The Beat Goes On

In the 1960s, when Cher performed as one-half of a popular duo with her husband, Sonny Bono, they recorded songs as “Sonny and Cher.” One of their biggest hits was “The Beat Goes On.” I always thought the song’s title was a metaphor for the persistence and continuity of life: that despite all the turmoil and upheaval of a tumultuous era, there are things that remain constant: the beat goes on.

Having recently returned from two months in Israel, I keep thinking about that song.

We once assumed that antisemitism was a thing of the past—something discredited and unfashionable in a post-Holocaust world. Yet today, the political landscape is filled with candidates and public figures who openly traffic in antisemitic tropes. Some win elections without being meaningfully challenged for their hostility toward Jews, Israel, or Zionism.

We have seen Israeli flags burned in public to the cheers of crowds. Businesses owned by Jews or Israelis are defaced, and Jews are physically assaulted. College campuses have become centers of intense anti-Israel activism, with Jewish students bullied and intimidated. Even some elementary-school curricula distort Jewish history or minimize Jewish contributions to Western civilization.

And all of this is happening in the United States.

In parts of Europe, the situation is even more troubling. Jews are accosted in the streets of major cities, usually with no consequences for the perpetrators. Governments and political movements increasingly take positions hostile toward Israel and its very existence. Some countries have moved to restrict or sever business relationships with Israeli businesses and industries, while actions are taken to isolate and ostracize individual Israelis.

There is a bitter irony in all this. The attacks against Jews and Jewish businesses, the hostility toward Israel, and the efforts to isolate the Jewish state only underscore the very reason Israel exists: to provide a homeland and refuge for the Jewish people, a place where Jews can seek safety when they are threatened elsewhere.

And the hostility does not end in Europe or in segments of American society. Much of the most virulent anti-Israel sentiment emanates from the nations and radical Islamist organizations surrounding Israel. Iran and its proxies, while weakened have not given up pursuing their goal of destroying Israel. It, along with Turkey and Qatar, compete to see who can claim the title of most virulent opponent of the existence of the Jewish state.  

Yet, despite being surrounded by enemies who seek its destruction, despite a hostile world, despite security threats within and beyond its borders, despite the false and unfounded accusations constantly leveled against Israel — despite all this, the beat goes on.

With so much hostility and so many questioning and threatening its very existence, nevertheless, Israel continues to rank among the happiest countries in the world. When I was there this summer, I saw restaurants, coffee shops, shopping malls, roads, beaches, and cultural events filled with people—often young people—who simply want to enjoy life.

There was energy everywhere I looked—an unmistakable sense of vitality, creativity, and forward motion.  Construction cranes dot the landscape. New buildings are rising at an extraordinary pace. Transportation hubs and infrastructure are expanding. Technology, commerce, culture, and everyday life continue to move forward.

One could almost forget that much of the world is condemning and isolating the Jewish state.

Reflective of the optimism, resilience and determination is the song that has become almost a new national anthem.  Released in 2024, the song with a catchy tune and the refrain, “Od yoter tov, v’od yoter tov” — meaning “it will be better and even better” — became an instant hit.  Based on the teaching of a Bratzlaver Hasidic rabbi, Shalom Arush, it captures the essence of the Israeli perspective of faith in the face of tragedy.  

This is not to suggest that all is well or that Israel is somehow untouched by the events surrounding it. Far from it. Many Israelis are still coping with the trauma of the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre and the war that followed. Families continue to grieve. Soldiers and civilians carry wounds — some visible, many not. 

And yet, life continues.

That may be the most striking thing I witnessed.

While so much of the world seems obsessed with and consumed by its hatred of Israel and Jews, Israelis continue to build, create, work, celebrate, argue, raise families, and plan for the future.

The threats are real. The pain is real. The uncertainty is real.

But so is the resilience.

The beat goes on.

Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt is chairman of the Zionist Rabbinic Coalition.