Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and GOP opponent Stacy Garrity faced off on Wednesday in a heated gubernatorial debate, clashing over most policy issues — with the notable exception of Israel.    

“I want to recognize the anniversary of the Hamas attacks, where 1,200 innocent people were killed, including 49 Americans,” said Garrity, referring to the third anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. 

“I want to remember the lives that were stolen, the families that were changed forever, and the Americans that didn’t make it home,” she added. 

While Garrity, Pennsylvania’s state treasurer, has the endorsement of President Donald Trump, Shapiro has a 25 percentage point lead in a poll released Wednesday. Both candidates won their primaries uncontested in May, and both have been outspoken against antisemitism. 

Shapiro, who himself is Jewish, likewise recognized “the third anniversary of the October 7 massacre” at the debate. He recalled how “Hamas, a terrorist organization, broke into Israel and murdered 1,200 innocents, took over 250 hostage, including many Americans.”

“This is a moment where my heart stands with the people of Israel,” he said. “My heart stands with the Jewish community, who I know are grieving as a result of this.”

“This is a moment where we need to stand together against terrorism, against hate and against antisemitism,” the governor added.

Although the candidates shared similar perspectives on Israel during Wednesday’s debate, they clashed on numerous other topics, including the death penalty, voter identification, taxes and tariffs.

Asked by the debate moderator about the plunging support for Israel in the Democratic Party, Shapiro replied that he has “been very, very consistent” in both his “love of Israel” and his disagreements with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Shapiro then noted that Israelis will head to the polls in just a few weeks to choose their next leader. He expressed hope that they would not elect Netanyahu, whom he said “has led Israel down a very dangerous and isolated path.” 

“I want America to have a strong relationship with Israel and with the Israeli government,” Shapiro added. “That’s not possible right now with the Netanyahu government in charge.”

Shapiro, one of the most prominent Jewish Democrats nationwide, was among the final candidates considered by Kamala Harris in her vice-presidential search in the 2024 election. He is also seen as a possible 2028 presidential hopeful. 

But Shapiro has also faced the challenges posed by increasing antisemitism in America. During Harris’s search, for example, a website and social media feed labeled him “No Genocide Josh” over his support for Israel. 

In April 2025, an arsonist set fire to Shapiro’s house just hours after his family had conducted a Passover seder. In 2018, while Shapiro was serving as Pennsylvania’s attorney general, a terrorist killed 11 people and injured six others at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.. 

Garrity, meanwhile, has more than tripled Pennsylvania’s investment in Israel bonds in her current role. She invested $20 million after the Oct. 7 attack and another $35 million in July 2025. 

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TEL AVIV – Some 50,000 Israelis filled Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park on Wednesday night to mark three years since the Oct. 7 attacks, at a bereaved families’ memorial ceremony that for the first time took place with no hostages remaining in Gaza.

The ceremony, organized for the third year by the Kumu movement, an initiative set up by families affected by Oct. 7, came more than eight months after the body of Ran Gvili, the last hostage held in Gaza, was recovered and returned to Israel. The last 20 living hostages had returned in October 2025. A year ago, 48 yellow chairs hung above the same stage to represent those still in Gaza.

This year, with the hostage campaign that dominated Israeli public life for more than two years no longer hanging over the anniversary, the emphasis shifted toward remembrance and another unresolved demand of many bereaved families: an investigation into the failures that allowed the attack to happen.

Former hostage Eli Sharabi, who was held in Gaza for 491 days, hosted the ceremony alongside actress Shani Cohen. Sharabi was abducted from Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 7; his wife Lianne and daughters Noiya and Yahel were killed in the attack, and his brother Yossi was killed in captivity. 

“Remember what happened. Investigate how it happened. Don’t cut corners. Don’t let time blur the truth, don’t rewrite history, and don’t let history repeat itself,” Sharabi said from the stage. 

Omri Shifroni, a founder of the Kumu movement whose relatives Liel and Yanai Hetzroni and Avia and Ayala Hetzroni were murdered in Kibbutz Be’eri, also demanded a full investigation.

“That morning, the systems collapsed and the state failed to function,” he said. “But mutual responsibility alone is not enough. To rebuild trust, we also need the truth. We must know what happened. Without investigating the truth, we cannot fix things, and we cannot make sure it never happens again.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has resisted establishing a state commission of inquiry into the failures surrounding Oct. 7 and instead backed legislation for a politically appointed probe.

Wednesday’s ceremony was launched ahead of the first anniversary of the attack as an alternative to the official state event after many bereaved and hostage families said they would shun it. 

Netanyahu instead attended the official state commemoration at Mount Herzl on Monday, the Hebrew-calendar date designated by the government for marking the attack. 

For Eliot Young, whose brother Nathanel, a British-Israeli soldier, was killed fighting Hamas on Oct. 7, the ceremony has become an annual form of support. He was there with his wife, Rena, and their infant son, who was named after Nathanel. 

“These days are very hard, but the fact that these people are here is a huge source of strength for me,” he told The Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “Some of them lost lots of family members, but they’re still here, smiling, having a conversation. It’s an inspiration for anyone who has been through loss.”

Young recalled Nathanel talking about joining the Israeli military from the age of 10, even though he was living in the UK at the time, and said that by 15, Nathanel was going to the gym with the goal of getting into the best unit he could.

“He taught us, and continues to teach us, about persevering with your dreams,” Young said.

Nathanel, a soldier in the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion, was killed fighting at the Yiftach military base near Zikim in the Gaza envelope in southern Israel, where he and other soldiers held off Hamas attackers, saving soldiers at the base and preventing an infiltration into the nearby kibbutz. 

His sister, Gaby Young Shalev, said that three years on, Nathanel’s memory has become woven into the family’s daily life.

“There’s not one day that goes by where someone in my family isn’t doing something in memory of Nathanel,” she told JTA.

Among the projects is a professional music and DJ studio for at-risk youth at a WIZO school in Jerusalem — Nathanel himself was a DJ — funded with tens of thousands of shekels raised by Young Shalev in his memory. A wine and a cold brew have also been made in Nathanel’s memory.

“We’re trying to live our lives the way that Nathanel would want us to. He definitely wouldn’t want us to sit around moping,” Young Shalev said.

Other memorials were held throughout the day across Israel, including in communities attacked on Oct. 7. At the Nova festival site near Re’im, survivors and bereaved families gathered for a memorial at 6:29 p.m., deliberately matching 6:29 a.m., the time the Oct. 7 attack began and the music stopped.

Eyal Golan, whose sister Shirel survived the Nova massacre and later died by suicide, returned to the Re’im area for the first time in five years. He said he had not been back since developing PTSD during reserve duty in the 2021 Gaza conflict, and had not even driven through the area since.

During the ceremony, Golan chose to remain beside a memorial placard bearing Shirel’s photograph. “I wanted to babysit my little sister,” he said. 

He spent much of the day speaking about Shirel and handing out sensory balls designed to help ground people during anxiety and PTSD episodes, part of a project he founded in her memory. It was a marked change from a year earlier, when Golan told JTA he could not bring himself to attend a memorial and had spent the anniversary struggling with a feeling of “emptiness” and his own PTSD. 

“For the first time in years, I felt like I had completed a missing piece of the puzzle of my life,” he said after Wednesday’s ceremony. “I felt much more whole.”

Their mother, Yaffa Golan, said being among others “in pain, tearing up, crying” reflected how raw the loss remains.

“You know, for us, every day is October 7. Still now,” she said.

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The annual Solon PTA Budget Bin will return from Oct. 12 to Oct. 18 in the gym of Parkside Elementary School at 6845 SOM Center Road.

Budget Bin offers clothing, shoes, toys, baby items, books, holiday merchandise, household goods and more at prices designed to help families stretch their budgets, while offering families an opportunity to save money while giving gently used items second life. Shoppers are encouraged to bring their own reusable shopping bags to support sustainability.

For more information on donating or consigning, email [email protected].

Oct. 7 can’t be a day when Jewish students need to ask permission to be able to memorialize those lost on the bloodiest day for Jews since the Holocaust, according to the Israeli-American Council.

“We are not asking universities to suppress speech. We are asking them to govern their campuses,” Sagit Sade Attia, national senior director of academic initiatives at the council, told JNS. “They already have codes of conduct, civil rights obligations and the ability to enforce reasonable time, place and manner rules.”

“Oct. 7 cannot become an annual occasion when Jewish and Israeli students have to negotiate for the ability to mourn,” she said.

The council sent letters to more than 100 American universities, including the entire Ivy League, urging administrators to prepare for the third anniversary of Oct. 7 and ensure Jewish and Israeli students can commemorate the day safely and without disruption.

“For the Jewish and Israeli community, Oct. 7 is, first and foremost, a day of mourning, remembrance and trauma,” Sade Attia told JNS.

The letters were dispatched as anti-Israel student groups on multiple campuses promoted rallies and demonstrations for Oct. 7.

After the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, the council helped students organize memorial installations on campus, including displays inspired by the Nova festival and its victims.

It also brought hostage families and survivors to campuses, including Ivy League universities, according to Sade Attia.

The council has helped hundreds of students, faculty, staff and families navigate Jew-hatred, discrimination, academic challenges and the emotional effects of campus tensions since Oct. 7, according to Sade Attia. But the council started noticing a troubling disparity in the ways that schools responded to Jewish student-run commemorations and anti-Israel demonstrations.

“By the second anniversary, students were calling us while standing beside posters of hostages and victims, because they were being questioned about words such as ‘kidnapped’ or ‘murdered,’” she told JNS.

“At the same time, demonstrations celebrating or legitimizing terrorism, glorifying violence or targeting Zionists and Israelis were often treated primarily as questions of free expression,” she said. “That disparity is why we acted before Oct. 7 this year.”

The council called on universities to ensure that memorials can take place safely and with dignity, plan ahead for nearby demonstrations and consistently enforce campus policies on harassment and disruption.

It also asked them to ensure academic programming about Oct. 7 and the Israel-Hamas war includes multiple perspectives and to engage directly with Jewish and Israeli students ahead of the anniversary.

The decisions that colleges and universities make about Oct. 7 can have consequences that extend beyond the anniversary, according to Sade Attia.

“When rules are enforced consistently, boundaries are established,” she told JNS. “When intimidation and disruption are tolerated, their effects do not disappear when a protest ends.”

“Students continue living, studying and working together long after the signs and megaphones are gone,” she said.

As the third anniversary approached, Attia told JNS that Jewish and Israeli students are experiencing exhaustion after three years of navigating campus tensions surrounding Israel.

“What we hear most is exhaustion,” she said. “Three years after Oct. 7, Jewish and Israeli students are still being asked to explain why their grief is legitimate, why they need space to commemorate and sometimes even why they should feel safe expressing who they are.”

Many Israeli students have relatives of friends who were killed, wounded, displaced or called up to reserve duty.

“Yet as the anniversary approaches, some are preparing not only to mourn but for the possibility that their mourning will be protested, politicized or disrupted,” Sade Attia told JNS. “Students can carry the consequences for months through isolation, damaged relationships, academic disruption and the feeling that they need to hide part of their identity.”

She is seeing students organize memorials, bring survivors to campus to testify, build community and choose to remain visible.

“What I hear is grief, exhaustion, vigilance but also remarkable resilience,” she told JNS. “These students are not asking for special treatment.”

“They are asking for something very basic: the ability to mourn their dead, express their identity and participate fully in campus life with the same dignity and protection afforded to everyone else,” she said.

Despite footage from multiple angles and testimony from those involved, conspiracy theories circulated quickly that the attack on Tel Aviv-bound flydubai flight 1073 on Sept. 30 was a “false flag,” which Israel was said to have faked to win sympathy.

Some of the conspiracy theories center on whether it is plausible that the airplane could survive a nosedive, reportedly of 14,000 feet in less than a minute, and if an Israeli plumber could actually realign it safely.

According to news reports, the Boeing 737 Max 8 entered service with flydubai on Dec. 21, 2022. Of 174 passengers on board, 150 were said to be Israeli citizens and six crew members. Omani pilot Hamam al-Hammami allegedly stabbed his Indian co-pilot, Smit Machchhar, who was reportedly able to unlock the cockpit door.

Israeli passengers came to the rescue, restrained al-Hammami and gave medical treatment to Machchhar, according to news reports. An Israeli plumber named Yaniv Hayun said that he pulled back on the yoke, the equivalent of a steering wheel, to level the plane and that he’d learned what to do from watching the television series “Mayday.”

Two off-duty pilots took over flying the plane and landed it in Saudi Arabia.

The 737 Max 8 seats between 160 and 180, with a maximum takeoff weight of 182,200 pounds, has a flight range up to about 4,025 miles and has a wingspan of 117 feet and 10 inches, according to Boeing.

The aircraft has a “speed limit” of sorts, according to a pilot for a commercial airline, who spoke to JNS on background.

“If you go too fast, structural integrity of the aircraft is no longer guaranteed,” the pilot told JNS. “That doesn’t mean it’ll necessarily split apart. It depends on the speed, but metal might bend or other parts might break.”

“So when the aircraft angles its nose down, it picks up speed,” she said. “If you go over that ‘speed limit,’ the structural integrity can be compromised.”

The cockpit door “opens differently with different ways of locking for each type and manufacturer,” the pilot told JNS.

Despite the conspiracy theories, Boeing cannot explain why its aircraft held up in this extreme circumstance, a company spokeswoman told JNS.

That’s because Saudi Arabia is currently investigating the incident, and an International Civil Aviation Organization law called Annex 13, which the International Civil Aviation Organization developed, renders “any accident or incident of an aircraft anywhere in the world” the subject of investigation and bars airplane manufacturers from commenting publicly if the country investigating the incident makes that request.

“While an accident may seem very open or cut-and-dry, Boeing, as a participant, is limited in what we can talk about during an airplane accident investigation,” the spokeswoman told JNS.

“We treat all these Annex 13 cases the same way,” she said. “That’s why sometimes during accidents, Boeing can’t comment.”

The spokeswoman told JNS about the importance of Annex 13 to avoid fueling conspiracy theories.

More than 75 senior retired U.S. military leaders and legal experts signed an open letter on Wednesday rejecting allegations that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.

The letter, organized by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, or JINSA, was released on the third anniversary of Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Its signatories include generals, admirals and military lawyers, including former commanders of U.S. armed forces in combat.

“Civilian deaths occurring during combat, however tragic, are insufficient, by themselves, to support a finding of genocidal intent,” the letter states, arguing that military conduct must be assessed under established laws and standards governing armed conflict.

The 1948 Genocide Convention defines genocide as certain acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a protected national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.

The signatories argue that Israel has taken extensive measures to protect civilians in Gaza while fighting Hamas, including advance warnings, evacuation instructions, protected corridors, tactical pauses and legal reviews of targets. They also point to instances in which Israel canceled strikes because of the presence of civilians.

The letter also criticizes arguments that rely primarily on Gaza casualty figures, noting that figures provided by Hamas do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

“This is not an argument for minimizing the suffering of civilians. It is an argument for applying the law faithfully and maintaining the distinctions that matter: between the tragic consequences of war, violations of the laws of armed conflict and the specific crime of genocide,” the letter reads.

Ireland has intervened in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, stating that it seeks to broaden the court’s interpretation of genocide. The ICJ has not yet ruled on the merits of South Africa’s allegations.

