Shaare Shamayim of Elkins Park and the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia hosted a Kehillah Commemoration on Monday, October 7 in honor of the 2023 Hamas attack of Israel.
“The commemoration was a heartfelt gathering. We don’t know the fate of those still being held in Gaza,” Beth Shapiro, Director of Programming and New Initiatives at Congregation Adath Jeshurun of Elkins Park, said. “We hurt for the living and for those who have been lost. We can hardly fathom that there are still innocent hostages being kept from their loved ones and innocent civilians starving and homeless.”
Shapiro published the op-ed below:
On the eve of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Jews are deeply concerned by the rise of Antisemitism in our country. On Monday, the anniversary of October 7th, we gathered at Sharee Shamayim with many of the congregations that inhabit the Old York Road corridor. Our purpose: to honor and bear witness to the anguish and loss perpetrated upon innocent civilians a year ago on 10/7 in 2023.
A peaceful conclusion for this mass killing still eludes us. Young adults, families in the homes, people just starting their day, many who worked hand-in-hand with Palestinians coming into Israel daily from Gaza, were viciously slaughtered.
At first coverage in the media was sympathetic towards Israel and Israelis. A sharp increase in hate speech toward Jews has followed that initial empathetic response. Public acts of antisemitism have been on the rise. Hamas has stated that they intend to rid the earth of Jews. Many Jews around the world are feeling less safe in their own communities.
There have always been pockets of antisemitism. There are political factions, extremists, and terrorist organizations whose work is to foment hate. It’s a slippery slope from these public displays of hate to tolerance and then to acceptance. That’s how the Nazi regime was able to infiltrate the public conscience. A bold example is this problem came out of Columbia University. In NYC this week Khymani James spoke as a representative of the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) group. For background, last year, James posted boldly on social media, “Zionists don’t deserve to live.” and “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.” Later, retracting that statement saying, “I misspoke in the heat of the moment, for which I apologize.” For those statements James was suspended. He sued the university. This past Tuesday, in an X post he said: “I will not allow anyone to shame me for my politics. Anything I said, I meant it.” As a representative of CUAD, James went further saying, “We support liberation by any means necessary, including armed resistance”. “Where you’ve exhausted all peaceful means of resolution, violence is the only path forward.”
We can not allow those who want to increase violence and hate and divide us by creating deeper misunderstandings, fear, and confusion. The news media can help dispel these lies and this attitude. News outlets have the power and the means to tell a story that reshapes this evil. Most of us live peaceful, cooperative lives and live in peace with our interfaith, diverse neighbors. We relish our safety, education and health and appreciate our differences. This should be the message that the media pushes out day to day! Stories about what connects us rather than stories about the hatred that divides us can make all of us safer. That message will serve to support compassion and understanding for us all.
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