On Oct. 7, 2023, I was at Disney World with my family when I awoke to messages that Hamas terrorists had attacked Israel.
One year earlier, during my 27th trip to Israel, I visited Kfar Aza, a kibbutz that was brutally attacked. Were the people I met still alive? What about the therapy animals that comforted traumatized residents on the Gaza border?
Three years later, the fear and uncertainty from that day have not passed.
Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, poignantly noted that Oct. 7 was “cultivated in an ideology that believes killing Jews is admirable and that there is no place for an Israel, any Israel.” As the recent thwarted FlyDubai terrorist attack and the alarming rise of global antisemitism grimly illustrate, that hatred threatens Jewish communities everywhere.
In every generation, our allies have played a critical role. Today is no different.
The Oct. 7 attack fell on Simchat Torah, one of Judaism’s most joyous holidays. Each year, we complete the annual cycle of Torah reading. We return to the beginning carrying forward the values and responsibilities entrusted to us by previous generations.
We have a responsibility to remember those murdered Oct. 7 and to speak boldly whenever Jewish lives are threatened. We must also teach the next generation that Judaism means more than simply surviving whoever hates us today. It means building community, pursuing justice and choosing, relentlessly, to bring light to a dark world.
To those who’ve stood with the Jewish people these past three years: We see you. We thank you. We hope you’ll continue standing with us.
Oct. 7 was intended to be an ending. Instead, let us together make it the beginning of a brighter future for all.
SHERRI TARR
CEO, Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans
Metairie