“The precedent established today regarding Israel will shape the conditions under which American forces fight tomorrow,” the letter states. “Protecting civilians and preserving the ability of our nation to defend itself requires us to defend the truth when the laws of war are being distorted to make false charges of genocide.”

As Halloween approaches, so does a season many parents know all too well: cold, flu and RSV season. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to help protect your family from nasty winter viruses.

There are many viruses children can encounter throughout the school year, some more serious than others. For babies and young children, RSV is one of the leading causes of respiratory illness and can sometimes result in severe breathing problems. Older children and adults are typically less affected by RSV, but they still face other seasonal threats, including influenza, commonly known as the flu.

Many people think of the flu as just another respiratory virus, but it can cause serious illness, particularly in infants, older adults and those with chronic health conditions such as heart, lung or kidney disease, diabetes, cancer or weakened immune systems. Even otherwise healthy kids and adults can get very sick from influenza. A milder case of the flu can still cause high fevers, muscle aches and respiratory symptoms for at least a week. When it causes serious complications, it can lead to hospitalization, respiratory failure or even death.

The best way to protect yourself and your family from the flu virus is through vaccination. Influenza virus strains change every year, which is why it’s important to get a flu vaccine every year. Flu vaccines are available for children 6 months and older and for adults of any age. Children can get flu vaccines anytime once they’re available, preferably before the flu season is at its peak.

It takes about two weeks for the flu vaccine to provide full protection, so consider the timing, especially if you have a large gathering or travel planned. Children ages 6 months to 8 years who have never received a flu vaccine, or have received only one dose in the past, will need two doses this season. For that reason, it’s best to start the vaccination series as soon as possible.

Although the influenza vaccine has been around for a long time, many people are still hesitant about getting the annual shot. Some parents worry about side effects, claiming that it makes them or their kids sicker. While it is possible to get mild flu-like symptoms or fever as a result of the vaccine, these symptoms are still much milder and will resolve more quickly than those from the actual virus.

You may still get sick with the flu despite the vaccine because it is never 100% effective. However, most people who do catch the flu and have had their annual vaccine will experience milder symptoms than if they had gotten sick without any protection.

If your children are due for their annual well visits this time of year, you can request the vaccine during their appointments. For those who aren’t due for a physical yet, you can still schedule a nurse visit just for the flu vaccine. Many clinics – mine included at MetroHealth – also offer flu vaccine clinics in the evening or weekends. These are very convenient if you’re looking to get the entire family vaccinated. You can also get flu vaccines at any private pharmacy, although you should check before scheduling a vaccine for a young kid because many of these locations will only see kids above a certain age.

If your child is scheduled for a nurse visit or annual checkup, it is safe and convenient to receive the flu vaccine along with other recommended vaccines. The flu vaccine can be given at the same time as the COVID-19 vaccine, the RSV immunization for eligible infants or any other vaccines your child may be due to receive.

If you have questions about receiving multiple vaccines during the same visit, or about the flu vaccine in general, talk with your child’s pediatrician. They can help you make an informed decision and address any concerns you may have.

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Dr. Laura Shefner writes about pediatric care for the Cleveland Jewish News. She is a pediatrician at The MetroHealth System and practices in Beachwood and Parma.

The U.S. Department of Education is expanding its Jew-hatred probe of Swarthmore College, a private liberal arts school in Pennsylvania, to include the campus Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, which shared a video on social media of people burning an Israeli soldier in effigy.

The video also states “long live al-Aqsa flood,” a reference to Hamas’s term for the Oct. 7 attacks, and urges viewers to go to “all out” rallies on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Education Department said on Wednesday.

“All out” appears to be a “call to violence,” the U.S. agency said.

“If Swarthmore has in fact turned a blind eye to such provocation, using the most horrific acts of violence against Jews since the Holocaust as a propaganda tool, someone is asleep at the wheel,” stated Kimberly Richey, assistant U.S. secretary of education for civil rights. “It appears the college’s leaders have cravenly allowed this to happen.”

The department will investigate if the school violated Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, she stated.

According to the college, the SJP chapter deleted its Monday repost of the video, and is not publicizing events on campus. (JNS sought comment from the college.)

In March 2025, the Education Department wrote to 60 schools, including Swarthmore, that were being investigated about Jew-hatred to tell them that they could be subjected to enforcement actions if they don’t meet their obligations to protect Jewish students under Title VI.

Yechiel Leiter, Israeli ambassador to the United States, was so put off by the statement that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani released on the third anniversary of Oct. 7 that the envoy decried it from the hospital in Israel, where he is at the bedside of his son, who is on life support after a Palestinian terrorist hit him with a car.

"It's actually hard to find a sentence in Mamdani's post that isn't a lie," Leiter stated.

"Paying lip service to the victims of Oct. 7 just to spread blood libels about Israel might play nicely to the red-green/communist-Islamist alliance that he promotes in the United States, but those of us who know better see his perverted language for what it is," the Israeli envoy stated. "This man is a defender of Palestinian terrorism, a promoter of antisemitism and an advocate of anti-Americanism."

Even on the anniversary of the bloodiest day for Jews since the Holocaust, the anti-Israel mayor "can’t help but attack the Jewish state with absurd accusations and outright propaganda," according to the Israeli envoy.

"The only attempted genocide in this conflict was perpetrated by the barbarians he supports, Hamas, who butchered, raped and murdered in the most horrific ways imaginable," Leiter stated. "There is no genocide, ethnic cleansing or famine in Gaza. Hamas embeds itself among, behind and beneath the people of Gaza, knowing that the IDF will not, ever, intentionally target civilians. It robs its own people of the humanitarian aid that Israel has facilitated into Gaza since the war began."

Leiter called the mayor, who campaigned on having the Israeli prime minister arrested, an ally of Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror organization since 1997.

"Hamas knows that its allies, including Zohran Mamdani, will regurgitate its lies, demonizing Israel and endangering Jews everywhere," the Israeli envoy stated. "Israel and its allies will not be deterred from defending civilization against terrorist savagery. Those of us who envision a peaceful and prosperous Middle East will root out the evil that is Islamic terrorism and build a better future for all, Jew and Arab alike."

On the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre, a prominent Spanish pro-Israel group launched a billboard campaign in Madrid, drawing a comparison between the Hamas-led attack on Israel and a mass border breach in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta.

“Did Ceuta make you feel threatened? Imagine they’d come in to kill us. That was 7 October in Israel,” read one message on buses that traveled throughout Madrid on Oct. 6 and 7 as part of a campaign by Action and Communication on the Middle East.

On July 30 and 31, tens of thousands of migrants crossed into Ceuta from neighboring Morocco, overwhelming local authorities and prompting Spain to deploy additional police and military personnel. Spanish authorities initially estimated that about 50,000 people crossed. Later estimates put the number at roughly 72,000. Most subsequently returned to Morocco. At least 72 people died during the crossings, according to Spanish authorities.

ACOM said its campaign featured two fully wrapped buses that traveled Madrid’s major streets for 10 hours a day. Other messages included: “Israel did what it had to do: defend itself” and “Don’t confuse the victim with the culprit.”

The buses traveled near landmarks including the Agriculture Ministry in Atocha, the KIO Towers in Plaza de Castilla and Plaza de Cibeles. ACOM estimated that the campaign generated between 160,000 and 280,000 street impressions over the two days.

The Ceuta migrants “did not come in to murder families or to massacre a festival,” ACOM stated. The juxtaposition, the organization's founder and CEO Angel Mas told JNS, was to “underline for Spanish audiences the threat Israel faces and the scale of the Oct. 7 invasion.”

The campaign also criticized Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government for what ACOM described as singling out Israel and contributing to hostility toward Jews in Spain.

JNS contributor Monica Vidal, a dual Spanish-U.S. citizen and investment professional, welcomed the campaign.

“It uses a recent Spanish experience to make the events of Oct. 7 feel less distant and abstract,” she said. ”It asks Spaniards to consider the instinctive reaction they had when their own border felt threatened, and then imagine the vastly more extreme reality Israelis faced: armed terrorists entering communities to murder and kidnap civilians.”

Toni Rabin is an 83-year-old Upper West Sider who lived in Israel in the 1970s. She calls herself a progressive who has attended protests against President Donald Trump. But like many New York Jews, she gets unnerved by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

“I’m burying my head in the sand a bit, because it’s a little too much for me to handle,” she admitted. She timed her arrival for her swim at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan to coincide with the commemoration of the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas in southern Israel.

“We should never forget,” she said. “We already have forgotten so much about the Holocaust, and there are very few people left who can speak about it anymore. They’re dying out. … So, we have to remember the horrific event that took place, the shock.”

She spoke over the sound of a cellist who performed for a small crowd in a lobby that was otherwise packed with small children having lunch with grownups. There was art on display by the Israeli artist Zeev Engelmayer from his “Strokes of Hope” exhibition.

Throughout the city, New Yorkers found themselves coping with the intense memories of learning about the 1,200 people, mostly Israelis but also foreign nationals, slain in Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the majority of them civilians. Meanwhile, Palestinian residents and their supporters mourned the more than 74,000 Palestinians killed in the ensuing Gaza war, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.

Earlier in the day, Mamdani posted a statement on X in which he paid tribute both to Israelis killed by Hamas attackers in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and to Palestinians killed in the Gaza war that followed. 

His statement infuriated leaders in the mainstream Jewish community, who read his post as yet another vehicle to criticize the Israeli government of genocide and apartheid.

Meanwhile, critics from the left accused him of capitulating “to Zionist pressure” in a protest outside of City Hall. Hundreds of protesters gathered to chant “Free Palestine,” “Globalize the intifada,” “Resistance is justified when people are occupied,” and “Israel is a terrorist state.” 

One protester held a sign reading “Operation Epstein Fury,” a play on Operation Epic Fury. Another held a sign that read “Liberation in action Oct. 7.” Nearby, an Israeli flag was held up with the text “Death cult.”

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The U.S. Department of Education urged educators and lawmakers on Wednesday to protect Jewish students from harassment and bullying, as anti-Israel activists organized school and campus walkouts nationwide on the third anniversary of the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.

The department cited 2023-2024 data from the Civil Rights Data Collection, administered by the department's civil rights office, which shows that "Jewish students are the most frequently targeted for religion-based bullying." The collection tracks reported allegations of harassment or bullying based on perceived religion, including Judaism.

"On the third anniversary of the tragedy of Oct. 7, we encourage teachers, administrators and state leaders to uphold civil rights protections and ensure every student has a safe learning environment," the department stated on Wednesday.

Steve Rosenberg, Philadelphia regional director for the North American Values Institute, told JNS that "the Department of Education's data confirms what Jewish students and parents have been telling us for years: antisemitism in K-12 schools is not anecdotal—it is a serious civil rights problem."

"Acknowledgment must now lead to action," he said. "Schools must ensure that Jewish students can walk into a classroom proudly Jewish, without being harassed, isolated or forced to defend their identity or Israel."

"Three years after Oct. 7, protecting Jewish students cannot simply be a statement of principle," Rosenberg told JNS. "It must be an expectation backed by accountability and consequence. Unfortunately, the most disturbing lesson Jewish students are learning in school today may be how quickly the adults look away."

Sydney Altfield, CEO of Teach Coalition, an education advocacy organization, told JNS that "on a deeply painful day for the Jewish community, it matters to hear the Department of Education say clearly: Jewish students deserve to be safe."

"At a time when Jewish children are being targeted simply for being Jewish, more families are looking to Jewish schools as a safe haven," she said. "But our schools cannot shoulder this crisis alone."

Teach Coalition has reported that the average Jewish school spends more than $400,000 annually on security, with costs rising substantially since Oct. 7, 2023.

"Fighting antisemitism is a shared responsibility," Altfield told JNS. "We are grateful to have the federal government standing with our community and committed to working together to keep Jewish children safe."

Annual enrollment season for Medicare starts on Oct. 15. It’s the time of year when many people will take their first steps into the world of Medicare. With careful planning and thoughtful discussion you can help to keep those first steps from being calamitous.

Whether this is your first time navigating the system or you are looking into a change in plans you should first start by considering your current medical need. Every year people pick the lowest cost option that ends up costing them more than intended.

June Sladek, Medicare insurance adviser with Advanced Insurance Solutions in Aurora, said that a needs assessment during the medicare enrollment process should look at your medical needs as well as your financial decisions.

“It is always good practice to assess your needs annually to determine whether a change is necessary or beneficial,” Sladek said.

That assessment is important because Sladek said many people come to her and want to sign up for the same plan a spouse or family member has. There is a certain comfort in that familiarity, but it also can cause issues in a few months when it isn’t really meeting a person’s medical needs.

Ron Fleeter, president of The Benefit Source, Inc., said that “it’s important that people considering enrolling in Medicare have a clear understanding of all of the medications they take and physicians they see.”

He suggested that you start to gather this information early to give you time to consider all of your plan options.

Those who are currently enrolled in a Medicare plan can find themselves having made a costly mistake by simply sticking with the status quo. Even if you are happy with the plan you are on now, it’s important to investigate what changes are in the works.

“Each year insurance companies change product offerings and make changes to plan designs, Rx formulary lists and premiums,” Sladek explained. “A big change in 2027 affects those considered dual eligible or those who have both Medicare and Medicaid. New government rules are reducing carrier options, with some carriers discontinuing Dual Eligible Special Needs or D-SNP plans and mapping members to a standard plan with lower benefits.”

Seniors aren’t the only ones with a focus on the Medicare enrollment period. Scammers have it circled on their calendars as well.

“It’s important for people to be wary of anything that comes in the mail or that is cold-calling you about Medicare,” Fleeter said. “Oftentimes, they just want your information.”

Sladek said that “many seniors fall victim to fraud by taking calls attempting to get seniors to enroll in a plan over the phone.”

“Once enrolled, many learn their physician isn’t in-network,” she said. “The worst part is that, in some cases, members must wait until the next open enrollment to change plans.”

When you’ve done your research and have your information ready, Fleeter said that the timing of enrollment is important, particularly if you are coming from an employer’s plan.

“You want to make sure you don’t have any overlap,” he said.

Noell Wolfgram Evans is a freelance journalist.

Ofir Akunis, Israel’s consul general in New York, again invited New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to watch footage of the Hamas-led massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, after the mayor’s statement marking the attack’s third anniversary drew criticism for focusing on Israel’s actions in Gaza.

“The mayor’s statement is a disgrace, shame, and insult to the memory of those who were murdered on Oct. 7,” Akunis stated on Wednesday. “It is still not too late to attend our screening this evening of the Oct. 7 footage and see with your own eyes, for the first time, the monsters you support.”

Akunis first invited Mamdani on Monday to attend a screening of 47 minutes of footage compiled by the Israel Defense Forces documenting the Oct. 7 attacks. The footage includes material captured by Hamas terrorists during the assault.

“Anyone with a heart should be ashamed of the response of the Mayor of New York City to the Oct. 7 massacre,” Akunis said. “On that day, monsters invaded the State of Israel on a Jewish holiday. Thousands were murdered, hundreds were kidnapped, innocent civilians were beheaded, and women were raped.”

“Mamdani, displaying a shocking lack of basic humanity, continues to spread antisemitic blood libels against the Jewish state,” the Israeli consul general added. “New York City should be appalled that its mayor shows such contempt for the memory of those who were murdered.”

