October 7, 2024
The following column appeared in the Star-Ledger and NJ.com.
Memory is a central imperative of Jewish tradition. It is found throughout the Torah and the teachings of our Rabbis.
Perhaps the best example is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, when through remembering the greatest act of evil the world has ever seen, we find the strength to proclaim “Never Again.”
As we approach Oct. 7, 2024, the first anniversary of the day Hamas terrorists waged the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust — slaughtering babies, raping women, burning whole families alive, killing more than 1,200 people, and taking 250 people hostage, we will remember. But it is not yet a memory.
For many Israelis and American Jews, it is still Oct. 8, 2023. With terrorists still holding more than 100 men, women, and children captive, we have yet to move on from the day after the horrific attack, nor can we.
When I think back to that day, the smell of death in what were once well-loved family homes is still present. This summer, I returned to find about 100,000 people still displaced from their homes, both along the Gaza border and in the north bordering Lebanon. It still feels like Oct. 8.
Here in our community, we especially hold Edan Alexander of Tenafly in our hearts. His parents Adi and Yael work tirelessly to secure his freedom. For them, and all the hostage families, it is still Oct. 8 too.
For the last year, we have been living in a limbo between what was and what we pray the future will be. Each day brings a different gut punch to our psyche. From seeing hostage posters ripped down and destroyed, to the chants heard on some campuses glorifying Hamas terrorists, or to the dwindling number of hostage photos at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, when the bodies of those confirmed dead are recovered. The pain is real.
Because it feels like his parents had become a part of our own lives, that pain was never more searing than when we received word on Aug. 31 of the execution of Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, along with Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Alex Lobanov, Carmel Gat, and Almog Sarusi. As deep as that pain ran, deeper still is our commitment to save those still held hostage.
There is only one sure way to move from remembering to memory, and that is to bring the hostages home. That is the first and most critical step toward finding an end to the existential conflict Israel finds itself in. And when we can finally create a lasting memory, we will do the most Jewish of acts and use it as motivation to work toward redemption.
When Oct. 7 moves from remembering to a lasting memory, when the hostages have been redeemed and the rebuilding begins, that next step is still in reach and, perhaps that memory, observed each year, will motivate all of us to find a path to a lasting peace.
