{"id":115764,"date":"2026-05-15T20:02:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T20:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/115764\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T20:02:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T20:02:13","slug":"the-blogs-may-14-a-day-that-will-live-in-infamy-abe-gurko","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/115764\/","title":{"rendered":"The Blogs: May 14, A Day That Will Live In Infamy | Abe Gurko"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\tWhy This Day Is So Meaningful\u2026Especially For Me<\/p>\n

Fifty-two years ago today, my father died. He was fifty years old.\n<\/p>\n

Seventy-eight years ago today, Israel declared its independence \u2014 one of the most consequential moments in modern Jewish history.\n<\/p>\n

Somehow, I never connected those dots until this morning, which proves why I live in LaLa Land.\n<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something fitting about this monumental revelation now \u2014 at this particular, painful, defiant moment in history \u2014 when holding onto who we are feels more urgent than ever. And remembering my father adds a layer of reverence.\n<\/p>\n

My dad was not an easy man to know. He was always working, always providing, rarely present in the way a child hopes a father will be. We loved each other \u2014 our family was affectionate \u2014 but the father-son moments were few and far between.\n<\/p>\n

Simon Gurko spent his teenage years during World War II imprisoned in a Siberian gulag. He escaped and found his way back to Germany \u2014 of all places. And then \u2014 in a choice that still staggers me \u2014 he joined the underground, Bricha, a group who saved thousands of Jews from the DP Camps, by walking them to freedom and placed onto boats to Israel. He wasn\u2019t one to talk about the war, about what he had survived, about what he had seen and done. Surely, those memories burned just beneath the surface, unspeakable.\n<\/p>\n

He died on Mother\u2019s Day in 1974. The last words I had said to him, in a rage I will carry forever, were words no child should ever speak to a parent. I have written about that night in my memoir,\u00a0Won\u2019t Be Silent<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 the horror, the ambulance, the hospital, the waiting, the clock that wouldn\u2019t move. The moment the doctor walked out and placed his wedding ring in my hand has left an unfilled hole in my heart \u2014 perhaps forever.\n<\/p>\n

Much of the chaos I\u2019ve brought on to myself started on that fateful evening. I know that now. The deep end is a difficult place to swim back from.\n<\/p>\n

It has taken me a long time, yet happily, one is never too late to rejoin the living \u2014 owning who I am \u2014 especially when it includes embracing my heritage: standing up, saying out loud \u201cI am Jewish and proud and we\u2019re not going anywhere.\u201d My father never had that problem. His whole life was a testament to Israel. He knew what it meant to fight for survival. He had done so \u2014 literally.\n<\/p>\n

Yet I opened the news to find that New York City Hall is honoring something they\u2019re calling Muslim Day. On this day. During our month. The audacity is almost laughable \u2014 and borderline pathetic \u2014 if it weren\u2019t so deliberate.\n<\/p>\n

I want to be precise: this is not about anyone else\u2019s faith or their right to celebrate it. But Jewish Heritage Month is our jam. The designated time to say: we exist, we endure, we matter. Really matter. Especially now, and selfishly, today in honor of my father \u2014 an unsung hero.\n<\/p>\n

To have it so deliberately overshadowed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani is an abomination \u2014 and it is entirely consistent with who he has shown himself to be.\n<\/p>\n

This is the same mayor who, on his very first day in office, scrapped the city\u2019s official definition of antisemitism \u2014 the internationally recognized IHRA definition that classifies certain forms of anti-Israel rhetoric as discrimination against Jews. Gone. Day one. His antisemitism czar later told the City Council they would not be replacing it with anything at all, saying there is no need for a codified definition. And his very first mayoral veto? Used to strike down a bipartisan bill that would have expanded security protections for students at schools facing antisemitic protests. A nightmare doesn\u2019t begin to cover it.\n<\/p>\n

The antisemitism rising around us is not background noise. It\u2019s front and center, in our faces \u2014 blinding and deafening. It has destroyed the vibes on campuses, stunk up countless city halls, and soiled the streets. The vitriol directed at Israel and at Jewish people in the name of Zionists has reached a fever pitch that demands a response from every person of conscience, regardless of faith and political leaning. Humanity? Hello!\n<\/p>\n

Enough better be enough.\n<\/p>\n

My father and those who survived the Holocaust set the example for immigrants in the United States \u2014 by building, by giving, by never looking back. I\u2019m thinking of him today while celebrating our homeland, hoping he\u2019s looking down from heaven and is proud. I will use my voice in his name, in his stead, for his love of Israel.\n<\/p>\n

For my father, I won\u2019t be silent.\n<\/p>\n

Am Yisrael Chai.\n<\/p>\n

Won\u2019t Be Silent \u2013 Don\u2019t Stop \u2018til It Matters.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\"\"\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tAbe Gurko is a writer, producer, and son of Holocaust survivors. His mission\u2014embodied in his book and platform, Won\u2019t Be Silent\u2014Don\u2019t Stop \u2019til It Matters\u2014is to champion Jewish resilience and justice. He lives in Beverly Hills with his Israeli husband, Shlomi Barmi, and their Chihuahua, Alfie.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why This Day Is So Meaningful\u2026Especially For Me Fifty-two years ago today, my father died. He was fifty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[2492,37,1421,24289,26829],"class_list":{"0":"post-115764","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-antisemitism","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-israel-at-war","11":"tag-israel-independence-day","12":"tag-israels-declaration-of-independence"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116580381171243150","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}