Mamdani’s statement acknowledged the Hamas attack, saying that the terrorist group “killed more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted 251 others.” He wrote that “the suffering did not begin nor end that day,” however, and devoted much of the statement to accusing Israel of an “ongoing genocide” in Gaza and of committing war crimes.

The mayor’s reference to more than 1,100 Israeli deaths is lower than the approximately 1,200 deaths generally cited for the attack. It was not immediately clear why Mamdani used the lower figure. The number of hostages he cited, 251, is consistent with Israeli tallies.

Akunis said the screening would allow Mamdani to see the attack firsthand.

“For the first time, he will be able to see what the people he supports actually did,” Akunis said on Monday, “and perhaps he will stop his relentless incitement, hatred and blood libels against the State of Israel.”

Three years after paramedic Amit Mann, 22, was killed by Hamas while treating the wounded in Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 7, newly aired recordings of her final calls revealed fresh and harrowing details about her last hours.

The recordings, aired by Channel 12 on Tuesday, prompted her sister, Haviva Mann Izikson, to renew an appeal for a centralized system to ensure other families are not left searching for similar records years later. 

The calls capture Amit repeatedly calling emergency services as Hamas terrorists overran Be’eri, seeking assistance while continuing to treat wounded residents. 

The previously unknown calls came to light by chance, when, earlier this year, Mann Izikson contacted the Magen David Adom emergency service seeking the precise times of calls Amit had made on Oct. 7 as she updated a presentation she planned to give about her sister. MDA provided information on seven calls. Until then, the family had known of only four. 

Mann Izikson said hearing them revealed both that what Amit endured was “even worse than we had thought” and the extent to which Amit continued caring for others even as the situation around her deteriorated.

“It showed me even more both the hell that she went through and, on the other hand, who she was. What she was dealing with, what she went through there, which was even worse than we had thought, and how despite all of that she keeps treating the wounded in every way she can,” Mann Izikson told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency Wednesday as she prepared to return to Be’eri for a memorial event at the dental clinic where Amit was killed. 

The recordings trace Amit’s increasingly desperate attempts to summon help as terrorists closed in around the dental clinic. Hours later, she sent her sisters a chilling last message: “They’re here, in the clinic. I don’t think I’ll make it out of here. I love you.”

In one call, Amit is heard struggling to convey the scale of what was happening to a police dispatcher. 

“I don’t understand what’s going on,” she told the dispatcher, describing wounded and dead people around her and continued gunfire. She asked whether the army or police had reached the kibbutz. When the dispatcher told her help was coming and urged her to stay inside, Amit began to cry. “Just tell me you’re here.” 

Hours later, at 10:41 a.m., after seven calls to Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency medical service, Amit made her final recorded call to police. “Listen, terrorists have infiltrated Be’eri! We urgently need an ambulance or police here. Come urgently to the dental clinic.” 

Hearing the latest recordings was heartbreaking, Mann Izikson said. She was struck by Amit’s ability to pull herself together after desperate calls for help and return to caring for the wounded, comforting them, asking about their families, bringing them water and improvising with what little there was. Amit placed helmets beneath their heads and covered those who were cold from blood loss.

“She keeps them alive until her final moments, and she stays true to herself until her last breaths,” Mann Izikson said. “It just amazed us.”

Mann Izikson is urging the state to establish a central body that would collect all existing documentation from Oct. 7, including recordings held by emergency services and police as well as security-camera footage and other material, catalogue it by victim, and contact each family. Such a body, she said, should tell relatives: “We have documentation of your loved one. Would you like to receive it?” 

“If the family wants it, then all of it should be provided to them proactively,” she added. 

She pointed to the family of Gil Buyum, 55, a member of Be’eri’s security squad whom Amit treated after he was shot. In one call, Amit reported him wounded; in a later call, she reported that he had died. 

The two recordings allowed Buyum’s widow, Ayelet, to narrow down the time of her husband’s death, Mann Izikson said. Buyum’s 22-year-old son, Inbar “Buri” Buyum, was also killed while trying to defend the kibbutz that morning.

“Only because of Amit’s recordings was she able to identify the 20-minute window in which he died,” Mann Izikson said. “That’s just one example of how someone can get some kind of closure from something like this.”

She said families should be able to decide for themselves whether they want such material. “It belongs to the families. It is the families’ material, and the families should decide what, if anything, to do with it.”

A law passed in July established an Oct. 7 Memory Authority slated to include an archive and centralize documentation of the attack. The law is due to take effect in January, but it is unclear whether the authority will match material to individual victims and notify their families. 

JTA was unable to reach the Prime Minister’s Office and the Israel State Archives, the government body responsible for preserving state records, in time for publication.

Merav Israeli-Amarant, CEO and co-founder of the Civil Commission on Oct. 7 Crimes by Hamas, which released a major report in May documenting sexual violence during the attack and its aftermath, said Mann Izikson’s proposal was “profoundly important.”

“Families should not have to discover, years later and by chance, that recordings, footage, or other documentation connected to their loved ones exist,” Israeli-Amarant told JTA. She said there should be a mechanism that “approaches families with sensitivity,” while giving them the choice of whether to “receive it, view it, preserve it, or not engage with it at all.”

But Israeli-Amarant also said there was “unique importance” in preserving such material through civilian institutions, noting that many Oct. 7 families feel abandoned by the state and that some prefer documentation to be handled independently and “outside political considerations.”

Maya Gan-Zvi, manager of the National Library of Israel’s Bearing Witness: October 7 Archive, which has collected hundreds of thousands of files from the attack, cautioned that proactively approaching families, as Mann Izikson proposes, also raised ethical questions because families differ widely in how, and whether, they want to encounter such material.

“Some want to receive everything, and some do not want to know, or not yet,” Gan-Zvi told JTA, adding that even members of the same family may disagree. Contacting a family without first knowing its wishes could “reopen wounds,” she said, particularly in cases involving graphic material or footage filmed by the terrorists themselves.

Gan-Zvi said she favored a system in which bereaved families themselves would take the initiative, registering that they wanted to be contacted, specifying the types of material they wanted and receiving a description of what had been found before deciding whether to obtain it.

According to Israeli-Amarant, any system would face “significant” practical and legal hurdles because Oct. 7 material is scattered among government bodies, emergency services, police, the military, media outlets and private individuals, raising questions of ownership, privacy, consent and the rights of victims’ families. 

Some recordings or footage may also be evidence in ongoing investigations or criminal proceedings against Hamas terrorists, she said, making chain of custody, publication restrictions and the integrity of those proceedings additional considerations.

Mann Izikson said providing documentation would help answer fundamental questions that remained unresolved. 

“Three years later, we still don’t know the full truth and don’t understand how this happened,” she said. “Every piece of material like this can shed another bit of light and help us understand a little bit more.”

She has listened to the newly aired recordings repeatedly, echoing a pattern she described to JTA on the first anniversary of the attack, when she said she reread Amit’s messages from Oct. 7 every day, in part to piece together what happened during her sister’s final hours and try to come to terms with it.

It took two and a half days for Amit’s body to be identified. Mann Izikson told JTA at the time that when her sister was lowered into the grave, “I felt like they were burying half of my own child. I wanted to go in instead of her.”

Even amid the war, the hostage crisis and the wider grief in Israel on the first anniversary of Oct. 7, Mann Izikson said Amit’s loss eclipsed everything else. “There is all the rest — and the rest is painful and scary,” she said. “And then there is Amit and nothing else at all.” 

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In a speech that may preview a 2028 run for the presidency, Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on Wednesday to rebuild the Western alliance or face a future of “atrophy and servitude and decline.”

Speaking in Athens with the setting sun dramatically lighting the Acropolis behind him, Rubio invoked the ancient Greek concept of “thumos,” which he described as “the fire of passion, strength, courage, pride” at “the heart of great civilization.”

“Today, too much of the West has forgotten this quality,” he said. “Over time, we in the West came to feel ashamed of the very things that made us exceptional.”

Rubio traced the cultural legacy of the West through ancient Greece, the rise of Christianity, the Age of Discovery and the founding of the United States and drew a connection between the ethos of self-sacrifice that united the peoples of the West from the Spartans at Thermopylae to “St. Thomas More to the Battle of the Alamo.”

He contrasted that ideal with those of “the radical mullahs of Iran, whose cult of death hails child suicide bombers as national heroes and portrays martyrdom as an end to itself.”

Rubio said in a Spanish-language interview with a Colombian broadcaster in September that he has “no plans at this time” to run for president in 2028 after the end of U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term.

He, along with Vice President JD Vance, are widely considered to be among the potential frontrunners for the 2028 Republican nomination.

In his speech in Athens, Rubio said that the next decade, which would coincide with the next two presidential terms, was a “crossroads” at which “the decisions we make will write the story of the next century.”

“The course we take will determine whether the West maintains its place at the head of the world, or resigns itself to a future of atrophy and servitude and decline,” he said. “We will either choose to act now, or lose the choice to act at all.”

Jay Leberman, head of school at the Joseph and Florence Mandel Jewish Day School in Beachwood, said that Aliki Rzepka didn’t just talk the talk – she walked the walk.

So, when she and her husband, Peter, constructed a vision to create a pluralist Jewish day school in Cleveland, the two didn’t sit around waiting for it to come to fruition.

The Rzepkas sprung into action.

“Aliki and Peter were instrumental in founding the school in 1969 for their daughter, Lisa,” Leberman told the Cleveland Jewish News. “Quite often, school founders are no longer involved after their kids go through, but she had remained consistently involved ever since. She was an honorary life board member who never turned her back to Jewish education. Never. Every Jewish child was important to her.”

Aliki Rzepka, a co-founder of The Agnon School, which later became Mandel JDS, and a longtime philanthropist within the Jewish community, died on Oct. 1. She was 97.

“My mother was just an amazing person,” Rochelle Busbey, Aliki’s daughter, told the CJN. “People were drawn to her. Everyone always wanted to be near her because she was dynamic and interested. She was always eager to find out about you. Some people are superficial, but she actually would delve in.”

Rzepka was born Aliki Yamanis in Alexandria, Egypt, on Feb. 23, 1929. Her family ended up in Greece, whereit was forced to hide from the Nazis in a small village outside of Athens during the occupation of the country. While the villagers knew they were there, no one ever told the Nazis.

Aliki previously told the CJN that this was in part because of the kindness that her family showed the community, bringing clothes to all of the people every year.

The family later left for Perth, Australia, where Rzepka’s mother had siblings, a move that would change the course of her life after she met her future husband, Peter.

“She met my dad at a dance,” Busbey said. “My dad was there with another woman, and my mom was there escorted by her brothers and sister. He saw my mom and she saw him, and it was like a thunderbolt. He took his date and put her on the bus and came back to the party to dance with my mom. They left and he didn’t know how to find her, but this was a very prominent party so there was a picture in the paper the next day of my mom wearing a dress that she had made. My dad was able to find out her name and where she was, and he pursued her relentlessly.”

The two eloped to Sydney in 1954 before returning to Perth where their first son, Hillel, was born. In 1956, they immigrated to America and settled in Cleveland, where the Jewish community welcomed them with open arms.

“They helped set my parents up here when they first came, so they always felt obligated to pay it back,” Busbey said. “My dad started right away getting involved and giving back, and my mom was right there at his side. She didn’t really have much of a social life outside of what she did with my dad, and that was fine with her. She liked it like that. She was a homemaker, so she was home all the time for us when we were growing up. She sewed most of her clothes and made her hats. She cooked amazingly and kept a wonderful house. She was what we call a great balabusta.”

Peter founded Rzepka Construction in 1956, He was joined by his brother, Fred Rzepka, who arrived in Cleveland four years later and joined Peter in the company. Later, in 1971, they established TransCon Builders.

Wishing for their youngest daughter, Lisa, to have a Jewish education, the two teamed up with a group of parents and community leaders to found The Agnon School, which started with 11 students in 1969. The school’s original mission was to teach students in a non-regimental manner. It started teaching kindergarten and first grade students at Congregation Brith Emeth in Shaker Heights before moving to 26500 Shaker Blvd. in Beachwood. By 1994, it had introduced integrated learning and held classes for children in early childhood through eighth grade.

“We are now a school of almost 370,” Leberman said. “She helped start a school with just a few kids and a vision. We service a community of diverse families through their philanthropy as they are significant donors to the school. That money goes to help families afford tuition so we can make sure no one is turned away because of financial need. We have a learning kitchen in the school, which they wanted as we underwent our last renovation, and it is named after Peter and Aliki.”

The Rzepkas have been members and stalwart supporters of the Jewish Community Center, first in Cleveland Heights, and now the Mandel JCC in Beachwood, since the mid-1950s. The JCC aquatics center is dedicated in her name because Aliki swam there daily for decades.

“My mom was so proud of Agnon and so proud of the JCC because they believed in those institutions,” Busbey said. “They enjoyed their lives within the Jewish community. Using the JCC was integral to their lives, as was going to the temple.”

Peter and Aliki Rzepka have also been longtime supporters of Bar Ilan University, the largest university in Israel. Both have received a “doctorate, honoris causa” from Bar Ilan. Their major contribution to Bar Ilan provided funding to create the Peter & Aliki Rzepka Twelve Tribes Plaza at the university, the purpose of which is to provide a place for students to relax and study. They have also provided scholarships to students at Bar Ilan, many who immigrated to Israel, for many years.

Aliki was a member of Park Synagogue in Pepper Pike for decades, and Peter has served as its president and is a recipient of Park’s Centerite Award, the synagogue’s highest honor.

“I’ve known Aliki since I came here in 1990, and she was elegant, hopeful, enthusiastic, bold and a very charming lady,” Rabbi Joshua Skoff, senior rabbi at Park Synagogue, told the CJN. “She accompanied her husband on many of his community leadership positions. She was a wonderful hostess and wonderful friend to many, and the heart of her love was her family and Peter.”

Busbey said her mother loved going to temple on Saturday mornings, calling it a meditative exercise for her.

“The principles of Judaism were so rife in our house, especially in the spirit of tzedakah,” she said. “The morality of our Jewishness was embedded in us by my parents.”

Skoff said he will always remember the unique colorful outfits she would wear to Sabbath services, many of them homemade, and that those who talked to Aliki always left with a smile.

“Her legacy is of a proud and affiliated Jew, a supporter of Park Synagogue, a supporter of Jewish education and a big fan of Cleveland,” he said. “She was a unique type of Jewish role model.”

In addition to making her own outfits, Aliki Rzepka enjoyed collecting art, reading, she often visited the local library, and was a prolific poet, writing poetry throughout her life. She also loved singing, dancing and painting, and she was known for her lavish parties which were full of fun and delicious food.

“My mom wanted to embrace the happy things,” Busbey said. “She always had a positive outlook. Every time I would call them while they were in Florida and asked how the weather was, she’d say ‘Great! Well, it’s raining. But it’s still beautiful!’ When you meet somebody that exudes that positive energy, it makes you want to be positive and to be around them. That was Aliki.”

