So I went to the south of Israel. And I saw the places. I saw Sderot. I saw Kfar Aza. And I saw Nova.

To be a Jew means to live with the heavy cloud of hate. To wonder what it would be like if that was you. “They” were Nazis when I was a kid. Now “they” are terrorists. It doesn’t matter because to be a Jew means there will always be a “they.” Every single Jew — black, white, and every shade of brown — understands this. We are trauma buddies.

But to be a Jew means other things too.

It means we will rise like a phoenix again and again and again despite every statistic known to humankind.

It means we will fiercely back each other up when threatened no matter how much we bicker.

It means we will debate each other to death but take a bullet for one another.

It means we will agree on nothing other than how awesome we are.

It means we will feed each other, clothe each other, figure out how we are related to each other, and crack jokes about our trauma with each other.

Trauma will never define us. But our bond will. And no one else can understand it, because how does this ragtag group of people who can’t agree on anything, who come from every country in the world, who have vastly different beliefs and languages, belong to one another?

And yet we do. And that is our superpower.