Maxxe Albert-Deitch is Americans for Peace Now's Strategic Communications Coordinator. Prior to joining APN, she worked as a historian, focusing on research and projects engaging in ethnohistory, archaeology, and conflict transformation in Israel and Palestine. She earned a Master’s degree in History from the College of William and Mary.
Stop for a moment.
Take a deep breath.
Exit out of your social media apps. Yes, even Instagram– the cute dogs and the memes about Mr. Pommel Horse
Guy and the endless barrage of photos of hostages who are still missing and Palestinian kids who are starving will
still be there when you log back in.
Count to ten, or thirty, or sixty. However long it takes to slow your thoughts.
Tomorrow will be, according to many, the saddest day in the Jewish calendar– it’s Tisha B’Av, when we
remember the destruction of both Solomon's Temple by the Neo-Babylonian Empire and the Second Temple by the Roman
Empire. It’s a fast day– we’re meant to reflect on the hardships that the Jewish people have endured. Some
communities focus on just the destruction of the Temples. Others expand the meaning of the day and talk about the
Holocaust, the expulsions from England and Spain, the deaths of martyrs and prophets throughout Jewish history and
mythology alike.