Aliki is survived by her husband, Peter; her children, Hillel Rzepka, Rochelle ( Bud Smith) Busbey, Jeffrey Rzepka and Lisa (Ram Tamir) Rzepka; her grandchildren, Michael (Leah) Rzepka, Joshua (Kate) Rzepka, Leora (Nathan) Cohen, Olivia (Nicholas) Patterson, Nicole (Andrew Kinman-fiance) Rzepka, Jaclyn Rzepka, Jordan Rzepka, Tal (Lauren) Tamir, Benjamin (Britt) Peleg, Tal Tamir and Edon Tamir; her great grandchildren, Noam, Oren, Lev, Theodore, Paxton, Oliver, Ryder and Mila; and her siblings, Chryssoula Pearson and Michael Yamanis. She is predeceased by her sibling, Constantine Yamanis.

Services were held on Oct. 5 at Park Synagogue. Interment followed at Bet Olam Cemetery at in Beachwood.

Donations can be made to the Florence and Joseph Mandel Jewish Day School at mandeljds.org.

A year ago, after a screening at Baruch College of my documentary “TORN: The Israel-Palestine Poster War on NYC Streets,” four different students asked me the same question: What about the whiteness of the posters?

“TORN” follows the fight that broke out on New York’s streets over the “Kidnapped” posters of those taken hostage by Hamas-led terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023. Many pro-Palestinian activists tore down the posters of those abducted from Israel as soon as they were put up.

The students’ question stunned me and has stayed with me ever since. Look at who was actually on the posters. Among the 251 hostages taken on Oct. 7 were more than two dozen Thai farmworkers, a Nepalese agricultural student, a Filipino caregiver, a Tanzanian agricultural student, Bedouin Arab citizens of Israel, and many dozens of Ashkenazi, Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews whose families came from places as far apart as Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Argentina,Mexico, Morocco, Iraq, Yemen and Iran.  

And yet these students only understood the poster project as a plea for sympathy for “white” people. Afterward, their professor told me that many of them had never heard of Mizrahi or Sephardi Jews.

“TORN” shows what that lens does on the street. In the film, Alana and Liam Zeitchik, whose family is Yemenite, describe confronting people who were tearing down the posters of six of their relatives, all kidnapped to Gaza. A passerby called their cousin’s 3-year-old daughter a “white colonizer.” In another scene, in Williamsburg, a white, middle-aged man in a keffiyeh calls a pro-Israel gathering a “white supremacist” rally. An Israeli woman in the crowd asks him: “Did you see the color of my skin?” Her skin is darker than his.

Today marks three years since Oct. 7, and the hostages’ faces are being held up again at vigils and rallies. Others may again look at the faces of these men, women and children and see “whiteness.” After all, it has become a way of seeing Israelis, and increasingly Jews more broadly. It has traveled from social media to campuses to peer-reviewed journals, and it rests on a mistake. 

America’s racial categories are the wrong lens for the hostage posters, and a dangerously distorting one for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. When they turn a kidnapped toddler into a “white colonizer,” they are no longer describing a child. They are deciding she does not deserve to be mourned.

None of this asks anyone to look away from what is happening in the Middle East. Innocent lives have been lost in Israel and in Gaza, and many on both sides are still living with the consequences of that day and the war that followed. My argument is that empathy is not a zero-sum game, and race should not decide who receives it.

My objection is not to the word “white.” I am a Jew of Polish, Ukrainian and Lithuanian descent, and in America and in Israel I am seen as white, with the privileges that come with it. My concern is what the word does when it is applied to Israelis. It creates a chain of conclusions: White means Western; Western means settler; settler means colonizer; colonizer means oppressor; and oppression becomes collective guilt.

Nor does the chain stop at Israel’s borders. Once “Israeli” is made synonymous with “white colonizer,” a Jew in New York, London or Sydney can be made to answer for a government thousands of miles away, and Jewish grief itself becomes politically suspect.

This is not a fringe misunderstanding. In a 2024 article in the Journal of Palestine Studies, Raz Segal, a professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University, described Israel as a project to create a “White Jewish settler society,” placing the treatment of Jews with roots in Middle Eastern and North African lands within that racial frame. Ta-Nehisi Coates’s 2024 book “The Message” compares what he saw in the West Bank to the segregation of the Jim Crow South. In Baltimore, the advocacy group Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle published an essay titled “Zionism Is White Supremacy.”

The latest version arrived last month in Theory & Event, a political theory journal published by Johns Hopkins, in an article by Alyson Cole, a professor of political science and women’s and gender studies at Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center. Drawing partly on my film, she argues that the posters’ ordinary photographs — drawn from birthday parties, family dinners, selfies — coded the hostages as “middle-class, Western, and white,” whoever they actually were. She suggests the designers chose familiar, unmarked snapshots to “capitalize on perceptual habits,” inviting viewers to see themselves in the hostages.

That imposes a strategy onto what began as a small, independent effort. The artists who started the poster project, whom I interviewed for “TORN,” printed the first 2,000 copies and walked across Manhattan putting them up themselves. They had no idea the campaign would spread around the world.

Cole herself places these posters in the tradition of missing-person flyers, like those that covered Manhattan’s walls after 9/11, all built on ordinary photographs meant to move strangers. When she turns to the Kidnapped campaign, that familiar visual language becomes evidence in an argument about whiteness. In her essay she calls for more listening, not less. But her framework draws on the same vocabulary I encountered on the street — and her words are now in an academic paper available for any professor to assign. The category error I heard from undergraduates at one CUNY campus has become academic theory at another.

The photos were family snapshots because family snapshots were what existed, not a calculated play on anyone’s perceptual habits. It takes a particular habit of mind to look at a grainy photo of a kidnapped person and start by asking what color they are. It also takes a particular habit to note, as Cole did, that the competing posters for Palestinian victims copied the Kidnapped template with the same kind of ordinary photos of children — but to not accuse them of coding Palestinian children as white. Of course, neither groups should they be. If the same visual language signifies ordinary life in one case and “whiteness” in another, the whiteness is coming from the framework, not from the photograph.

America’s racial categories are products of America’s particular history, including slavery and segregation. But exported wholesale to a conflict between two Middle Eastern peoples, they can obscure more than they clarify. The U.S. government’s statistical standards now place Israelis, alongside Lebanese, Egyptians, Syrians, Iraqis and Iranians, in a “Middle Eastern or North African” category, after decades in which federal standards classified MENA populations under White. Israel itself does not fit the binary: More than one in five Israeli citizens is Arab, and about half of Israeli Jews identify as Mizrahi or Sephardi.

The question is not whether Israelis are white. It is why we need to decide what race a kidnapped person belongs to before deciding whether we can mourn them.

And even if every hostage had been white, would that be a reason to feel less for a human being taken hostage? After all, white people are no less deserving of empathy.

Ninety-one years ago, the Nazis’ Nuremberg Laws classified Jews as a separate and inferior race. On both my father’s and my mother’s side, my grandparents’ families were murdered in the Holocaust because they were Jews; my grandparents survived only because they had escaped to Tel Aviv before the war. 

The vocabulary is different today, and I am not equating these eras. But as a character in Joshua Harmon’s play “Prayer for the French Republic” puts it, “They hate us for being capitalists, they hate us for being communists.” To that list I would now add: They hate us for being white, and for not being white enough.

Jews are older than these categories: a people with a faith, many ethnicities, cultures and languages that has never fit neatly into anyone’s boxes. The danger begins when the category matters more than the person standing in front of us.

Cole’s own footnote makes the point better than I can: She found no evidence that any posters other than those for the Oct. 7 hostages were consistently defaced and destroyed. That held true for the Palestinian posters using much the same visual language. The people on the destroyed Kidnapped posters included a 9-month-old baby, an 86-year-old Iraqi Jew who had survived the 1941 Farhud pogrom in Baghdad and a 17-year-old girl kidnapped from Kfar Aza with her mother and little brothers after her father and sister were murdered. What those posters shared was neither skin tone nor ancestry. What was being torn down was a claim: that Israelis, too, could be victims.

For many of us, those posters were a way to mourn, in public, people we knew and people we didn’t. Whatever their individual motives, tearing them down told many of us that our grief had no right to be there.

On Wednesday, with those posters of murdered hostages back up, look the faces on them in the eyes. You will see a child, a grandfather, a daughter. You will not see a color.

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Karen Haiman Schenkel, age 81, passed away peacefully on Oct. 6, 2026. She was born on Dec. 16, 1942 in Cleveland.

Karen was married to her junior high school sweetheart, Mickey, for over 61 years. She was the daughter of Irwin and Jeanne (Jaffee) Haiman. She graduated from Shaker Heights High School and went on to graduate from Western Reserve University with a bachelor’s degree in physical education.

Karen was a woman of immense grace, dedication and an incredible friend to many. She spent her life building community filled with laughter and fun, always prioritizing the happiness and well-being of those she held dear.

Karen began her professional career as a gym teacher at Shaw High School. Her true passion was her volunteer work for Mount Sinai Hospital of Cleveland where she served on the Board of Directors. She was president of both the auxiliary and the junior auxiliary board.

Karen was such a good friend to so many and always showed up for those around her. She loved to read and spend time in her favorite spot on the couch in the den. In her younger days, Karen loved to play golf at the Hawthorne Valley Country Club. Karen left an indelible mark on everyone she met and her quick wit brought light and happiness to the world.

Karen Schenkel (Haiman) beloved wife of 61 years to Martin “Mickey” Schenkel. Loving mother of Steven (Tully) Schenkel, Marc (Sonja Zandstra) Schenkel and Julie (Eric) Eschenbrenner. Cherished grandmother of Charlotte Schenkel, Alina Schenkelzandstra, Nolan Schenkelzandstra, Samson Eschenbrenner and Coleman Eschenbrenner. Dear sister of Susan (Albert Bensoussan) Haiman.

Services will be held at 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 9 at Berkowitz-Kumin-Bookatz Memorial Chapel, 1985 S. Taylor Road in Cleveland Heights. Interment will follow at Lake View Cemetery.

Family will receive friends at the residence 24296 Laureldale Road in Shaker Heights following services and interment until 6 p.m. on Oct. 9 and from 1 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. on Oct. 11.  

Friends who wish may contribute to the Schnurmann House, 1223 Drury Ct. Mayfield Heights, Ohio 442124, or Hearing the Call, 418 W. Baker St. Fort Wayne, Indiana 40802 ([email protected]).

Friends who are unable to attend the service may view it at 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 9 by going to bkbmc.com, scroll down to obituary, select the obituary of Karen Schenkel, scroll down to join live stream, click on join live stream.

A Haverford College professor was arrested on Tuesday and charged with cyberstalking a Jewish person over several months, allegedly sending messages that included “Jew, get the f–k out of my country.”  

Guangtian Ha, a religion professor at the Pennsylvania liberal arts college, was accused of sending the victim approximately 50 messages between October 2025 and May 2026, according to a federal indictment. He also posted information about the victim’s home address and family.

Haverford President Wendy Raymond said in a message to the college community that Ha was placed on administrative leave and barred from campus during the criminal case. Ha, who taught courses on Islam and religion in Asia, was on sabbatical and not teaching this semester.

Raymond said she was “heartbroken and furious” about the allegations, adding that “any form of harassment or discrimination based on identity is unacceptable, antithetical to our values, and has no place at Haverford.” She said a Haverford representative had contacted people who were targeted by “these heinous online attacks, which were antisemitic in nature.” 

Ha contacted a victim through at least four different X accounts, according to the indictment. In various messages, he called the person a “Jew pig,” urged them to leave the country and the township and said, “If jews are so special then they should also be placed in special camps and receive special treatments.” 

Ha is also accused of posting an image of the victim’s home mailbox, which identified their address. After the victim took security measures, Ha allegedly wrote, “The goyim have woken up, jew. Run. Flee. Leave. Blurring your home on google map and installing a security camera next to your mailbox won’t help.” He also threatened the victim’s family and their son by name, according to the indictment. 

JTA could not reach Ha for comment.

Ha was previously named in a 2024 antisemitism lawsuit against the school, which Haverford settled in August. The group Jews at Haverford said in the lawsuit that students and faculty showed “severe and pervasive hostility toward Jewish students” in the aftermath of the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. 

That lawsuit accused Ha of writing posts that attacked Jews “committed to Israel.” In one post, Ha said he “will never forgive” Haverford community members who were “silent on this genocide or even tacitly support it,” referring to Gaza, adding, “I know their names and I know their faces.”

As part of the settlement, Raymond said that discrimination or harassment against students who were Jewish, Israeli or identified with Zionism violated the school’s policy. Haverford declined to clarify whether Ha was penalized as a result of the 2024 lawsuit or any other allegations of antisemitism on campus prior to his arrest.

In 2025, Republican New York Rep. Elise Stefanik questioned Raymond during a hearing on campus antisemitism. Stefanik, whose grilling of university leaders in 2023 prompted two to step down, appeared to warn Raymond that her job was on the line after Raymond refused to discuss individual cases of alleged antisemitism. 

“Respectfully, president of Haverford, many people have sat in this position who are no longer in the positions as president of universities for their failure to answer straightforward questions,” said Stefanik.

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The post Haverford professor accused of threatening, stalking Jewish person online appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Sophie Shabot was a student at the Parsons School of Design, a private art college that is part of the New School in New York City, on Oct. 7, 2023. Her classmates knew that she was Jewish and Israeli, and by Oct. 8, she had become a target, her attorney, Ziporah Reich told JNS.

Reich, director of litigation at the Lawfare Project, filed a lawsuit on Shabot's behalf in the U.S. District Court for Southern District of New York on Oct. 7, the third anniversary of the terror attacks.

A Brooklyn-based, American Jew with Israeli citizenship through her father, Shabot "became a target for relentless antisemitic harassment that took every form you can imagine, including verbal harassment, being chased, being pushed and shoved, being spat on, yelled at, blocked from entering a building," Reich told JNS.

"Her desk was vandalized," Reich said. "She was trapped in a Jewish event with pro-Hamas protesters trying to rattle the door and break in, demanding that the Jewish students turn over the 'terrorist,' a speaker at the event."

The lawyer described "an environment overrun with antisemitic, anti-Israel protests, graffiti, posters, leaflets and chants."

"It was frightening for Shabot and other Jewish students," she told JNS. "We are trying to hold the New School accountable."

In one incident, Shabot was trying to get into a sewing studio, when protesters blocked the entrance. She "watched as non-Jewish students were given access to the building," Reich told JNS. "When she begged to be let in and said, 'I just need to go to the sewing studio,' they taunted her with, 'do the children in Gaza have sewing studios?'"

"One student spit on her," Reich said. "When she tried to run away from being spat at, the students yelled in a megaphone, 'f*** Israel, f*** you, b****.'"

Shabot was also called "Zio c***, Zio b****, genocidal maniac and baby killer," the lawyer said. "They followed her in the street and yelled all kinds of profanities at her."

When Shabot asked the school for help, "not only did they not call the police," Reich told JNS. "At one point, the school assured the students that were violating the school's time, place and manner restrictions that they would not be bringing in the police."

"Students have a hard time reporting stuff to law enforcement," Reich said. "They expect the school to deal with it. This is happening on school grounds, and they have an expectation that if they report it to the appropriate people at school, the behavior will be dealt with."

The New School should have done something about the spitting, pushing, shoving, name-calling and students blocking Shabot from entering a building, even without the anti-Israel messaging or targeting based on ethnicity and religion, according to Reich.

