We must remember

This article is a eulogy for Shoshana Bryen, an Israel advocate, writer, and devoted friend, who passed away recently. Bryen was instrumental in transforming the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) from a minor think tank into a globally recognized power center, focusing on U.S. security and cultivating Israel as an American ally. Later, at the Jewish Policy Center, she became the intellectual heart, editing the influential inFOCUS Quarterly. The author highlights Bryen's profound impact, managerial skill, and extensive writings. The article also features a significant excerpt from Bryen's 2012 piece, "Israel and the Boat People," which recounts Israel's humanitarian rescue of Vietnamese refugees in 1977, a decision rooted in the Jewish people's own history as refugees. As Prime Minister Menachem Begin stated, "We never have forgotten the boat with 900 Jews, the St. Louis, having left Germany in the last weeks before the Second World War…crying out for refuge. They were refused." Bryen used this historical context to argue that Israel's experience with statelessness made it uniquely sensitive to the plight of others, contrasting this with contemporary accusations against Israel.