How US Jewish communities are marking anniversary of Oct. 7 attack: with heartache, and warily
Jews attend a vigil at the Stephen Wise Temple in Los Angeles, Oct. 8, 2023. (Barbara Davidson/Getty Images)
(JTA) — In Raleigh, North Carolina, a field will display 1,200 Israeli flags. In New Orleans, a local artist will paint silhouettes of hostages. In the Bay Area, a rabbi is leaving her synagogue’s sanctuary open all day so congregants can use the space for personal reflection.
These are just a few of the hundreds of Oct. 7 commemoration and memorial offerings that synagogues and Jewish communal organizations are planning to mark one year since Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel launched an ongoing war in Gaza.
Across the country, schools, synagogues, federations and other Jewish groups are hosting programs and memorial events with similar itineraries: speeches from local politicians, Oct. 7 survivors and hostage families; services honoring the victims; and various musical and artistic displays aimed at instilling themes of hope and resilience.
The events come amid a packed schedule already overloaded with High Holiday services and programming, and with concerns high that the commemorations could attract protests — and even threats — from critics of the Israel-Hamas war. Some communities are obscuring the dates and locations of their events to diminish the likelihood of interruption.
For some, the anniversary demands a different framing than previous programming related to the Israel-Hamas war. In Brooklyn, for example, Congregation Beth Elohim, a Reform synagogue known for its progressive political bent, is taking an intentionally apolitical approach to the Oct. 6 Brooklyn Memorial Service it is hosting in partnership with other local Jewish groups.
Cantor Josh Breitzer said CBE’s wider slate of events leading up to the Oct. 7 anniversary, like many of its offerings this year, are aimed at helping attendees “process in real time the pain and anguish that so many in our community are going through, hearing from different voices, offering different perspectives from the Jewish and political spectrums.” But the Oct. 6 service will focus on “mourning and memory,” he said, featuring prayer, music and other psalms and poems.
“All the different components of the service will be speaking directly about Oct. 7, not what happened afterward,” Breitzer told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “There won’t be any language of revenge. There won’t be any language which in any way dehumanizes or reduces anyone’s humanity. And there will be no explicitly political statements about any government.”
Mostly, Jewish communities are aiming to strike a delicate balance as the one-year mark approaches — an exercise further complicated by the fact that for many, it feels as though Oct. 7 is ongoing. An estimated 97 hostages taken on that day remain in captivity in Gaza, and the war shows no signs of ending soon as fighting escalates on Israel’s northern border.
“Because the hostages are still in Gaza, and because the war is still ongoing, and the fear, anxiety, all the emotions — anger, shame, concern, panic — all of that is still ongoing, it’s hard to see it as an anniversary, rather than a sort of commemoration,” said Rabbi Hara Person, the chief executive of the Reform Movement’s rabbinic conference.
Jewish leaders have had to weigh the pros and cons of holding additional events during a busy High Holiday season, a time when tradition demands that Jews look ahead and not just to the past. Person said she has heard of countless different ways that her colleagues and their communities are marking Oct. 7 — from standalone events and programs on the day itself to High Holiday sermons and rituals that will be incorporated into Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services.
“It’s hard because Rosh Hashanah, typically, is such a happy, sort of celebratory holiday,” Person added. “Yom Kippur has its somberness, although there’s also joy, but I think this year it’s going to be hard to really be celebratory.”
The Jewish Federations of North America, the umbrella organization for the nearly 150 local and regional Jewish federations across the continent, has created a website that lists more than 100 local commemoration events and offers resources for organizers, including memorial prayers, a letter-writing campaign for Israel and up-to-date information about victims and hostages.
Sixty day schools worldwide will join together virtually for a program commemorating the day, while the Jewish day school umbrella Prizmah has compiled resources on how to address the anniversary with kids of different ages. Offerings feature poetry, art, readings and online memorials.
After a year of rising antisemitism and protest over the war, Jewish groups hosting Oct. 7 memorial events are being especially attentive to security. Many programs — from Westchester County in suburban New York to Los Angeles — have limited the number of in-person tickets and will livestream the event to allow virtual attendance. At least one synagogue in northern California announced it would not hold an event at all because of “serious security concerns.”
But communities have learned from a year of vigils and protests. Shira Hutt, JFNA’s executive vice president, noted that in the days and weeks following Oct. 7 last year, federations mobilized thousands of people across more than 200 community gatherings and vigils. She said JFNA heard from its member organizations that there was a hunger to bring people together once again on the anniversary of the massacre.
“We decided that that’s really the most appropriate way to mark this day, to encourage and support federations and other organizations to bring together the community — both the Jewish community and beyond, civic leaders and partners and allies — to stand together and to commemorate Oct. 7,” Hutt said.
JFNA, with support from eight Jewish foundations, offered a micro-grant for Oct. 7 commemoration events. A total of $1 million was disbursed to support 400 events — out of more than 600 applicants — in 180 cities, including campus programs.
In Peoria, Illinois, the JFNA grant provided more than 80% of the funding for the local Jewish community’s event. The city’s two largest synagogues are partnering with the local federation to create a “Humans of Oct. 7” display, send handmade cards to their sister community in the Galilee in Israel’s north and bake cookies from a cookbook made by hostage families.
In Louisville, Kentucky, a commemoration event will feature a performance by an Israeli musician from the Gaza envelope as well as a dedication for a newly planted Nova Tree Grove, named after the music festival where more than 300 Israelis were murdered on Oct. 7.
“There have been times where this year has been about advocacy, or it’s been about fundraising,” Hutt said. “But really, this moment is about coming together and commemorating the ritual aspects of remembering, of honoring lives lost, of honoring the heroes and just gaining strength from each other.”
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