"The school is under a tremendous amount of pressure, based on the societal message that Israel is the demon and that Jews are supporting a genocide and it's a human rights issue," she told JNS. "They're willing to sacrifice the rights of Jewish students to allow for that message to be proliferated. Most schools, including the New School, would never take that approach if it was related to another minority."

Reich said that if her client reaches a settlement with the New School, "we wouldn't be settling for anything less than compensation and significant policy change." If it goes to trial, "policy change is not on the table, because you can't get policy change in a trial," she said.

'Predictable' result

There are "similarities" between this lawsuit and the that Shabbos Kestenbaum brought against Harvard University, which reached a settlement in 2025, according to Reich. And that's not just because of the similarities between the Jewish student names.

Their campus experiences were similar due to groups, like Students for Justice in Palestine, recruiting students across different campuses, the lawyer said.

"They're giving them the same messages, the same materials, the same tents and other paraphernalia and tools to carry out their harassment," she told JNS. "They're engaging in similar types of harassment. The result is predictable."

The Anti-Defamation League's campus Jew-hatred report card gave the New School an "F" in March 2026, noting that the U.S. Department of Education's civil rights office had opened a probe into the school in March 2024 and in March 2025, the department accusd the New School of violating Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

In 2025, Brandon White, a Parsons graduate, sued the school for failing to protect him from assault and antisemitic slurs based on the mistaken belief that he was Jewish. White also alleged that he was blocked and shoved and that protesters called him a "Zio" and slammed a door on his hand. He claimed the school refused to investigate and that it opened a disciplinary case against him instead.

A judge dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that White did not plausibly show he was targeted because he was perceived as Jewish or Israeli. The judge let White amend the complaint and refile, which he did in September.

As an attorney, Reich is approached by "dozens upon dozens of students and employees subjected to severe and pervasive antisemitic harassment, begging for our help," she told JNS. But not all incidents have a legal remedy.

"Public schools are subjected to the First Amendment," she said.

That means that protesters can gather in designated areas and shout antisemitic slogans and be legally protected.

"Antisemitism is not illegal," she told JNS. "Stop filing lawsuits you're not going to win. Sometimes there is no legal theory upon which you can sue, even though what is happening is antisemitic."

Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud, 18, was arrested and charged with plotting an ISIS-inspired attack at the Mall of America, the largest mall in the United States, and telling an undercover FBI agent that he was targeting the largest mall in the United States due to its Jewish owners, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

The Minnesota resident, who describes himself as a “dark Somali guy,” was arrested on Oct. 6 after buying a Norinco AK-47-style rifle, four 30-round magazines and about 200 live rounds for $600 from the FBI agent, according to federal court documents filed on Oct. 7 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.

Mohamud allegedly intended to attack the mall on Oct. 24. Agents arrested him at gunpoint after he left the vehicle with the weapons.

Seamus Hughes, senior researcher at the University of Nebraska Omaha’s National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology and Education Center, told JNS that “ISIS still has a resonance with a small subsection of Americans.”

“Mohamud is the eighth person federally arrested this year for ISIS-related activities,” he told JNS. “The charging documents in this case have similar themes from past defendants in that there is a pull of would-be supporters, who consider traveling overseas to join ISIS but instead turn inward towards attacks in the United States.”

Triple Five Group, which is controlled by the Ghermezians, a Jewish family, owns the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn.

According to court filings, Mohamud wrote that he wanted to “harm the Jew just like the brothers in Australia Bondi Beach harmed the Jews” and that he would “just go grab assault rifle, bomb is too complicated. kill maybe 30-60 people inshallah and have 260 ammo.”

“I can’t wait until I kill kuffar man. Oct. 24 is the day inshallah,” he wrote, according to filings. The affidavit says that “kuffar” is a derogatory term for non-Muslims.

Investigators said that Mohamud discussed killing a neighbor with fire or a knife, shooting white people and attacking a nightclub. He also considered Christmas attacks at the mall or Valleyfair, a Minnesota amusement park, and driving a truck through a crowd in Ohio, per court documents.

Mohamud watched footage associated with the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Florida on June 12, 2016, and discussed recruiting another person to shoot or bomb the mall, according to court documents. He also allegedly distributed terror propaganda and planned to join al-Shabaab or ISIS in Somalia and recorded an ISIS allegiance pledge.

He faces a count of securing a gun and ammunition that was to be used for a felony or a federal terror crime.

“These threats are taken extremely seriously, and we’re grateful this attack was stopped in its tracks by federal law enforcement who work every day to keep our country safe,” stated Todd Blanche, U.S. attorney general.

U.S. President Donald Trump told press outside the White House on Wednesday that “the FBI did a great job” stopping the attack.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) urged the state to invest in and work with federal and local law enforcement to “take terrorism and violent crime head on.”

Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud, 18, was arrested and charged with plotting an ISIS-inspired attack at the Mall of America, the largest mall in the United States, and telling an undercover FBI agent that he was targeting the largest mall in the United States due to its Jewish owners, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

The Minnesota resident, who describes himself as a "dark Somali guy," was arrested on Oct. 6 after buying a Norinco AK-47-style rifle, four 30-round magazines and about 200 live rounds for $600 from the FBI agent, according to federal court documents filed on Oct. 7 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.

Mohamud allegedly intended to attack the mall on Oct. 24. Agents arrested him at gunpoint after he left the vehicle with the weapons.

Seamus Hughes, senior researcher at the University of Nebraska Omaha’s National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology and Education Center, told JNS that "ISIS still has a resonance with a small subsection of Americans."

"Mohamud is the eighth person federally arrested this year for ISIS-related activities," he told JNS. "The charging documents in this case have similar themes from past defendants in that there is a pull of would-be supporters, who consider traveling overseas to join ISIS but instead turn inward towards attacks in the United States."

Triple Five Group, which is controlled by the Ghermezians, a Jewish family, owns the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn.

According to court filings, Mohamud wrote that he wanted to "harm the Jew just like the brothers in Australia Bondi Beach harmed the Jews" and that he would "just go grab assault rifle, bomb is too complicated. kill maybe 30-60 people inshallah and have 260 ammo."

"I can't wait until I kill kuffar man. Oct. 24 is the day inshallah," he wrote, according to filings. The affidavit says that "kuffar" is a derogatory term for non-Muslims.

Investigators said that Mohamud discussed killing a neighbor with fire or a knife, shooting white people and attacking a nightclub. He also considered Christmas attacks at the mall or Valleyfair, a Minnesota amusement park, and driving a truck through a crowd in Ohio, per court documents.

Mohamud watched footage associated with the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Florida on June 12, 2016, and discussed recruiting another person to shoot or bomb the mall, according to court documents. He also allegedly distributed terror propaganda and planned to join al-Shabaab or ISIS in Somalia and recorded an ISIS allegiance pledge.

He faces a count of securing a gun and ammunition that was to be used for a felony or a federal terror crime.

"These threats are taken extremely seriously, and we’re grateful this attack was stopped in its tracks by federal law enforcement who work every day to keep our country safe," stated Todd Blanche, U.S. attorney general.

U.S. President Donald Trump told press outside the White House on Wednesday that "the FBI did a great job" stopping the attack.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) urged the state to invest in and work with federal and local law enforcement to "take terrorism and violent crime head on."

Shree Swaminarayan Hindu Temple, also known as Vadtal Dham, on Richmond Road in Richmond Heights was vandalized while priests and worshippers were inside Oct. 2 as perpetrators threw bricks at the windows of the building.

According to a post on X by the Hindu American Foundation, the incident, which occurred around 1:30 p.m., resulted in a pair of shattered windows. There were no injuries.

“This possible hate crime comes at a time of unprecedented hate and vitriol directed at the Hindu American community, and we ask that law enforcement make apprehending the perpetrator(s) a top priority,” HAF said in its post. “We also call on our nation’s elected leaders & government agencies to publicly and unequivocally condemn hateful rhetoric against Indian and Hindu American communities.”

Richmond Heights police have arrested a person allegedly involved in the vandalism, but no further information has been released as of Oct. 7.

The attack occurred during Hindu Heritage Month and a little over a week before Navaratri, an annual Hindu festival observed in honor of the goddess Durga, that spans over nine nights. In a statement posted to Facebook, U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown, D-Beachwood, said she was “deeply saddened” by the attack.

“Places of worship should always be treated with respect,” she said. “My thoughts and support are with the Hindu community in NE Ohio at this time. We must all condemn this and make sure our community remains safe and welcoming for all people.”

Rebeca Grynspan, an economist and former Costa Rican vice president who is Jewish, still leads the race to become the next United Nations secretary-general. But the number of “negative” votes she received in the U.N. Security Council’s fifth straw poll, on Wednesday, was double what she received in the previous poll.

A U.N. executive and daughter of Holocaust refugees, Grynspan fell from 10 “encourage” votes in the last poll to nine on Wednesday, according to results widely leaked to the press.

Her “discourage” votes doubled, from three to six.

A candidate needs at least nine votes from the council and must avoid getting even one veto from the council’s five permanent members: China, France, Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom.

None of the polls, which are conducted by secret ballot, have so far revealed how the permanent five plan to vote.

Multiple diplomatic sources with knowledge of the matter told JNS that they expect the next straw poll, tentatively set for Oct. 16, to use color-coded ballots that will reveal if veto holders vote “discourage.”

Rafael Grossi, the Argentinian who leads the International Atomic Energy Agency, got six “encourage,” seven “discourage” and two “no opinion” votes on Wednesday, losing two “encourage” votes from the last poll, taken on Sept. 29.

Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett of Guyana, who won the second straw poll and remains the only candidate to top Grynspan, fell hard on Wednesday, registering five “encourage,” nine “discourage” and one “no opinion” votes.

Last time, she had eight “encourage,” six “discourage” and one “no opinion.”

Olara Otunnu of Uganda and Macky Sall of Senegal each had double-digit “discourage” votes.

María Fernanda Espinosa of Ecuador, a former U.N. General Assembly president and Ecuadorian foreign affairs and defense minister, received just three “encourage” votes, and nine “discourage” and three “no opinion” votes.

The race remains open to new candidates, but there are no signs of dark horses emerging yet. This year’s election is running deep into the calendar, with António Guterres’s second and final term as secretary-general set to expire at the end of December.

The previous two races led to decisive results much earlier in the search.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro leads Republican challenger and state treasurer Stacy Garrity by 25 percentage points in his reelection bid, a commanding advantage that could further bolster the Democrat’s national profile as speculation continues about a possible 2028 presidential campaign.

Shapiro, who is Jewish, leads Garrity 59% to 34% among likely voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday. Libertarian candidate Ken Krawchuk received 2%, while 5% were undecided or declined to choose a candidate. The survey is Quinnipiac’s first of Pennsylvania likely voters in the 2026 election cycle and therefore cannot be directly compared with its earlier surveys of registered voters.

The poll underscores Shapiro’s strength in Pennsylvania, the most populous presidential battleground state and a key component of the Democratic “blue wall.” U.S. President Donald Trump carried the state in 2016 and again in 2024, helping him win the White House both times.

Shapiro also draws significant support outside his party as the poll found that 17% of Republicans and 62% of independents said they would vote for him. His job approval rating was 63%, while 30% disapproved.

“One of the country's most popular governors gets a rousing endorsement from Pennsylvania's likely voters in a race that looks like a rout,” Quinnipiac polling analyst Tim Malloy stated.

Pennsylvania could also play a major role in determining control of the U.S. House. Republicans currently hold 10 of Pennsylvania’s 17 U.S. House seats, including four districts that Democrats are targeting in November.

Some 54% of likely voters said they wanted Democrats to control the House after the November midterms, compared with 39% who favored Republican control. Independents backed Democrats 56% to 27%.

"With independents in strong agreement, Democrats get the nod on which party should wield the gavel in the U.S. House," Malloy stated.

U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), meanwhile, remained underwater in the poll, with 50% of likely voters disapproving of his performance and 41% approving. His standing among Democrats was particularly poor: 72% disapproved, compared with 19% who approved. Republicans, by contrast, gave him a 74% approval rating.

Fetterman has become one of the Senate’s most outspoken Democratic supporters of Israel since Hamas attacked the Jewish state on Oct. 7, 2023.

“On this third anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre, my commitment to our ally remains unchanged,” he wrote on Wednesday. “Israel has my full support for what’s necessary to prevail and erase the last 2,000 Hamas cowards. The world cannot ever forget the horror of that day.”

Likely voters were divided on U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.), with 37% approving of his job performance, 35% disapproving and 28% having no opinion.

The Quinnipiac poll surveyed 1,159 likely Pennsylvania voters from Oct. 1-5 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.

The Harold Grinspoon Foundation recently announced a $50 million matching grant through its JCamp 180 program, which helps Jewish nonprofit camps thrive well into the future.

JCamp 180 will award up to $10 million in matching grants each year over five years to support more than 100 Jewish overnight camps, according to a news release. For every dollar that the HGF grants, the camps must raise $3. This $50 million challenge grant and corresponding camp fundraising efforts will add up to a total of $200 million in the camp ecosystem over the next five years. Camps can use the funds to make critical physical improvements, build their endowments and meet emerging needs, such as increased scholarship or security expenses.

“From the first time I visited a Jewish summer camp, I realized that camp was an incredible way for kids to experience what’s great about being Jewish,” Harold Grinspoon said in the release. “I knew it was a great place to put my dollars. So we have been investing in Jewish camping to help camps meet the financial challenges they face. This grant and its matching component have the potential to truly transform what camps will be able to do. We’ve seen the amazing success of matching-challenge grants and I hope this match will encourage other funders to support the awesome impact of camp.”

This new initiative will continue the work of Forward Together, the HGF’s previous matching-grant challenge for camps. In 2025 alone, approximately 10,000 donors met the Forward Together match. Additionally, 88 of the camps are now working to create permanent endowments with the special targeted support of JCamp 180’s Endowment Accelerator.

“The Jewish camp field is experiencing financial fragility,” Sarah Eisinger, director of JCamp 180, said in the release “Two-thirds of our camps operate within a 3% margin of breakeven, and the camps have faced economic shocks from COVID-19, October 7, and disruptions due to climate change. The data shows that operating expenses such as food, security, and insurance are outpacing inflation, and tuition no longer covers expenses. Philanthropy plays an increasingly important role if we want camps to flourish.”

Rabbi Eliav Bock, executive director of the camp Ramah in the Rockies, said that matches work with the Denver summer camp able to “leverage the match to motivate both major donors and annual donors to increase their giving.”

“The existence of the Forward Together match gave donors confidence that their gifts would have amplified impact and provided a compelling reason to give now,” he said in the release. “We are excited about the prospect of doing more, and I know that my camp colleagues from across the field join me in embracing this new and larger challenge and what’s ahead for us as a field.”

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said that Jewish camps remain a powerful place for young Jews to build a lasting Judaic identity, community and sense of belonging.

“Harold Grinspoon has long understood that investing in camp means investing in the Jewish future, and this extraordinary commitment is another expression of that vision,” Jacobs said in the release. “Across URJ’s 14 camps, we have seen what becomes possible when philanthropy, strong leadership, and bold thinking come together. We are deeply grateful to Harold, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, and JCamp 180 for challenging all of us to build an even stronger and more sustainable future for Jewish camp.”

