In Remembrance

This Monday’s newsletter falls on October 7th. I have felt conflicted about writing today. It doesn’t feel right to make jokes, references to fiction or personal anecdotes as I usually do. But I will I think briefly talk about my own experience of October 7th, 2023. It changed the course of my life, which seems entirely strange as I am not Jewish nor Israeli. I didn’t lose family or loved ones on that day. I wasn’t at the Nova music festival-turned-hell on Earth. I was an entirely ordinary grad student with no intention of doing anything of great importance with my life.

I cannot remember where or when I saw the news break, but as the scale of Hamas’s attack became clear I had a really, really bad feeling. Knowing next to nothing about Israeli news or politics or society (or, indeed, the Hebrew language), I struggled to find verified or confirmed stories. It all seemed so unbelievable. I don’t remember it much at all, but I imagine this is what 9/11 must have felt like. The stress of simply not knowing what on Earth is going on. How much worse would it get?

I was looking in the wrong places, it turns out. “Normal” news failed—because Hamas terrorists filmed the atrocities they committed themselves and posted them for the world to see. They were proud of what they did, of the utter inhumanity of their actions. I found this out when a video came across my feed from Ben Shapiro of all people. I have never agreed with Ben on a lot of issues, but seeing him then reminded me that there are bigger things in life than politics.

He had just come back from a trip to Israel with his family the day before. The news trickled in slowly to so many Jewish communities around the world due to observance of Simchat Torah. Ben showed us on air about 15 minutes of raw footage from October 7th. And then he showed more the next day. And the next. I watched horrors I didn’t know human beings were capable of. I have detailed them many times over, I think possibly as some sort of trauma response. Sublimation of the evil in the world condensed into my writing. And in remembrance of the victims, so that their memory may never perish from the chronicles of history.

It was really, truly traumatic just to watch the bits and pieces I saw. It hurts even thinking about it. I want to shut those memories out forever, but I know that I must bear witness. For Shani Louk. For the countless members of kibbutzim and families slaughtered. For the bravery and the chazak of the first responders. I will never forget.

And I’m just a guy (a goy) thousands of miles away. I cannot even imagine being there in the south of Israel or anywhere in the country on that day, or having relatives there or coming back from a trip to this news about the place you just visited. People who claim October 7th “wasn’t actually all that bad” have not seen what I have seen and do not know what I know. It was worse than any of us can imagine.

As mind-numbingly horrific as the videos on Ben Shapiro’s show were, they barely scratched the surface of the depths of depravity Hamas went to that day. I watched Sheryl Sandberg’s documentary ‘Screams Before Silence’ when it came out this past spring. You cannot even imagine. You just can’t. Without even showing anything graphic, it will scar you for life. And you must watch it. You must. Paraphrasing Elie Wiesel, to listen to a witness of suffering is to become a witness yourself. The world must never, ever forget.

October 7th, 2023 defined our modern world in the same way 9/11 defined the past 20 years. It changed everything. I think I realized it sooner than most. And that is why I have done everything in my power to be an advocate for these victims. A world without justice for them is a world unworthy of being. There has never been a more clear-cut case of good versus evil in my lifetime.

And we must not forget the hostages, the Americans and Israelis and Jews Hamas STILL HOLDS RANSOM. The terrorists demonstrated their utter contempt for human life when they executed half a dozen hostages some weeks ago, with American Hersh Goldberg-Polin among the dead. NEVER forget. NEVER forgive. NEVER AGAIN. Bring them all home NOW.

I have no clever ending to offer today. The past year has broken me mentally and emotionally more times than I can count. I think unfortunately many of you reading can relate. But we cannot stop fighting for a better tomorrow. If not us, then who will?

May we all find comfort among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

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