Words that echo across 3 000 years

The history of the Jewish people can be summarised in four words: we are still here.

Four words that echo across 3 000 years. Four words that defy empires, pogroms, and gas chambers. Four words that resonated powerfully last week as Israel marked her 77th modern anniversary while still at war.

From Johannesburg to Jerusalem, we face a time of trial and triumph. For 18 months, Israel has faced the latest assault on her right to exist. And even now, we have brothers and sisters captive in Gaza, their freedom denied but not forgotten.

Last week, many thousands of Jews across Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban gathered in solidarity and celebration, tangible proof of the unbreakable connection between South African Jewry and Israel. When we speak of unity, our community demonstrates it through action.

We have buried too many. We have wept too often. Yet we stand.

The days of remembrance and renewal that just passed – Yom Hazikaron flowing seamlessly into Yom Ha’atzmaut – embody the Jewish experience. This profound juxtaposition speaks volumes: our joy is forever tempered by sacrifice; our triumph forever mindful of its cost. As the flags transition from half-mast to full, so too does our collective spirit rise from solemnity to resolute affirmation of life.

Some question whether festivity is appropriate at times like these. I respond with a question of my own: when in our history have we ever celebrated in perfect peace?

We celebrate not because the moment is convenient, but because it’s necessary. Not in denial of pain, but in defiance of those who cause it.

This duality has always defined us. The siren that brought the nation to a standstill on Yom Hazikaron gave way to celebration 24 hours later. The same people who stood in silent reverence at military cemeteries soon danced in city squares. This isn’t contradiction, it’s the essence of Jewish resilience, a people who have learnt that to honour the fallen, we must cherish the nation they died defending.

This is the Jewish people’s message to the world: we are here. We have never confused survival with surrender.

For 77 years, Israel has shown that the Jewish people will no longer outsource our security or apologise for our existence. The independence we honour goes deeper than borders. It lives in our refusal to be defined by others.

Our enemies count rockets. They measure destruction. But they cannot count memory. They cannot measure identity. They cannot comprehend resilience.

While they build tunnels, we build hospitals. While they invest in rockets, we invest in research. While they teach hatred, we teach healing. While they embrace death, we sanctify life.

That is the difference. And no weapon can destroy it. No propaganda can erase it.

And that’s cause for celebration.

We don’t just endure history. We write it.

From Jerusalem to Johannesburg, from Cape Town to Durban, we stand not at the edge of an abyss, but at the threshold of renewal. For 77 years is but a moment in the long arc of Jewish history, a heartbeat for a people who count their story in millennia.

In these days after Yom Ha’atzmaut, as we hold in our hearts those still in captivity, those who guard our people, and those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, remember what Israel has always been – proof that a people can face the harshest chapters of history, and still author their own future.

Four words brought us here. Four words sustain us. Four words carry us forward into whatever challenges and victories lie ahead: we are still here.

• Rowan Polovin is the South African Zionist Federation national chairperson.