Three years after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, 79% of the survivors of the Nova music festival have been recognized as having a psychiatric disability, while only about 60% have entered full-time employment, according to Efrat Atun, CEO of SafeHeart, which provides mental-health care to survivors.

The third anniversary of the massacre comes amid renewed psychological distress among survivors, with more seeking psychiatric treatment than a year ago, Atun told JNS on Tuesday. SafeHeart’s team handling complex cases is “flooded with cases,” she said.

About three-quarters of Nova survivors were between 18 and 24 when they attended the festival, Atun said. Some 364 people were killed at the festival near Kibbutz Re’im, accounting for nearly one-third of the approximately 1,200 people killed on Oct. 7.

She added that recurring security escalations can trigger trauma symptoms and prolong recovery.

“The massacre interrupted their lives just as they were getting started,” Atun told JNS. “From previous years, we know that distress peaks precisely when the spotlight fades. That is why continuity of care matters now more than ever.”

Ayelet Cohen-Wieder, a clinical psychologist who works with SafeHeart, told JNS that inadequate government funding, bureaucratic obstacles and a failure to rebuild public trust were hampering survivors’ recovery.

Asked whether Israel’s mental-health services were meeting survivors’ needs, she replied, “Not enough at all.”

Cohen-Wieder rated the state’s response at three or four out of 10, citing insufficient funding and limited access to treatment. She said only a small portion of SafeHeart’s budget comes from the government through the National Insurance Institute and Health Ministry, with most of its funding coming from donations.

She also criticized the process of seeking assistance through the Israel Ministry of Defense, saying that its bureaucratic complexity causes some people to abandon their claims without receiving the help they need.

“Our government didn’t learn what they have to learn,” Cohen-Wieder said.

Civilian volunteers mobilized immediately after the attack to fill what she described as a vacuum left by government institutions.

SafeHeart began operating on Oct. 7, 2023, when therapists and organizers of safe spaces at festivals mobilized to help survivors, according to Atun. Trauma therapists from Israel’s festival and safe-space communities founded the organization, and the Health Ministry and National Insurance Institute now recognize it as a provider of mental-health services for festival survivors.

Its network has provided more than 75,000 hours of therapy to survivors, Atun told JNS. About 400 therapists specializing in trauma, including practitioners familiar with psychedelic experiences, provide long-term individual treatment to more than 1,000 survivors, she added.

Cohen-Wieder estimated that roughly half of the organization’s survivors had made substantial progress in integrating the trauma into their lives. Some have created music, shared their experiences internationally or developed startups addressing stress and anxiety.

But progress can coexist with acute anxiety, she said, and renewed security threats can cause setbacks.

“Every alarm could cause you to freeze for a day, or sometimes more than a day,” Cohen-Wieder told JNS.

Rocky River police are investigating after a man left flyers with anti-Muslim messages on parked vehicles at Rocky River High School on Sept. 30.

The man, who was in his 50s or 60s according to Rocky River police, placed the flyers under the windshield wipers of vehicles that were parked in the lot next to the football stadium at around 3 p.m., according to a police report.

A student came to the school’s resource officer to tell them that an unknown male was in the parking lot. The man told the officer he wasn’t visiting a student, and the officer told the man that he isn’t allowed to put out flyers on school property and escorted him to his vehicle. The man left the school in a white Ford F-250 pickup truck with a camper attachment on the bed that was parked in a bus parking space along Detroit Road.

Messages on the flyers said that the minds of Islamic males were controlled by aliens. The man has yet to be identified by Rocky River police, who are working to identify him.

Rocky River High Principal Carrie Knapp and Superintendent Adham Schirg said in the release that messages of hate and discrimination don’t reflect the values of the school or the community.

“We won’t give these hateful messages amplification,” Knapp and Schirg said in a news release. “We remain committed to maintaining a school community where every student, staff member and family is treated with dignity and respect.”

JERUSALEM – For all that Oct. 7 transformed life in Israel, there is one notable place that still appears stuck: politics.

Three years after Hamas’s devastating attack, the massacre and the wars that followed dominate the political campaigns for Israel’s Oct. 27 election. Yet according to political analysts and the latest polling, they have done little to redraw the country’s political map or change the odds of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu staying in power. 

The events, instead, have served to strengthen people’s convictions and further cement the political blocs: one led by Netanyahu, the other by opposition parties and their leaders, primarily former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot.

A survey by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) published last month, ahead of this week’s anniversary, did find that most Jewish Israelis (68%) say Oct. 7 is a central factor in who they are voting for.

However, Tamar Hermann, the institute’s leading public opinion expert who carried out the survey, said Oct. 7 had in effect pushed people “deeper into the political camps they were originally in.”  

“It’s been three years since the Oct. 7 attack, something that, of course, made an entire society post-traumatic, but will it really make people decide which party to vote for? I doubt it,” she said.

“Most of the facts are already on the table, and it is the interpretation of the events that influences people’s decisions,” Hermann said. “The main question is which interpretation does one adopt?”

According to the polls, which in Israel are generally commissioned and published by mainstream news channels, it’s unlikely the pro-Netanyahu bloc or the opposition bloc will be able to garner the 61 seats needed in Israel’s 120-seat parliament, the Knesset, to form the next government.

One poll published Monday by Channel 12 News found that the coalition of five parties supporting Netanyahu would receive around 49 seats, while the four parties that make up the opposition bloc, also dubbed the “change bloc,” would win 54. Most of the other polls offer similar results, with only one, conducted by the pro-Netanyahu Channel 14, putting him in the lead.

A bloc needs at least 61 seats to form a fairly stable government. Parties representing the country’s Arab sector and two new parties that are vying for a place in the next Knesset are not considered part of the blocs. 

Since early July, when the election was first called, fresh allegations about failures leading up to Oct. 7 haven’t moved the needle. 

Over the past few weeks, as the election race has heated up, new information has come to light. An investigation by the Israeli daily Haaretz, backed by reporting in The New York Times, suggested that Netanyahu received a warning about the impending Hamas attacks from United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed. 

Another investigation by The Atlantic reported that Egypt’s intelligence chief made an emergency trip to Israel days before the attack, with warnings about Gaza. Netanyahu has denied those allegations and initiated defamation proceedings against Haaretz.

Similarly, the Sept. 30 attempted hijacking on a flydubai flight to Tel Aviv, which has since raised some serious questions about the current security establishment and government procedures, appears not to have had too much impact on the polls, which have remained stable since the start of this election cycle.

Each new revelation or piece of information, particularly those relating to Oct. 7, only serves to support already-existing narratives, Hermann said.

“The anti-Netanyahu camp tries to remind people of Oct. 7 as a political issue… they try to convince voters that Netanyahu was the one to be blamed for it,” Hermann theorized.

“On the other side, they are asking ‘why now?’ and the answer is that the new piece of information is being revealed right now as part of a campaign to topple Netanyahu,” she said. 

Hermann pointed out that the rifts in Israeli society were there before Oct. 7.

This election, she said, is more about “the vision for Israel’s future, about its Jewish character, how prominent it should be, and whether it goes hand in hand with a democratic regime?”

Ilana Shpaizman, a senior lecturer in the Department of Political Studies at Bar-Ilan University, said it is clear that Oct. 7 is playing a central role in the debate, especially for the opposition.

Apart from the B’yachad party led by former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, Shpaizman said none of the other parties had particularly strong policy platforms other than saying “we need better leadership” or calling for everyone who was in power on Oct. 7 to “go home.”  

As for the coalition, she said, their campaign is to avoid talking about Oct. 7 because they know it’s their weak point.  

Their emphasis, Shpaizman said, is on what has happened after Oct. 7, the military successes against Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.

“They’re trying to portray Netanyahu as the person who changed the landscape in the Middle East,” she said.

While the debate around Oct. 7, responsibility and the highs and lows of the war feature prominently in election campaigns, Gideon Rahat, a political scientist at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, says Israel’s election boils down to “identity.”

“You would expect the election debate to be about responsibility [for Oct. 7], but really it is all about identity,” Rahat said.

“People who have a religious identity and, for some, a Mizrahi [eastern] identity, will vote for Netanyahu whatever happens, and on the other side, it is the same — even if Netanyahu had really succeeded in this war, many secular people, or Ashkenazi people, will never support him.”

Rahat, who is also a senior fellow at the IDI, said the divisions also run into the realm of “affective polarization,” a political concept where the divisions are driven by emotional hostility, dislike and social distance between supporters of different political camps, rather than just disagreements over policies.

“Politics in Israel is highly personalized, it’s highly polarized, and highly populist… and identity politics is linking to this type of politics very well,” he said.

Even with views so entrenched and divisive, Rahat noted that support for Netanyahu has appeared to have fallen since the last election, which was held in 2022. In that vote, the coalition succeeded in gaining a majority of 64 seats. The same coalition now, he said, barely reaches 52, depending on the poll.

“They lost some support, but still the other side does not have a majority, so that’s the big story,” said Rahat.

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The post Oct. 7 reshaped Israel. Three years on, its political map remains largely unchanged. appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani paid tribute to both Israelis killed three years ago by Hamas attackers in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and to Palestinians killed in the Gaza war that followed.

Wednesday “marks three years since the horrific war crimes of October 7. On that day, Hamas killed more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted 251 others,” the mayor said in an X post. “We grieve alongside our many friends and neighbors who still carry that unthinkable loss.”

He went on to repeat his previous criticism that the Israeli government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presided over an “ongoing genocide in Gaza,” saying that Israel “has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians—including more than 21,000 children.”

He added, “Three years later, we must refuse to accept a world in which occupation and apartheid continue, where war crimes are met with impunity, and our federal government continues its complicity with every arms shipment.”

The mayor is an anti-Zionist and has criticized the Israeli government sharply for its military actions in Gaza. That position on Israel has caused deep concern among members of the city’s Jewish community, the largest in the U.S.

Since his election, Mamdani has faced the political challenge of addressing concerns among Jewish New Yorkers about his opposition to Zionism while maintaining support among voters who share his anti-Zionist views.

About 1,200 people, including Israelis and foreign nationals, were killed in Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, most of them civilians, with another 251 taken hostage, according to Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Another 472 soldiers have been killed in the ground fighting that followed in Gaza, according to the Israel Defense Forces. In the ensuing war in Gaza, more than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. The war has reshaped the region and reverberated around the world.

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It's too early to call it Separation Saturday, but this week's college football schedule will start establishing the pecking order in the Power Four conferences.

In the Southeastern Conference, the Georgia-Alabama winner will be 4-0 in league play and ahead of the pack along with Texas, assuming the Longhorns beat Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry game in Dallas.

In the Big Ten, Ohio State has an easy assignment playing Maryland at the Horseshoe, but Indiana faces its toughest game to date at Nebraska and Oregon hosts a much-improved UCLA.

In the Atlantic Coast Conference, Miami gets the week off while the other two unbeatens in league play try to keep pace. Pittsburgh hosts North Carolina and Duke visits Georgia Tech.

In the Big 12, Texas Tech and surprising Baylor are off while BYU plays Iowa State at home and Utah hosts Kansas. Oklahoma State can show its a contender with a home win over UCF.

The picks, with rankings and betting lines. All games Saturday unless noted:

No. 1 Texas vs. Oklahoma (plus 8 1/2) in Dallas

Oklahoma's defense is strong enough to keep this close, and quarterback John Mateer got a vote of confidence from Brent Venables this week. That doesn't change the fact the Sooners' offense is a mess.

Pick: Texas 21-14.

No. 2 Georgia at No. 6 Alabama (minus 2)

Keelon Russell and the Crimson Tide are on a roll and playing at home, as long as a tropical storm doesn't interfere. Georgia's big offensive numbers have come against a schedule that ranks in bottom quarter of FBS.

Pick: Alabama 31-28.

Stanford at No. 3 Notre Dame (minus 38 1/2)

Fighting Irish had trouble putting away North Carolina last week. That shouldn't be a problem against Stanford, which is playing back-to-back games in the Eastern time zone.

Pick: Notre Dame 52-10.

Maryland at No. 5 Ohio State (minus 34 1/2)

Buckeyes have scored at least 52 points in six of nine meetings since Maryland joined the Big Ten. They might score 62 or more this time.

Pick: Ohio State 62-21.

No. 7 Indiana (minus 7 1/2) at Nebraska

Turbo Richard-Lee Bebee Jr. at running back and Charlie Becker-Nick Marsh at receiver for the Hoosiers are the best combos in the nation. Cornhuskers have lost 30 straight to Top 25 opponents.

Pick: Indiana 38-17.

Iowa State at No. 8 BYU (minus 10)

Cougars are tough on Friday nights in Provo, and they're going for a third straight 5-0 start. Aiden Flora's prodigious production against West Virginia won't carry over for the Cyclones.

Pick: BYU 39-19.

No. 9 Mississippi at Vanderbilt (plus 9)

Rebels have had an extra week to stew over their loss to Florida. Let's see if they've tightened up a defense that's last in the SEC.

Pick: Mississippi 30-27.

No. 10 LSU at Kentucky (plus 8)

LSU's Sam Leavitt has had a couple nice outings but has thrown at least one interception in every game. Kentucky is tough at home.

Pick: LSU 27-24.

Kansas at No. 12 Utah (minus 15)

Utes are well-rested after an open date and are giving up just 10.3 points per game. Wayshawn Parker piled up 174 yards rushing against Iowa State and might go off again against the Jayhawks.

Pick: Utah 35-13.

Texas A&M at No. 14 Missouri (minus 3 1/2)

Missouri's Jamal Roberts ran for 211 yards against Florida and is second in the SEC at 121 yards per game. No player has run for 100 against the Aggies this season.

Pick: Missouri 27-21.

No. 15 Tennessee (minus 13 1/2) at Arkansas

Look for the Volunteers to give Arkansas a steady dose of DeSean Bishop. Razorbacks have allowed 15 rushing touchdowns, tied for most in the nation.

Pick: Tennessee 41-10.

South Carolina at No. 16 Florida (minus 13)

With back-to-back games coming up against Texas and Georgia, Gators want to flush what happened last week at Missouri in a hurry. A Gamecocks team in disarray is just the tonic.

Pick: Florida 36-21.

UCF at No. 18 Oklahoma State (minus 9)

UCF blew a 17-point, third-quarter lead at Houston last week, has injury issues and goes to Stillwater on an 11-game road losing streak. Cowboys are coming off an open date.

Pick: Oklahoma State 35-13.

No. 19 Southern California at Penn State (minus 1)

Nittany Lions got outmuscled by Northwestern and fans are starting to squirm because of new coach Matt Campbell's 0-2 start in Big Ten play. USC struggles on the road and is playing in the Eastern time zone for second time in four games.

Pick: Penn State 27-24.

No. 20 Iowa at Washington (minus 3)

Hawkeyes could be without QB Hank Brown, who appeared to hurt his shoulder against Ohio State and is questionable.

Pick: Washington 23-17.

No. 21 UCLA (plus 11) at No. 13 Oregon

Bruins are out to a surprising 4-0 start and can score in bunches. So can Oregon, and the Ducks are at home and in good hands whether Dante Moore or Dylan Raiola starts.

Pick: Oregon 34-28.

