The seismic effect of October 7 on the Jewish world

The mainstream news will tell you how the Israel-Hamas war and now Israel-Hezbollah war are going, maybe blow for blow. If that’s all you’re reading or watching, your understanding will stay quite shallow. Hamas’ attack on October 7 triggered a political earthquake, and Jews across the world are now trying to navigate the tsunami of antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and anti-Judaism sweeping around the world as well as how a Diaspora Jew relates with the attack on the ancient homeland.

This month’s offerings are especially poignant as they also include thoughts on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, holidays that focus on judgment and forgiveness.

My hope is that by reading these stories you will step into your Jewish neighbors' shoes for a moment and thus grow in compassion for them, whether you agree with their views or not.

These headlines are presented as a snapshot of what our Jewish neighbors are thinking and feeling and to provide data as you pray about these issues. CMJ USA does not necessarily agree with the opinions expressed in these articles.

Contemplating October 7

🪧The end of the post-Holocaust era (Times of Israel)

October 7 shattered Israelis' faith that the state would protect them and shook American Jewry's sense of full social acceptance – but there is a way forward

😣The Year American Jews Woke Up (NY Times)

Excerpt: At some point, an awakening of sorts occurred. Perhaps not for every American Jew, but for many. I’ve called them the Oct. 8 Jews — those who woke up a day after our greatest tragedy since the Holocaust to see how little empathy there was for us in many of the spaces and communities and institutions we thought we comfortably inhabited. It was an awakening that often came with a deeper set of realizations.

One realization: American Jews should not expect reciprocity. Nor should we expect much understanding: In an era that stresses sensitivity to every microaggression against nearly any minority, macroaggressions against Jews who happen to believe that Israel has a right to exist are not only permitted but demanded.

A second: “Zionist” has become just another word for Jew. Anti-Zionists deny this strenuously... But when the wished-for dire consequences of anti-Zionism fall directly on the heads of millions of Jews and when the people the anti-Zionists seek to silence, exclude and shame are almost all Jewish and when the charges they make against Zionists invariably echo the hoariest antisemitic stereotypes — greed, deceit, limitless bloodlust — then the distinctions between anti-Zionist and antisemite blur to the point of invisibility.

And a third: This isn’t going to end anytime soon.

It won’t end because anti-Zionism has a self-righteous fervor that will attract followers and inspire militancy. It won’t end because politics in America are moving toward forms of illiberalism — conspiracy thinking and nativism on the right, a Manichaean view on the left that the world is neatly divided between the oppressors and the oppressed — that are congenial to classic antisemitism. And it won’t end because most Jews will not forsake what it means to be Jewish so that we may be more acceptable to those who despise us.

❓Oct. 7: One year later — How has American Jewish life changed? (Forward)

‼️How Oct. 7 changed everything (JTA)

An ongoing series about how Hamas’ attack on Israel has triggered an earthquake across the Jewish world.

😢Jewish mourning rituals are not enough for Oct. 7, because our loss is ongoing (Forward)

On this communal yahrtzeit, we must find a path forward even as we remember the pain

✈️I made aliyah right before Oct. 7. Here’s why I stayed (Forward)

To be truly Israeli means to live with danger every day. Taking on that burden is a privilege

 🌙A Muslim Israeli who was close with Hersh Goldberg-Polin is mourning his friend and seeking change (Forward)

‘This is the time to unite, Arabs and Jews,’ said Yanal Jabarin

On the High Holy Days (Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Sukkot)

🤔In a sacred time on the Jewish calendar, Israeli clerics ponder theology of Oct. 7 attack (Religion News)

'The challenge,' said one rabbi, 'has been the attempt to understand why God did this to us, or where was God on Oct. 7?'

😤I used to cringe at Rosh Hashanah ‘blessings’ cursing our enemies. Not this year. (JTA)

The symbolic foods of the High Holidays have taken on new meaning after Oct. 7, writes a religious studies scholar.

🎂Happy birthday, humanity. We have work to do (Times of Israel)

Every day, I wrestle with how to reconcile my desire to trust, love, and believe in people with the reality I saw on October 7

The author is one of my favorite Israeli writers documenting her life in Jerusalem. Christian, you will not agree with her view of God, who she says is all-good but not all-powerful. She believes God could not have stopped October 7. I share this so you can catch a glimpse at how some Jewish hearts wrestle with the problem of evil and how they find hope despite our collective brokenness. I share it not so we’ll judge but so we can attempt to understand. We know that Jesus is God come down to suffer with us. God IS all-good and all-powerful. God chose to use his power to relate to our brokenness, pain, and even death and so save us from ourselves and open the door to resurrection life.

🙏🏽For Yom Kippur, I don’t know how to pray (Times of Israel)

How can I when so many righteous people were not saved, when 97 cannot breathe, and when we are all plagued by memories and fears?

