In the more than two years since October 7, 2023, I have grown to understand what we mean by “the Jewish people” in ways that go far beyond shared traditions or language. Call it “the surge,” or a reaction to antisemitism, or Jewish pride in the face of immense tragedy in Israel; rarely have we felt the power of Am Yisrael to such a degree, among so many diverse individuals and segments of the Jewish population.
Perhaps the only comparable moment in my lifetime was in the late 1980s, when Jews around the world cried out for freedom for Soviet Jews to emigrate. Like then, this is a moment of radical togetherness.
Rallying to the cause of freeing the hostages, defending Israel’s right to protect itself, as well as combating extreme hatred of Israel and antisemitism, much of the Diaspora community connected across religious, geographic, and cultural differences. While we simultaneously struggle with the reality of Jews who may have disconnected from our community or Israel, this togetherness is an opportunity to build a stronger future.
Many of us have had ample occasions in the past months to sing Israel’s national anthem, “Hatikvah,” and the stirring prayer “Acheinu,” written during the Crusades, which gives voice to a cry for deliverance from darkness. For me, the Jewish anthem of this time, as it was in the 1970s and 1980s, is Am Yisrael Chai – “the people of Israel live.”
Gary Rosenblatt, former editor and publisher of the New York Jewish Week, wrote in November 2023 about the history of this powerful expression, popularized through the music of Shlomo Carlebach in the spring of 1965. Comprising just three simple words – what Rosenblatt calls ‘second only to Hatikvah as an anthem of the Jewish people’ – this mantra cuts directly to the core of Jewish hope: We are still here as a people, a people whose name is synonymous with our ancestral homeland, a people who remain vibrant and vital.
Mijal Bitton has shared the idea that the visceral pain so many Jews around the world felt in the aftermath of October 7 derived from our belonging to Jewish peoplehood. “The pain is telling us that the organism is working, that we are still a ‘we,’” she wrote. When we share pain – and also exultation as we did when the ceasefire started and all the living hostages were returned in October – we remind ourselves of the deep, eternal connection across the Jewish people. That connection is manifest equally through our continuing focus on recovering the remains of each of the hostages still in Gaza.
The message of Am Yisrael Chai is one of persistence, resilience, and unabashed peoplehood. We are here as a people, alive.
Jewish schools in North America are incubators for the idea of 'Am Yisrael Chai'
Jewish day schools and yeshivas in North America are literal incubators for the idea of Am Yisrael Chai. All of us who teach, invest in, and lead Jewish education are dedicated to people-building. When our children belt out with pride and understanding “Am Yisrael Chai,” we feel the solid weight of the chain that links generations from Avraham to the present. This has been demonstrated and felt all the more deeply in the past two years.
What can we do to sustain this heightened sense of peoplehood as we, God willing, recover from the trauma of October 7? I believe that our schools and the role they play in nurturing a vibrant Am Yisrael are part of the answer, both for us in North America as well as in Israel.
In recent years, Israel education has appropriately commanded much investment and attention. For me, you cannot separate Israel education from the “peoplehood education” that takes place daily in day schools in nearly every lesson or interaction. Raising our children to recognize that they are part of a larger story, complete with its own history, language(s), practices, and traditions, is at the core of day school education. When we strengthen our schools, our educators, and our leaders, we literally bring Am Yisrael Chai to life.
I recall one of my first visits to Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square, in the first months of the war. Speaking with Israeli high school students who were also there, we expected to hear about their fears and expectations as their mandatory army service approached during a time of war. Instead, they flipped the conversation around and shared their profound concern for young Jews facing antisemitism in North America.
In that moment, the proverbial asimon fell, and I realized that just as we in North America have been working so hard to cultivate connections between our children and our people in Israel, from the other side, young Israelis have embraced a deep and caring relationship with Jews around the world. They have an abiding appreciation of Am Yisrael and the reality that it has no geographic borders.
Even before the October 2025 ceasefire in Gaza was finalized, even in the face of immeasurable, expanding needs across Israeli society, we have continued to see a strong commitment on the part of leaders in Israel to support Diaspora Jewish education. Ensuring that the next generations of Jews around the world have a rich, immersive Jewish education is the most important investment we can make to ensure a strong Jewish future and a deep connection with Israel.
Prizmah feels distinctly honored to uphold our role as a center for Jewish day schools in their sacred work of nurturing our people’s future generations, both at home and in Israel. Am Yisrael Chai.
The writer is CEO of Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools, the network for Jewish day schools and yeshivas in North America.