My existence is real

Everything on my feed is fake. Fake images and videos, fake people (bots), fake stories, fake information.

I love AI, and use it all the time. But it's taken over social media in a frightening way.

Every day when I post real stories of real life here in Israel, my posts get spammed by accounts that tell me I'm the fake news. That these stories aren't real. That Israelis lie.

And in these comments, they lie to me:

That nothing has ever happened to a Jew.

We are the problem wherever we go.

The Holocaust never happened.

Or too bad they didn't finish the job.

That the Israelis knew about Oct 7th before it happened and let it happen.

That actually, we did Oct 7th to ourselves.

That H*mas never did anything to us. Not r*pe, nor m*rder, nor take h*stages.

That our hostages were better off in G*za than back at home in Israel.

and on and on and on.

And here I am, a real person watching this all unfold online.

Now I know that most people get their information from social media these days.

So do I.

But these polarizations to the extreme, plus fake news, plus fake videos- for an average person, I can imagine how hard it must be to wade through the garbage to figure out what's real.

We tell them that H*mas filmed everything they did on Oct 7th, and they tell me the videos are fake.

We tell the stories of the hostages and the s*xual assualt endured by women and men, and they say- it never happened. You are liars.

Gone is the ability to communicate like rational people.

Dialogue is no more.

What a sad pathetic world we live it.

No one will ever uncover the truth, or integrate the truth, if everything you come across feels fake.

But I think everyone should ask themselves: Is it me, or is it my feed?

Have you chosen a polarized perspective (usually based in false narratives, not based in reality) and lodged yourself so deeply into a place that you can't hear new information?

That you can't recognize what's real or fake anymore when it's in front of your eyes?

Has it destroyed your ability to feel empathy for the human experience?

Are you no longer able to recognize human suffering?

Or feel compassion for people hurting even when it flies in the face of your entrenched narratives?

When I'm online, and I'm telling what I know to be real; people treat me like I'm fake.

That I'm just a bot.

A facade of a human; a conspiracy theory with a face.

The things that people respond to my reality is shocking.

Profanities projected at what they think I represent, without any awareness of the fact that I am a real person.

The last couple of days, I have sat back in wonder.

Someone asked me the other day about online Jewish resilience- how do we keep posting even when we come face to face with such hatred and vileness.

I answered that it doesn't bother me.

Because it's all fake.

It's not based on reality.

It's anger and misrepresentation and extremism, and sometimes it's from bots, but often it's from real people who have entered a cult of falsehood and decided to make that story their home.

And honestly, it has nothing to do with me.

Or the real life I live.

Or the real truths I know.

So here I am:

I'm Shira.

I am 3G Holocaust survivor, a therapist, a writer, and an immigrant back to my indigenous homeland.

I've fulfilled the dreams of my ancestors by coming back home.

My family tree goes all the way back to King David (we literally have it all documented), and I have never felt more at peace than here in our land, even through war and terror.

I believe that God controls the world, and we are co-creators of reality alongside Him.

I believe that we are living in a pre-messianic age, and we have the ability to bring it closer and closer through the way we heal the world.

Here is a real picture of me, in a real moment, walking the streets of Jerusalem with my friend who stopped to take a picture.

This smile is real.

My existence is real.

No matter what you think, everything I post I believe to be true.

I just one person, but I will keep telling our stories.

But here is what I know to be true about my people: Jews will keep persevering and choosing life.

No matter if you believe in us or not.