We need to stick together, now more than ever.

No one is coming to help us but us.

When I read about Trump’s freeze on government grants, I was alarmed, just like many of you. Unlike most of you, I am guessing, I am on Medicaid and SNAP (food stamps.) I have a personal stake in the game, as well as being concerned about all the others who rely on Medicaid for their healthcare and SNAP for the money to buy food.

I hadn’t bought groceries yet, and I need the SNAP to pay for food. While I am looking for a full time job I’m doing various things that bring in some money, but things are really tight. I am a huge fan of eating upon occasion, even up to three times a day, so I was looking forward to going to the grocery store with my new EBT card. I wish that circumstances had not been such that I would have gotten an up close and personal view of these systems, yet I would not trade the empathy and understanding that being poor has given me.

So I looked it up, and quickly found the Office of Management and Budget memo that specifically stated that Medicaid and SNAP, as well as Medicare and any programs that give assistance directly to Americans, were not included.

Meanwhile, my Facebook feed was blowing up with people completely freaking out, stating that their Medicaid was cut off. When it wasn’t. I get it - I really do. Unlike many on both sides of the aisle, I have to care about these things because it’s how I get my healthcare and my food. It made me sad to watch my friends having meltdowns that were quite real but quite unnecessary, as Medicaid and SNAP were not, in fact, in danger.

I do not like Trump’s threat to pull the rug out from under nonprofits. It’s cruel showmanship. It’s usually the poor who suffer, and the folks who deliver Meals on Wheels and the folks who rely on them for their food deserve to go about their business in peace. Like many of you, I suspect, I keep hoping that adults will return to the room, that people who seem sane on either side will regain power in politics.

But until they do, and even if they do… on that blessed day with a person, Democrat, Republican or other who seems to put the needs of the country over their own personal gain or ideological warfare, is elected, one thing will remain:

No one cares about us but us. They will only care when we make them care.

I will never forget the week after October 7: watching the images of paragliders being displayed by the Democratic Socialists of America, a group whose meetings I once attended. I will never forget the bizarre feeling I had when I read the Republican Party of Philadelphia’s unequivocal statement condemning the Hamas attacks and pledging to protect Jews in and around Philadelphia. I saw my neighbors put on keffiyehs and spray paint “Abolish Israel” on the wall of the trolley station at the University of Pennsylvania. I saw the display of hundreds of little white flags in the park, a peaceful display in memory of Gazans killed, but no hostage posters, no yellow ribbons. There were very few Hanukkah lights that year in my neighborhood. I think we were all afraid.

I saw a young Jewish friend with family in Israel leave an organization she cared deeply about because one pro-Palestinian activist insisted on bringing in that issue to a space where it was totally irrelevant. She got tired of fighting. I don’t blame her. The main reason why I step up on these issues is that I think those who were born Jewish should not have to spend all of their time fighting, and those who love Western Civilization should do some standing up for it ourselves.

It is very hard, in a world where we have limited time and energy, especially emotional energy, to focus on more than one thing at once. Many of us feel like we need to put all of our energy into domestic issues now, and I do sympathize with that. After all, I’m on Medicaid and SNAP. I actually live with the consequences of social programs getting cut. I work with people who are much poorer than I am, and who don’t have the advantage of white skin and a great education. I’ll get back to a decent salary and employer paid health insurance soon enough - they may never. I care about the people I see every day. Poverty and racism are not abstractions to me from behind the hedges of the suburbs. I’m right here in the middle of it.

So while I understand those who feel that we must shift our focus away from Israel and the fight against antisemitism, I humbly ask you: Please don’t leave now. We have an opportunity now, when the Left is in hysterics and the Right is doing some crazy stuff, to clarify our terms of engagement. The Left took us for granted and figured that we would still vote with them even as they failed to protect our students on campuses or to unequivocally call for the release of the hostages and the unconditional surrender of Hamas. The far Left won in the Democratic Party, and the Democrats paid for it with the election. Now we all get to pay for it.

In their well-intentioned way, non-Jewish liberals and some Jewish liberals too will tell us that it’s time to abandon our Israel advocacy and focus on issues that to them are more important. They will try to make us feel guilty for caring about our brothers and sisters in Israel, and for complaining when we are faced with blatant antisemitism here. Please don’t let the guilt trip work.

Have you already heard some version of, “Can’t you put this Jewish thing aside for now and focus on (fill in the blank: LGBT, immigrants, nonprofits, abortion, etc.)?

Find your nearest progressive and ask them who Emily Damari is.

If they can’t tell you, they just told you all you need to know.

No one is coming to stand up for us but us. While my experience has shown, and polling data holds up, normal, middle Americans by and large support Israel, it will not be at the top of their priority list, nor will the protection of Jews in America. They are not fans of pro-Hamas crazies blocking traffic and burning the American flag, but that’s not happening in Akron, Ohio (yes I am starting to want to move there - looking forward to seeing you in June, SC!).

For those who live in cities, whose social circles are largely liberal to progressive to leftist, whose downtowns have been taken over by masked people burning both Israeli and American flags and shouting “Death to America,” it will take a lot of courage and focus to continue to stand up for Israel. For all of us. We can advocate for justice, fairness and safety in this country at the same time as we stand by our families and friends in Israel. We may get the progressives to listen to us for a few minutes. Maybe now they realize that they need us.

Please don’t leave me here alone! Most of you can go to Israel if things get really bad… I’m stuck here! People on both the far Left and the far Right hate Zionists, especially non-Jewish ones like me, so I need you, worldwide family!

And thank you to my friend Joe for the image of the great Emily, my heroine and inspiration. After fifteen months of crying in bed at night thinking of the hostages, I now go to sleep chanting, with soccer fans from her favorite team, “EMILY! EMILY!” She is a true war hero, a leader and an Israeli-style legend. When she is Prime Minister, please remember that you heard it here first.