I will never forget where I was when JFK was killed. Where I was when PM Yitzak Rabin was shot. And where I was when the words that an entire generation was waiting to hear rang out from the podium in Tel Aviv last Saturday night: Dear Mr. Prime Minister, We are the new Israelis!

Now, there is no turning back when 450,000 Israelis turned out all over Israel to protest the injustices of Israeli society to the poor, the working middle class, the mothers, the doctors, and the rest of the backbone of Israeli society.

There is no turning back after Daphni Leef, a 25-year-old student at Tel Aviv University, transformed her personal plight of homelessness into a national movement. With this movement — which knows neither Right nor Left, secular nor religious, Jew nor Arab — we, the New Israelis, have found our voice.

Daphni became the leader of a leaderless protest, with no budget, no professional advisers, no personal motives — just a desire to follow her heart and do good. She turned an entire generation that, until now, had only envisioned a future of wars and hopelessness into a generation of aspirations and hope for a better life, despite the fragile security issues of Israel. Daphni awakened our activism: to march, to volunteer, to delight in being part of a historical movement. Free from any political parties, any religious affiliation, any ethnic or gender difference, a new movement has been born.

With the tents now folding, we begin the second phase of Israel’s protests. The Prime Minister has heard the cry of hundreds of thousands and has established a committee to bring recommendations to the government within six weeks. But “another committee” is no longer good enough for Daphni Leef. She believes in action — now! Perhaps she is naïve. Perhaps she is right. Only time will tell, but in the meantime, there is a general consensus that the scene has shifted out of the streets and into the halls of power.

NCJW has been supporting women’s empowerment for years and continues to support Israeli women who understand that in order to correct the problems, you need to be part of the solution, and the solution is in the public sphere. I look forward to seeing the blossoming of the New Israelis, whether as members of Knesset, as Prime Ministers, as local school board officials, as city councilwomen, or as activists who speak up on behalf of thousands.

Yasher Koach to Daphni and to all of us who have protested and who have become the voice of the New Israelis.