'I am not afraid to shout the truth'

I grew up in an ultra-Orthodox community in Jerusalem. I left it and eventually settled in suburban Maryland. But since the Hamas terror attacks I've been thinking about this lesson

My former community drilled into us an important lesson: no matter what the whole world thinks, no matter what people around us say, we have to be upright and strong and do the right thing, even when it’s not popular.  Chani Malul is an Israeli-American mother of three and a prominent influencer in the Hebrew-speaking world.

I ended up in suburban Maryland, spending time on Instagram growing a following of moms who, like me, were using the Internet more than we are supposed to. None of these choices my former teachers would approve of, and I have found myself living far from the Ultra-Orthodox enclaves of Israel or the New York area.

Since Hamas’s massacre on October 7th, however, I have been thinking about my teachers, relatives, and my friends back home in those Ultra-Orthodox enclaves. They taught us something I’ve seen is even more valuable over the past couple of weeks.