Please read this searingly honest modern psalm. Sometimes Christians take our eternal hope and twist it into a blind optimism that causes us to lie to ourselves and each other about how we’re doing. This Jewish writer is honest about her anger at God in the wake of October 7.

🤲🏽In this Jewish season of forgiveness, I’m asking for permission (JTA)

A rabbi’s prayer for when the world is too sad, hard, confusing or chaotic.

An honest meditation on ritual and pain that may be especially meaning for to those Christians who worship with traditional liturgies (which the church inherited from the synagogue).

Excerpt: I have come to realize this is what I want this year: Permission.

I want permission to cry. I want permission to feel utterly and completely devastated without finding any silver lining. I want permission to feel scared.

I want permission to worry about my friends and colleagues in Israel. And to worry about the Israelis I don’t know.

…

I want permission to feel scared for us in America too — to feel scared as a Jew and scared as a woman. I want permission to feel scared for all vulnerable Americans even when we have nothing in common and will never meet.

…

I want permission to pray for the destruction of the enemy. And I want permission to not pray for the destruction of the enemy. I want permission to weep for the death and suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, to express empathy with their mothers and not feel I have to apologize for it. And I want permission to not always empathize with Palestinian suffering, because sometimes it is just too hard and too complicated to hold all that pain.

🧑🏽‍⚖️This Yom Kippur, Hold Everyone Accountable (Jewish Journal)

For the past 12 months, we’ve watched as the world subjected Jews to double standards, hypocrisy, bigotry and outright violence. Where is the repentance from the global community? Where are the apologies we are owed for the pain and disrespect we’ve endured at their hands? When is their moment to atone for their sins? 

🕍My non-Jewish husband doesn’t fast for Yom Kippur. We spend the day in shul together anyway (Forward)

Jews are heading into a new year. But our non-Jewish family members are heading into a new season with us, too.

Jewish thought, antisemitism, and other news

📈World’s Jewish population hits 15.8 million, on eve of Rosh Hashanah (Times of Israel)

Jewish Agency says 7.3 million Jews reside in Israel, 6.3 million in US; number of Jews worldwide has increased by 100,000 over the last year

‼️ FBI data indicates anti-Jewish 'hate crimes' increased by 63% in 2023 (All Israel)

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) noted that, despite Jews constituting only 2% of the U.S. population, these anti-Jewish hate crimes “comprised 15% of all hate crimes and 68% of all reported religion-based hate crimes in 2023, which is consistent with patterns from prior years.” Anti-Muslim hate crimes similarly increased by 49%, but the numbers are significantly lower, with 236 incidents reported.

🧑🏽‍🏫US professors are fueling antisemitic violence against Jewish students – study (Jerusalem Post)

A report from the AMCHA Initiative links increased antisemitic violence to the US campuses to Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP), showing FJP-led protests correlate with threats, attacks.

✡️ 50 Most Influential Jews (Jerusalem Post)

While the list has many Israelis, it’s worth looking over to see who in the U.S. is seen as a Jewish leader or influencer.

✝️ 10 Most Influential pro-Israel Christians (Jerusalem Post)

Note that this list is compiled by an Israel-based, right-leaning publication. There is a Zionist Christian they included on another list – 25 Young ViZIONaries – Mosab Hassan Yousef, also known as the Son of Hamas and the Green Prince. Yousef is a former Muslim, son of a Hamas founder, and follower of Jesus. His memoir Son of Hamas is required reading.

📱A Jewish prophet of the 1980s would be horrified to see that we didn’t heed his warnings (Forward)

Neil Postman’s 1984 ‘Amusing Ourselves to Death’ anticipated our image-saturated, post-literate world

🥺An anti-Zionist Jew wants to know: ‘Am I even Jewish anymore?’ (Forward)

Bintel says disagreeing with other Jews is the most Jewish thing you can do

🏄🏽A Different Spin on Shabbat (Tablet)

Surfing. Breath work. Music. A growing number of programs, events, and clubs think beyond Friday night dinner and Saturday morning services.

🥰Is Self-Care Selfish? (Inherit)

I realized I may not have known what self-care truly entailed. So, I launched into a deep dive to explore it for myself.

Excerpt: Loving others well requires that we first love ourselves well.

Yeshua, in true Jewish fashion, loved to debate. A teacher of the Law heard him in a lively discussion with the Sadducees and asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” Yeshua answered first with the familiar words of the “V’ahavtah,” charging us to love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Deuteronomy 6:4–5). He then quoted God’s words to Moses: “The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

He made it clear that loving our neighbors in the same way we love ourselves is inextricably related to loving God Himself (Mark 12:29–31). This completely reshaped how I viewed taking care of myself holistically, and I knew I had to start implementing the right practices to love myself the way God commands us to. 

🐷From snout to tail, a 3,000-year history of Jews and the pig (JTA)

A professor of religious studies explores how the pig became the ultimate Jewish taboo — and an inadvertent marker of Jewish identity.