No. 22 Houston at Kansas State (minus 2 1/2)

A fun nugget is that Houston QB Conner Weigman is facing the team coached by his former Texas A&M offensive coordinator, Collin Klein, who benched him in 2024 and replaced him with Marcel Reed.

Pick: Kansas State 30-27.

No. 23 Boise State at Fresno State (plus 6 1/2)

The teams play for something called the Milk Can Trophy, and the Bulldogs have had possession of it for three years. Fresno State has allowed a total of 43 points over its last four games.

Pick: Fresno State 23-22.

North Carolina at No. 25 Pittsburgh (minus 4)

Pitt fifth-year QB Holden Geriner will make his first career start in place of Mason Heintschel (ACL). Tar Heels are 1-5 on road under Bill Belichick.

Pick: Pittsburgh 32-26.

Bye weeks: No. 4 Miami, No. 11 Texas Tech, No. 17 Mississippi State, No. 24 SMU.

AP predictions scorecard

Last week: Straight-up — 14-1; Against spread — 8-7.

Season: Straight-up — 74-14; Against spread — 44-43-1.

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Sign up for Top 25 poll alerts here, visit the Top 25 here and see AP’s full college football coverage here

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul directed flags at state buildings to be flown at half-staff and landmarks across the state to be illuminated in yellow on Wednesday, marking the third anniversary of Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.

Hochul also directed the Israeli flag to be flown at the state Capitol and Empire State Plaza in remembrance of the victims and in solidarity with the Israeli people.

“It’s hard to fathom that it has been three years since the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre,” Hochul stated. “Three years since the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. The pain of that dark day has not faded. But neither has the strength, resilience and enduring hope of the Jewish people.”

The landmarks being illuminated include One World Trade Center, the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, the Kosciuszko Bridge, Moynihan Train Hall, Grand Central Terminal’s Pershing Square Viaduct and the Roosevelt Island Lighthouse.

Hochul has been a vocal supporter of New York’s Jewish community. In September, she told JNS, “I want Jewish New Yorkers to know that I will always be there for them,” and pledged to do “everything I humanly can” to protect Jewish communities, synagogues and yeshivas.

Her administration has also increased security funding for organizations vulnerable to hate crimes. In April, Hochul announced up to $70 million in new funding through the state’s Securing Communities Against Hate Crimes program, building on more than $131.5 million already awarded for 1,745 security projects since she took office.

Anti-Israel vandals targeted the home of an Orthodox Jewish family when it was away from its home in the Seward Park neighborhood of Seattle on the Sukkot holiday.

The Seattle Police Department stated earlier this week that officers responded to an "initial bias complaint."

Police were given surveillance footage, which showed two people, just before midnight on Sunday, "removing the victim's American and Israeli flags from their property, damaging them and replacing the flags with a Palestinian flag on the flagpole," the department said.

"The suspects are then seen painting 'free Gaza” on the mailbox and 'Jews for Palestine' on the driveway," according to the department. "Residents were not home during the incident. Residents were contacted this morning and felt the property damage was committed based on their national origin."

The suspects have yet to be identified, and the department is investigating, according to the police report.

In the nearly-10-minute surveillance video, which begins at 11:39 p.m. and which the homeowners shared anonymously with JNS, a suspect, who appears to be male, hoisted himself onto the flagpole at the front of the residence, so that he could pull down the flags. The other suspect, who appears to be female, assisted.

The second suspect took a Palestinian flag out of a tote bag and helped the first suspect tie it to the flagpole. The two then spray painted onto the driveway and tore up the flags.

Initially, one suspect hid the torn flags in the bushes, but a few minutes later, the two retrieved the flags and hung them over the mailbox.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is drawing widespread criticism after again accusing the Jewish state of “genocide” in a statement ostensibly about marking the third anniversary of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks, which was the bloodiest day for Jews since the Holocaust.

“This day is profoundly painful for so many New Yorkers. It marks three years since the horrific war crimes of Oct. 7,” the mayor stated. “On that day, Hamas killed more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted 251 others. We grieve alongside our many friends and neighbors who still carry that unthinkable loss.”

It wasn’t immediately clear why the mayor referred to “more than 1,100 victims,” when his predecessor, and many others, have said “more than 1,200.”

Mamdani, who campaigned on having the Israeli prime minister arrested and whose spokeswoman said that synagogues violate international law when they host pro-Israel events, is scheduled to attend a 7 p.m. “vigil in remembrance of Oct. 7,” followed by a 9 p.m. meeting with “Palestinian New Yorkers,” according to his official schedule.

His Oct. 7 statement appeared to blame Israel for being attacked by Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror organization since 1997.

“The suffering did not begin nor end that day,” Mamdani said of Oct. 7. “It instead continued through the Israeli government’s devastating, ongoing genocide in Gaza, in which it has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians—including more than 21,000 children.”

The mayor claimed that more than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed “since the so-called ceasefire” and that the “suffering has intensified with every Israeli bomb dropped on ambulances waiting outside hospitals, every drone strike targeting a residential building or journalist and every shipment of food aid turned away at a border crossing.”

The mayor, whose rhetoric leaders of major Jewish organizations have said endangers Jews, didn’t differentiate between civilians and Palestinian terrorists.

“Many New Yorkers are reckoning with this unbearable grief, and we mourn alongside them—all while knowing that our tax dollars fund these war crimes,” the mayor said. “Three years later, we must refuse to accept a world in which occupation and apartheid continue, where war crimes are met with impunity, and our federal government continues its complicity with every arms shipment.”

Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, told JNS that Mamdani’s statement is like “turning Sept. 11 into a day of mourning for al-Qaeda terrorists” and “an attempt to hijack the anniversary of Oct. 7 and turn it into yet another propaganda attack against Israel.”

“We will not let this happen,” Danon told JNS. “We will remember those who were murdered, and we will never forget who was behind this massacre.”

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League, noted that the word “Jew” was absent from Mamdani’s statement.

“On Oct. 7, Hamas-led attackers murdered civilians, committed sexual violence, mutilated bodies and took hostages,” Greenblatt stated. “You are weaponizing a day meant for mourning the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust to recycle your usual anti-Zionist talking points.”

“The city with the largest Jewish population outside Israel deserves a mayor who can honor the dead without exploiting them,” he stated.

AIPAC stated that Mamdan’s remarks are a “disgraceful moral failure.”

“Weaponizing the anniversary of the mass murder and kidnapping of Israelis to amplify a modern blood libel against Israelis does nothing to promote peace,” the pro-Israel group stated. “It only fuels more violence and hate.”

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Republican, stated that it was “disgusting and shameful to use Oct. 7 as an excuse to repeat Hamas’s talking points.”

“The terrorist enemies that seek to destroy us will not prevail,” she stated. “We stand with the Jewish people and we pray for the victims, their families and the survivors.”

The Republican Jewish Coalition stated that “on the three-year anniversary of the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, the mayor of New York chooses to spew Hamas propaganda.”

“Vile,” the RJC said, adding that the mayor “should be ashamed.”

The Israeli-American Council said that “for the Jewish and Israeli community, Oct. 7 is, first and foremost, a day of mourning, remembrance and trauma.”

“On the third anniversary of Hamas’s mass murder, mass rape, mass torture and mass hostage taking of over 1,200 Israelis, Mayor Mamdani chose, once again, to use the day to accuse Israel of ‘genocide,’” the IAC stated.

“That claim is demonstrably false. The IDF has taken extraordinary steps to minimize civilian casualties, far beyond what the law of armed conflict requires, while fighting an enemy that systematically hides beyond women and children and uses civilians as human shields,” it stated. “This is not a one-time lapse. Every year, on the anniversary of the day our community buries its dead, the mayor reaches for the same blood libel against the Jewish state.”

“Rhetoric like this doesn’t stay online,” it added. “It is exactly the kind of messaging that has fueled a documented rise in antisemitic incidents across New York City.”

Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of the New York City-based Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, stated that Mamdani “cannot give Jewish New Yorkers even a single day to mourn without gaslighting us and appropriating the trauma of Oct. 7.”

“He expresses sympathy at rising antisemitism while accusing Israel of deliberately killing children, bombing hospitals and committing ‘genocide,’” the Orthodox rabbi stated. “His rhetoric fuels hostility toward Jewish New Yorkers. Today, he could have honored the victims and promoted peace and prosperity for Israelis and Palestinians. Instead, he chose to incite hatred.”

The Jewish commentator and Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro wrote that Mamdani issued “49 words in tribute to the Jews murdered on Oct 7” and “141 words on how Israel is responsible for everything and the only answer is to hand more power, money and authority to those who wish to destroy Israel.”

A federal grand jury indicted Jonathan Hunter Kramer, 21, of Western Pennsylvania, on a charge of getting a gun and ammunition to support ISIS.

He is jailed pending trial and faces up to 15 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines.

Prosecutors allege that Kramer used the online alias “Hamza Al Rashid,” claiming he was affiliated with ISIS, and offered to “share explosive manuals with others, and, just a few days prior to Sept. 12, expressed his intent to prepare for his ‘mission’ and that he was only missing a ‘weapon,’” according to the U.S. Justice Department.

The FBI said that it observed Kramer leaving his home, traveling to the parking lot of a retail store, taking possession of a long black bag from the trunk of a vehicle and then booking a hotel room before going to the gun counter of a sporting goods store.

Agents caught up with Kramer back at his hotel and found three 30-round capacity rifle magazines and five boxes of rifle ammunition.

A search of Kramer’s hotel room and home turned up a semiautomatic rifle, five rifle magazines, a rifle bipod and scope and almost 200 rounds of rifle ammunition, the department said.

The playwrights who penned a play about Oct. 7 are calling for police to investigate after someone pulled a fire alarm during a staging of their play "Oct. 7" at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., on Tuesday night.

Phelim McAleer, who wrote the play with his wife, Ann McElhinney, told JNS that "these people are demonic."

"Disrupting the truth, disrupting stories of tragedy and heroism. They should be ashamed of themselves," he said. "This just makes us all the more determined to take this play to every campus across America."

"The police must investigate this," he told JNS. "The people responsible must be found and prosecuted."

The Hillel at Northwestern staged the play at the Cahn Auditorium on campus, presented by the Unreported Story Society and directed by Jeff Gurner. According to playwright McElhinney, the play was "disrupted by someone setting off a fire alarm."

"The whole theater has to be evacuated," she wrote. "This hits even stronger because it's already Oct. 7 in Israel."

According to McElhinney, attendees were allowed back into the theater, but security searched everyone, delaying the production. In video shared with JNS, the audience can be seen giving the play a standing ovation.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, ordered the U.S. and Texas flags at all state buildings to be lowered to half-staff on Wednesday in honor of those killed “during the heinous acts of war carried out against Israel and its people” on Oct. 7, 2023.

“Three years ago, Hamas carried out a brutal terrorist attack on the State of Israel and murdered more than 1,200 men, women and children,” Abbott wrote. “Texas stands with Israel and with the Jewish community. We will always honor the lives lost that day.”

Wednesday marks the third anniversary of the attack, in which Hamas-led terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage. Forty-four Americans were among those killed, according to the U.S. State Department.

The governor also encouraged individuals, businesses, municipalities and other political subdivisions to lower their flags. The flags at state buildings are to return to full staff at sunset Wednesday.

Abbott has marked the anniversary in previous years with similar measures. In 2024, he ordered flags lowered to half-staff and called for a statewide moment of silence. He did so again in 2025, when he proclaimed a statewide day of observance.

In the days following the Oct. 7 attacks, Abbott expedited more than $4 million in state public safety funds to 31 Jewish organizations in support of security enhancements. He also directed the Texas Department of Public Safety to coordinate with local and federal partners on heightened public safety measures and encouraged schools to use additional educational resources for students related to the Israel-Hamas war.

The Lithuanian government told JNS exclusively that it will respect a historic Jewish burial site in Vilnius and instead of allowing it to be developed commercially, as some legislators have sought, it is weighing creating a memorial there.

“The government of Lithuania respects the historical memory of the country’s peoples and does not envisage any activities on the site of the former Jewish cemetery in Šnipiškės that would be incompatible with the historical significance of this place and respect for the Jewish community,” the government’s communications office told JNS.

“Lithuanian authorities and all interested parties are currently considering how the former Sports Palace might be transformed into a memorial of significance to the Jewish, Lithuanian and other nations of Lithuania,” the government told JNS.

The Šnipiškės Jewish cemetery was used to bury the capital city’s Jews until 1831. The site was considered sacred until Soviet-era desecration of headstones. The “sports palace,” an arena, was built on the site in the 1970s and remains there, though it was abandoned in 2004.

Thousands of Jewish graves are believed to be intact below ground. Elijah ben Solomon Zalma, known as the Vilan gaon, or genius, the 18th century rabbi most associated with the city, was buried at Šnipiškės, but his and other remains were moved to a new cemetery.

The Lithuanian government told JNS that the Soviet-era arena “between 1988 and 1991 became an important symbol of the struggle of all the peoples of Lithuania for liberation from the Soviet Union.”

Agreements had previously been reached to avoid further development and to reserve the Šnipiškės site exclusively for commemoration, historical education and reflection.

Under pressure from the Trump administration, the Lithuanian government appears to be backtracking on plans to build a conference venue and concert hall over the remnants of the Jewish cemetery. Those plans are “dead,” a U.S. diplomatic source told JNS.

In August, Yehuda Kaploun, a rabbi and U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism at the State Department, sent a letter to Lukas Alsys, Lithuania’s culture minister, warning Vilnius not to proceed with the plans to redevelop the site of the former arena.

“Cemeteries are a sacred ground for all of mankind,” Kaploun wrote in the letter. “No self-respecting government, institution or even community organization which claims to represent the needs of Jewish citizens can allow for their desecration.” (JNS sought comment from Kaploun and multiple Lithuanian Jewish groups.)

“Any attempt to further desecrate this cemetery is shameful for the government of Lithuania and will be met with opposition,” Kaploun wrote to the Lithuanian official. “The blood of an entire people demands nothing less.”

The U.S. special envoy warned in the letter that the Lithuanian Parliament’s initial approval of a resolution, which the antisemitic, right-wing National Alliance party pushed and which would reopen consideration of the arena site for new development, risks “legitimizing the ongoing and shameful attempts by members of the Seimas to further desecrate it.”

The Seimas is Lithuania’s legislative body.

Kaploun wrote that the conference center project “would send a clear signal to Jews around the world that not only can cemeteries be desecrated in Lithuania but that the rich, 600-year history of the Jews in this country before the Nazi regime is meaningless.”

The McGregor Foundation and CHN Housing Partners announced the groundbreaking for McGregor Landing, an Elyria development of 115 affordable homes reserved for adults 55 and older making 60% or less of the area median income.

The third senior housing development between The McGregor Foundation and CHN and the first outside McGregor’s East Cleveland campus, the 95,000-square-foot, three-building complex will be located adjacent to The McGregor Foundation’s new Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly Clinic at 570 Leona St.. Eligible McGregor Landing residents will be supported by PACE Clinic services.

McGregor Landing amenities will include a community room, a community kitchen, community lounge, laundry facilities, and outdoor patios.

Construction is expected to be completed in fall 2027. Applications will open in June 2027. Seniors can join the waiting list by calling 216-851-8200.   

