My Father Was An Original Superhero
Why being called a Zionist is the greatest compliment you could give me!
My father, Simon Gurko was a Zionist—not in the way the word has gotten twisted, weaponized, and hurled like a grenade by the pro-Hamas, anti-Israel ding-dongs marching through American universities and stinking up our city streets. They think they’re freedom fighters calling themselves Vietnam-era peaceniks. Excuse me, girls—but you’re not a quadrillionth of what our 60’s and 70’s youth movements stood for. We fought to end the war, stood up for women’s rights and gay rights. You’re not worthy of the comparison—or, frankly, of living freely in this country while you praise regimes murder indiscriminately in the name of some “prophet”.
Foolhardy, keffiyeh-wearing drag artists, using “Zionist” like it’s a slur seem to think they’re insulting us. Hate to tell you, girls, but that word—that label? It’s the highest compliment you could give me…anyway.
My father was a Zionist in the purest, most heroic sense. He survived the Holocaust. He spent years in a Soviet slave labor camp, freezing in the Siberian gulags. After the war, instead of retreating to warm weather to heal, my dad joined Bricha—the underground movement called “Flight,” which smuggled tens of thousands of Jewish survivors out of the Austrian Displaced Persons camps. They walked, on foot, through Italy to ships that carried them to the only place Jews have ever truly aspired to return to: Zion. Our original homeland around 2000 B.C.—that’s before Christ, Christianity, or Islam. Whatever. It’s archeologically facts. So, whatever stories y’all concoct about who belongs in Judea and Samaria, talk to the hand.
Israel wasn’t just a random destination. It was a reclamation. “There’s no place like home” return to where Judaism began: Mount Zion, starring Abraham—the father of multitudes, the original Jew. You’re welcome.
So, call me a Zionist. In the same way the Black community took back the N-word and stripped it of its power—reclaiming it, reshaping it, owning it—we, as Jews, must do the same with Zionist. I’m a Zio, alright. You think it’s anything but a compliment? It’s an honor. In fact, it’s the greatest compliment you could give me—because of my father. Because of his legacy. Because I’m a Proud Zio, indeed.
That’s why I’m running for the World Zionist Congress on the Jewish Future slate—#20 on the ballot. I can only hope to walk in the shadow of my father, Simon—the original superhero. Help me live up to his legacy. To be as brave, as defiant, and as purposeful as he was. To carry the Zionist badge of honor forward—loudly, unapologetically, and proudly.
Vote. Share. Remember. I won’t be silent. It’s all about The Jewish Future.
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Read about my parents in “Won’t Be Silent - Don’t Sop ‘til It Matters”.
Peace…Literally & Figuratively…ABE