Sept. 11 brought a sense of unity to citizens of the US. What about Oct. 7, 2023?
The year since the enemies of Israel poured over the Gaza border to murder, torture and kidnap — and to capitalize on internal divisions in the Jewish state — empowered anti-Semites around the world.
The bloody attacks also failed to extinguish the Jewish spirit. The attacks brought together many once-disparate parts of the Jewish community, both in Israel and in the Diaspora.
“A turning point for Jews everywhere,” columnist Bret Stephens, who coined the phrase “Oct. 8 Jews,” wrote in The New York Times.
“For every student who became ardently pro-Palestinian during the protests, perhaps a Jewish student with previously indifferent feelings about Israel, finally saw the connection between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism.”
Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin wrote, “After every tragedy in Jewish history there is an explosion of Jewish creativity. Many American Jews surprised themselves by [discovering] how Jewish they are.”
As has happened in the last 75 years, whenever Israel was threatened, the Jewish community everywhere closed ranks. Cruelty brought forth an outpouring of chesed (acts of lovingkindness) and Jewish assertiveness.
This included attendance at solidarity rallies and marches, op-ed essays and letters-to-the-editor and a willingness in private conversations and public gatherings to emphasize one’s Jewish identity and defend Israel.
Some examples of notable Jewish responses to the Oct. 7 attacks:
• At the University of Texas, Barri Seitz, an honors student, spent her freshman year creating a Longhorn Students for Israel group.
• In Los Angeles, two undergraduate students at the University of Southern California formed a “Kippas on Campus” organization to encourage fellow Jewish students to “take on extra mitzvahs and also wear your Judaism proudly.”
• In the Houston area, corporate attorney Kevin Lipson volunteered with Sar-El (formerly known as Volunteers for Israel), working at an air force base fewer than 15 miles from the Gaza border. His stint in Israel “changed my life.” After returning to the States, he co-founded the American Friends of Sar-El organization (afose.org).
• In Baltimore, a student at a branch of Johns Hopkins University showed up, for the first time, at the school’s Hillel center. She discovered a community she never knew existed.
• In the Greater New York area, Jewish employees of a financial services company — few of whom knew each other — formed an online chat group for sharing feelings and experiences after Oct. 7. Many of them had “felt all alone” as Jews, upset by the corporation’s silence, says one of the founders. The chat group gave participants an outlet for solidarity.
• On the Upper East Side of Manhattan, a plastic surgeon donated his services to victims of anti-Semitic hate crimes and to people injured in the Hamas Oct. 7 terror attacks.
• In Moscow, the Reishis Chochma day school collected $350 from its not-wealthy students and parents for the OU toy drive that distributed some 20,000 toys to children affected by the Hamas attacks. Jewish day school students in many locations sent morale-boosting letters to IDF soldiers.
• In Israel, a jeweler whose son was murdered by Hamas on Oct. 7 donated diamonds for rings for IDF soldiers who wanted to propose to their girlfriends before being deployed to Gaza.
On a macro level, the past year witnessed:
• Visiting and settling in Israel in unexpected numbers.
• Applying for jobs with Jewish organizations, especially in the nonprofit sector.
• Participating in Torah-writing projects and volunteering with such organizations as Repair the World, One Table and Moishe House, and donating mountains of supplies to Israeli soldiers and displaced Gaza residents.
• Committing to marrying Jewish and raising Jewish families. A 25-year-old unmarried person in New York City called finding a Jewish partner “the most important piece in my life.” To meet the I-don’t-want-to-stay-single need, an Orthodox congregation there launched a matchmaking initiative for local singles of any age. Almost 200 people signed up in the first two weeks.
• Coming from abroad to serve in the Israeli army. Dr. Zev Neuwirth, an internist from Miami with military experience, showed up in Israel the day after the war in Gaza broke out, volunteering as an EMT with a combat unit. “It’s about our blood and our right to exist,” he told the New York Post.
• Jews voted with their pocketbooks. The Jerusalem Post reported that in the first half year after Oct. 7, overseas Jews contributed some $1.41 billion to Jewish organizations in Israel.
The donated funds went to such major recipients as Israel Bonds (the “highest surge of investments ever”) and to medical and emergency services, as well as “civil activities” in the evacuated Gaza Strip border communities, victims of terrorism and bereaved families, which included psychological assistance.
• Some 60,000 men and women came to Israel to volunteer their time. They assisted struggling farmers as well as residents evacuated to hotels, and IDF soldiers. Medically trained volunteers gave their time in medical facilities.
According to the Jerusalem Post, the Sar-El unit — which was founded during the manpower shortage of Israel’s 1982 reserves call-ups during the war in Lebanon — reported that within the first five months of the war in Gaza, “there was an uptick of six times the number of volunteers than before.”
• The Times of Israel reported that enrollment in Jewish day schools in North America rose “dramatically” since Oct. 7.
That trend included a New York City day school that moved up its opening date by a year to accommodate the surge in interest.
