Thursday, July 17, 2025

Reflection: Who Gets Remembered?

What does it mean to give your all… and be left out of the story?

What happens when the people who served, who built, who believed—are known only by those who refuse to forget?

Rabbi Arnold Josiah Ford.
The soldiers of Beta Israel.
The silent heroes who spoke with action when words were denied.
Where are their statues? Their chapters in textbooks? Their names in everyday conversations?

If someone can devote their life to a land, a faith, a movement—and still be erased…
What does that say about the world we’re building?

What kind of stories do we elevate?
Who gets the mic, and who gets the footnote?

Why is loyalty sometimes answered with suspicion…
And sacrifice answered with silence?

What’s the cost of being “Other”—even after you’ve done everything to belong?

And who decides what “belonging” really means?

Why did Maharata Baruch, fluent in Hebrew, proud of her journey through Sudan, still need to prove her Israeliness on national TV?

Why were Ethiopian blood donations quietly destroyed…
While their patriotism, their service, their pain—went unspoken?

Why do headlines still single out Ethiopian identity in tragedy…
But rarely in triumph?

And why is it that even when one voice breaks through—like Biranhe Teganya on Channel 2—it’s seen as the exception, not the beginning of a new norm?

Maybe the real question isn’t who was erased,
but who gets to rewrite what was erased?

Maybe inclusion isn’t just about letting someone in,
but about letting them reshape the room itself.

What would it look like if stories of Black Jews, Ethiopian soldiers, unsung rabbis and immigrant visionaries were central—not supplementary—to how we define leadership, belonging, and legacy?

If those who were once footnotes became the opening paragraph?

Maybe it's not about asking for recognition anymore.

Maybe it’s about demanding space for those who were never given a seat at the table—because they built the table.

So now I ask you:

What silences are you still carrying?

Whose stories do you need to uncover?

And most of all…

When the world edits the truth, will you stay quiet—or will you start writing?

Because remembrance isn’t just reflection.

It’s resistance.

And maybe it’s time we all start remembering a little louder.

📚 Sources for the Most Accurate History

🔗 Rabbi Arnold Josiah Ford

🔗 Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews) & Their Service in Israel

 

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