My name is Joshua Lafazan, and I proudly represented the 18th District of the Nassau County Legislature from 2018 – 2023.
I just returned home from my family trip to Israel, and I wanted to write a reflection to share why this trip was so significant to me, and the lessons I learned from the Israeli people during this turbulent time.
As I’ve spoken publicly about, my cousins were called up on IDF reserve duty and served in Gaza in the wake of Hamas’ brutal attack on Oct. 7. My family living near Jerusalem has had terrorist attacks thwarted near their homes and my cousins near Tel Aviv have lived for months under the loud sirens of bomb shelter warnings.
And all the while our Jewish community here at home has dealt with a shocking increase in antisemitism in our schools, our cities, and our college campuses alike.
Despite living within miles of nations who pledge Israel’s destruction, I witnessed the people of Israel persevere without a modicum of fear in their hearts. Faced with a choice between hope and despair, Israelis choose hope every single time.
The security state that the Israeli people now live with as daily reality is something unlike I had ever seen before.
In the elevator of my hotel stood an active duty soldier home on break, his outfit consisting of blue jeans, sandals, a plain white T-shirt, and an additional accessory: an IDF-issued automatic rifle slung over his shoulder with a full magazine of ammunition at the ready.
Our tour guide, a former soldier who volunteered as community security after Oct. 7, regaled our group with facts and figures of the sites we walked by, all the while having a pistol secured to the small of his back.
The various security checkpoints across the country – from the airport, to sensitive religious sites to major highways and more – stood swarms of special forces donned in our SWAT-equivalent military gear.
Yet through it all, the tiny State of Israel – a country roughly the size of New Jersey – has somehow maintained a sense of normalcy. To see the resilience of the Israeli people through my own eyes during this time of unprecedented danger left me speechless.
This seemingly impossible level of resiliency reminded me of my grandfather Boris, a Holocaust refugee who, despite living through history’s most unspeakable tragedy, never lost his sense of goodness and hope.
And the no-quit spirit of a people determined to fulfill Tikkun Olam – to “heal the world” – has left me even more inspired to continue to make a difference through public service here at home.
Joshua A. Lafazan
Nassau County Legislator (2018 – 2023)