Schools under Jewish auspices like Yeshiva University (New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft donated $1 million to YU to assist college students transferring to it), and Brandeis University suddenly became more attractive.
Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Ministry urged the country’s universities to enroll as many Jewish-American college students as possible.
While the increasing anti-Jewish and anti-Israel atmospheres at many campuses turned many prospective students away from attending those schools, it served as a magnet for at least one high school student.
Gabriel Golubitsky, a senior at a public high school in Cleveland, said he plans — after a year at a Young Judaea program in Israel — to attend a US university that was known to have a high degree of anti-Semitic activities, so he can serve as a voice of pro-Israel sentiment.
His parents’ reaction to his plans? “They’re proud,” he says. “I think they trust me.”
The Hamas atrocities increased, by any measure, a sense of Jewish unity, outside of certain progressive circles. Countless Jews, formerly many unaffiliated, asserted their Jewish identities, started attending worship services, began to observe Shabbat (one example: a “Seculars who keep Shabbat” Facebook group) and keep kosher and light Shabbat candles, wear IDF-style dog tags that bear hostages’ names, and go to Jewish activities.
Cross-denominational actions initiated since Oct. 7 include community challah-baking sessions in honor of Israel, Psalms-reciting groups on behalf of the hostages, kaddish-reciting groups in memory of the victims, tzitzit-stringing get-togethers for Israeli soldiers and BDS-defying efforts to buy Israeli goods, and solidarity missions to Israel.
Rabbis reported an increase in the number of people who expressed an interest in converting to Judaism.
Yehuda Kurtzer, New York-based co-director of the Shalom Hartman Institute, sees an increased demand for his institute’s educational activities. “Our generation was never tested like this. There’s a real hunger” for an increased sense of closeness — strengthened by an interest in studying Jewish sources. People crave context and community.”
“The Hamas onslaught” and the aftermath have “left a mark on how Diaspora Jews look at their identity — especially in the US,” the Times of Israel reported.
The article (which cited a “surge” in gun sales in US Jewry and requests for firearms instruction) quoted Steven Windmueller, professor emeritus of Jewish Communal Studies at HUC in Los Angeles: “We are seeing an awakening, a heightened sense of consciousness among Jewish Americans . . . Israel jump[ed] up in the list of political priorities for Jewish Americans.”
Hamas’ terrorism has strengthened many Diaspora Jews’ connection with Israel.
And vice versa.
The Ynet news website reported that “Israelis feel closer to diaspora Jews since Oct. 7.” Its article cited a public opinion survey conducted by Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Ministry that showed “76% of Israelis feel [they] have a shared destiny with diaspora Jews.
The support for Israel spanned the Jewish community.
• The OU delivered some 180,000 letters, demanding the release of Hamas’ hostages, to the White House. Haredi “ultra-Orthodox” Jews took part in prayer rallies in the US on behalf of Israeli soldiers and Hamas hostages.
• The JCC Assn. of North America partnered with Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs to offer solidarity programming in the US.
• JFNA’s “Shabbat of Love” on the weekend before Martin Luther King Jr. Day encouraged participants to engagein “acts of love leading up to the evening of January 19: volunteering in their local community, writing a letter to Jewish students on campus to show support, even baking a challah to share.”
Call all this Jewish and pro-Israel activity the silver lining in the dark clouds that dominated Jewish life in 5784.
Pride has replaced indifference, and activism has replaced apathy.
More Magen Davids hung on chains around Jewish necks, yarmulkes on Jewish heads are evident, as are more mezuzzahs on Jewish doorposts.
According to the Times of Israel, “the Star of David has become an even trendier and more ubiquitous symbol in the Jewish community worldwide.”
“If these fascists in Hamas and the ones who support them are going to do harm to Jews, there’s no point hiding it,” says Rabbi Zvi Solomons of the Jewish Community of Berkshire, England.
“When confronting tragedy, people turn inward to spirituality, but they also turn outward to community,” wrote Rabbi Moshe Taragin, an educator in Israel, in the Jerusalem Post, They turned to G-d, and to each other.
“By sharing feelings with those who share our hardships, we feel validated and less isolated in our loneliness. Communities . . . also provide us with an overall feeling of belonging. We take solace in being part of a larger group of people with common experiences and with shared destiny.”
An Israeli study found that 33% of Jews there reported “a strengthened faith in G-d.”
Chabad emissaries in the US reported increased attendance at their events. In a Chabad poll, “an astounding 85% of respondents report a ‘deeper connection to their Jewish identity.’”
Partners in Torah programs (via phone or Zoom) reported an uptick in the number of men and women who enrolled in studying Torah and Talmud — and an interest in additional sessions dedicated to the name of an IDF soldier or a Hamas hostage.
“It is impossible to defeat an idea without a more powerful idea,” wrote Rabbi Taragin. “Weapons, tanks and drones cannot defeat spirit. Only spirit defeats spirit. If we don’t tap into our own spirituality, we will not achieve the decisive victory we so desperately battle for.”
