First, learn to love yourselves, who you are and where you’re from, and then the rest will follow. It’s time to pass on to our children a love of who they are. ‎So, who are we? We, the Jewish people, are an ancient people with an ancient story in an ancient homeland where our roots run deep and where we are an indigenous people. We work to see better and more peaceful future. We challenge hate when we face it, but we do it with love, while always striving to make the world a better place. And who am I? My name is Gal and I’m Jewish. Am Yisrael Chai. Thank you.”