This $36 million investment is primarily funded by the Ohio Low Income Housing Tax Credit and a 4% Low Income Housing Tax Credit award from the Ohio Housing Finance Agency.  

Founded in 1981, CHN Housing Partners is an affordable housing developer, housing service provider and residential lender in Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania. CHN is a chartered member of the NeighborWorks America network, according to a news release. 

Founded in 1877, McGregor, of Cleveland, offers residential care services and the PACE program throughout Northeast Ohio. Its McGregor Foundation funds nonprofits supporting older adults.

As the third anniversary of the devastating Oct. 7 terror attack approaches, it is a moment to remember the terrible human cost of that day – and to consider what we are building in its aftermath.

Sapir College sits less than two miles from the Gaza border. On Oct. 7, 2023, the reality we had known was shattered. Fifty members of the Sapir community – students, alumni, faculty, and staff – were killed. More than 1,000 students and hundreds of employees were evacuated. Around 1,000 of our students were called up for reserve duty. Our campus became a closed military zone, with armored vehicles stationed on the grounds and soldiers occupying classrooms. For a time, even something as basic as electricity was uncertain.

When the attack began, I was hiking with my family in Canada. For three days, I tried to manage the crisis from Montreal while I sought a means to return to Israel. The college was closed for the Simchat Torah holiday that morning, but terrorists drove past the campus on their way into nearby Sderot. As communities across the region were evacuated, our immediate task was to find our students and employees, many of whom had been displaced across the country, and make sure they had the basic support they needed. 

At the same time, there were some who doubted whether Sapir would recover at all. I told those who expressed concern that Sapir would reopen and become a central engine of the region’s recovery and growth. We decided to do everything we could to open the academic year alongside Israel’s other higher-education institutions. With the region still evacuated and the campus inaccessible, we began online, supporting faculty, staff, and students scattered across the country and providing additional assistance to more than 1,000 students serving in the reserves. Despite the logistical challenges, we opened remotely, brought small groups back for in-person practical coursework in the second semester, and returned to regular campus life the following academic year.

Three years later, we have learned an important lesson: resilience cannot mean simply returning to where we were before the disaster. We are not trying to return to Oct. 6. We are trying to build something better – and that has shaped everything we have done since. Sapir cannot simply wait for the western Negev to recover; it must help create the region’s future. Higher education must be part of that reconstruction, of the region’s infrastructure, economy and social life.

Today, Sapir is the largest employer in the area surrounding Gaza and a growing force in the western Negev’s emerging technology ecosystem. That role matters because the region’s challenges did not begin on Oct. 7.

For decades, southern Israel has lagged the country’s center economically and educationally. According to Israel’s National Insurance Institute, about 41% percent of employees in the south earn the minimum wage, compared with about 34% percent in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. The Taub Center for Social Policy Studies found that adults aged 30 to 44 in the Southern District have the country’s lowest rate of university degrees. In 2019, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics, southern Israel had just 124 active startups, compared with about 2,000 in the Tel Aviv district, and employees at southern startups earned about 26 percent less on average. That is the gap we are working to close.

Technology is central to that effort. Together with the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council, the Sderot municipality and the Tkuma Directorate – the government body established on Oct. 19, 2023, to lead the revival of communities in southern Israel affected by the Oct. 7 attack – we are establishing a new technology campus in Sderot. Over the next five years, we plan to increase enrollment and expand our academic offerings, creating the human capital the western Negev needs to support new businesses, strengthen existing industries and give young people more reasons to build their futures here.

Our goal is not to build another version of Tel Aviv in the Negev. The region has its own strengths – agriculture, manufacturing, rural communities and entrepreneurs – and technology should grow from them. Data science can address agricultural challenges, artificial intelligence can strengthen local industries, and the desert itself offers opportunities in water technology and clean energy. Our innovation labs and partnerships connect students and faculty with businesses so that research, talent and new ideas can become part of the regional economy.

David Ben-Gurion understood the Negev’s potential long ago. Israel’s first prime minister wrote that “it is in the Negev where the creativity and pioneering vigor of Israel shall be tested.” Decades later, the test remains: whether this region can become a place where young people find opportunity rather than somewhere they must leave to seek it.

That challenge is economic, but it is also social.

Sapir brings together students from Sderot and surrounding rural communities, immigrant families and Israel’s major cities. Roughly 65% of our students come from southern Israel, many of them the first in their families to pursue higher education. Approximately 15% of our students are Israeli Arabs, many of them Bedouins from nearby Negev communities.

After Oct. 7, we made a conscious decision not to retreat from that diversity. Jewish and Bedouin students continue to study together, including students serving in the reserves and classmates whose experiences of the war have been very different. A college cannot solve Israel’s divisions, but it can create sustained, ordinary contact among people whose lives might otherwise never intersect. They learn together, solve problems together, and prepare to build their futures in the same region.

That matters for the western Negev we are trying to build. A region that creates jobs but leaves parts of its population behind will remain fragile. A stronger future depends on giving people from different communities a stake in the same place.

Today, our campus is full again, and the new technology campus is moving forward. The trauma of Oct. 7 will always be part of Sapir’s story. The loss of 50 members of our community can never be erased. But it cannot be the final chapter.

Survival was the first task. It cannot be the ambition.

Our ambition is a western Negev where education opens doors, technology creates good jobs, young people can build their futures close to home, and people from very different backgrounds have a stake in the same region.

That is how we honor what was lost. And that is how we build what comes next.

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The post In a single day, Sapir College lost 50 people. Three years later it is rebuilding – itself and Israel’s south. appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Adi Zakuto, 27, and Liad Zakuto, 21, have accomplished a lot since terrorists murdered their father, Avi Zakuto, in Ofakim on Oct. 7, 2023. But the pain and the difficulties that have come with losing a parent that day never go away, the siblings told JNS.

“We try during our life to move on,” Adi said. “We try to be okay, and we try to continue our life and be happy for ourselves and also for our father.”

The third anniversary of Oct. 7 is a hard day for the siblings. “It’s important to us to get a chance to also feel all the pain and everything that comes with the grief,” she told JNS.

Adi and Liad spoke to JNS via video from Miami and New York City respectively. They had traveled from Israel to share their father’s story and raise money for the Israeli Children’s Fund, which provides financial and professional support to children who lost parents on Oct. 7.

As they age, the siblings have found that their needs continue to change, they told JNS.

“To be honest, I didn’t even know what I even need, what I will need,” Adi said.

The nonprofit, which also goes by Atufim B’Ahava, helped Adi “understand what are my needs and what are the milestones I will need to overcome with their help.”

The orphans of Oct. 7—children and young adults who lost one or both parents during the massacre—are still struggling with grief, financial instability and the long process of rebuilding their lives, according to Miri Yaacobi-Horowitz, CEO of the nonprofit.

“What we understand is that recovery takes time. It takes a lot of time,” she told JNS. “People would love to go on, especially in Israel. If you are not affected that deep, people start to try to go on, and what we understand is that it will take so long.”

Earlier this year, the Knesset changed the law to issue state support to children up to 30 who lost a parent to terrorism. The law had previously contained a ceiling of 21, according to Yaacobi-Horowitz.

“We also understand that it’s so, so not linear,” she told JNs. “If we see a young adult that starts, but then there is the fall, and again starting and falling.”

Adi and Liad grew up referring to their father as Avi hayafeh, Hebrew for “Avi the handsome,” the adjective a nickname he gave himself.

“If you asked him for his full name, he used to introduce himself as A_vi hayafeh, chacham, v’hatzanuah_—‘Avi the handsome, the smart and the modest,’” Adi told JNS. “He insisted that his humility is his best quality, of course.”

Avi Zakuto, 53, managed a supermarket in Ofakim. Adi described him as “the most funny, charismatic, full-of-life person I’ve ever met.”

“He used to walk into a room and completely change its energy,” she told JNS. “He used to walk around with a huge smile on his face, and he insisted on getting smiles back.”

The siblings were supposed to meet their father for breakfast and a movie on Oct. 7, one of their Saturday traditions. When rocket sirens began at 6:29 a.m., they called him from Adi’s apartment in Beersheva to assure him that they were safe.

Zakuto, who had moved into a new apartment in Ofakim three weeks earlier, joked as he counted the sirens that perhaps they were “all because of me. I’m such an important personality,” Adi said.

The family later learned that minutes later, Zakuto went outside in flip-flops, shorts and a T-shirt, and declared that “nothing is going to ruin Simchat Torah,” the Jewish holiday that day.

Terrorists murdered him at about 7:06 a.m., Adi told JNS.

At first, Adi did not think she needed any help processing her father’s death.

“It took me some time to understand that although I’m in my 20s, I still need to get some support and need someone I could lean on,” she said.

The nonprofit helped her with medical school, planning her wedding, buying a car and organizing a memorial for her father on the Sea of Galilee, his “favorite place,” she said.

Liad finished his military service about two-and-a-half months ago and is preparing for a months-long trip in South America. That trip will follow a route his father traveled years earlier.

“My father, when he was in South America, his friend and him wrote a journal with every single place they’d been at and places they saw,” Liad told JNS. “I’m gonna continue his path, and I’m gonna go to the same places he went, and I’m gonna see the world like he did.”

The nonprofit, which still helps the siblings, has identified 573 beneficiaries and plans to support financially through age 30. It also keeps offering professional guidance beyond that point, Yaacobi-Horowitz told JNS.

The fund tries to supplement, rather than replace, government benefits, which she said are not enough to meet the needs of many families.

“Most of the remaining parents didn’t go back to work, so we are talking about very functional families with two parents working,” Yaacobi-Horowitz told JNS. “One is gone. Eighty percent were the breadwinner, and the parents that remained didn’t go back to work.”

The amount the families receive from the Israeli government still “leaves them in a poverty situation, as far as we see it,” she said.

Ten of the children were born after Oct. 7, meaning the organization expects to be supporting some families until 2053, Mody Kidon, the fund’s founder and chairman, told JNS.

“This is my responsibility, that each one of the kids will get the same treatment, the same money,” Kidon said. “It’s really a huge challenge that we are not going to give up.”

Adi and Liad plan to spend Oct. 7 together, reading the diary that their father kept during his trip through South America and talking about his life.

Adi told JNS that spending the anniversary together was particularly important, because they are away from Israel and their family.

“It’s weird to be far away from home, especially in these days, away from our family and away from everything we know,” she said.

“We wanted to read it in the United States and just talk about his trip to South America and talk about our father and what we are feeling,” Adi told JNS.

Adi and Liad are “the exception,” Kidon told JNS.

“They are the exception in the way they continue with their life,” he said. “Of course, they have trauma. Of course, they remember their father. I’m sure that every day, it’s not that they forgot it.”

“But they decided to continue with their life,” he told JNS. “Unfortunately, most of the victims are still in a different situation, which will take more time, more effort, and we will be there for each one of them.”

In loving memory of Bruce Elliot Ison, who dedicated his life to his family, died Oct. 6, 2026.

Bruce was born in Cleveland on June 8, 1942. He graduated from Cleveland Heights High School, Miami University and earned his master’s from University of Akron.

Bruce began his career in the steel industry more than 50 years ago, learning every aspect of the business before building a company around a simple belief; a business should be a family. He had a true entrepreneurial spirit, yet he never lost sight of the people who mattered most: his family, friends and employees.

The latter part of the last seven years of his life was marked by his challenges with Inclusion Body Myositis, but despite his mobility struggles he never stopped fighting.

Bruce is survived by his beloved wife of fifty-nine years, Audee (nee Stiel). The two of them met outside of Corky and Lenny’s. He asked her out for the night of her sister’s wedding. When she told him about the conflict he said, “Can’t you get out of it?” That’s all it took. Years of laughter and beautiful memories both in Cleveland and Sarasota.

Together they had treasured daughters, Lindsay, Whitney (Aaron Weisenberg), and their precious grandchildren Tate, Wyatt, Skyler and Willow.

He will be remembered for singing in the car, playing catch, repeating movie lines at the perfect moment, guessing the murderer of every mystery, his witty sense of humor, for games of “gotcha last,” and for always making everyone in his life feel special.

He was pre-deceased by his parents Carolyn (nee Nyberg) and Jack Ison, his mother and father-in-law Miriam (nee Meltzer) and Wilbur Stiel and brother-in-law Lee Weisberg. Bruce is also survived by his brother Richard (Laurie Barron), Arnold (Carol), his sisters in law, Marla Weisberg, Holly Stiel (Bill Apton) and many cherished nieces and nephews.

Special thanks to Bruce’s caregivers, Chef and Tez. The kindness, support and love they showed our family will be carried in our hearts forever.

Services will be held at 11 a.m. on Oct. 9 at Berkowitz-Kumin-Bookatz Memorial Chapel 1985 S. Taylor Road in Cleveland Heights. 

To view the service, please go to bkbmc.com and select Bruce Ison obituary, scroll down to the Services Section and click on “Join Livestream."

Shiva will be observed following interment at the home of Whitney and Aaron Weisenberg, 7 Laurel Hill Lane in Pepper Pike, Oct. 9 until 5 p.m. and on Oct. 11 from 1 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. 

Contributions in Bruce’s memory may be made to whatever charity is meaningful to you.

May his memory be a blessing and may the kindness he gave so freely continue through all those who were fortunate to know him.

Friendships can become more difficult to maintain as people grow older, move to different cities and build separate lives. But for a group of longtime friends who graduated from Beachwood High School nearly 60 years ago, distance has not stopped them from finding their way back to one another.

The women, some of whom have known each other since kindergarten, have maintained their friendship since graduation in 1967. Now scattered from California to Florida and New York, they continue to reunite in Cleveland and celebrate a friendship that has lasted through different stages of their lives.

“It takes effort to plan something, but it’s totally worth it,” Frosty Jones Gross, a Palo Alto, Calif., resident, told the Cleveland Jewish News. “I do like coming home. It is my home. I grew up here.”

A photograph from a mother-daughter luncheon held after their high school graduation in 1967 shows 11 women who were part of the original group. Over the decades, the friends moved to different parts of the country, started families and built their own lives, but continued to stay connected.

Their more formal reunions began when they were around 50 years old, Gross said. They gathered again at 60, but after one of their friends died when the women were about 62, they decided they did not want to wait another decade. They reunited at 65, then 70, and eventually began meeting more frequently.

“We kept on saying, ‘Well, we can’t wait 10 years anymore,’” Gross said. “Now, it’s to the point where we’re 77. Every year is a big one.”

This year, all nine members of the group reunited in Cleveland, something Gross said has not happened at every gathering. The women stayed at The Glidden House in University Circle from July 8 to July 10, visited the Cleveland Museum of Art, took a Funny Bus comedy tour and spent time exploring Cleveland together.

The group includes Gross, Donna Fox of the Chicago area, Lita Koret of Beachwood, Judi Vilensky of Beachwood, Patti Zavoda of the Cleveland area, Iris Werthaiser of Cincinnati, Lily Friedman of New York City, Marcia Gulper Klein of Twinsburg and Marsha Ladder Kozak of Florida.

Four of the Cleveland-area women have taken on much of the work of organizing the gatherings over the years, Gross said. She said she believes the local friends were also instrumental in organizing the group’s first reunion around age 50 because they knew the area and could coordinate activities.

Two members of the original group have died. Susan Gilmore Kozminski died about 30 years ago, while Marcia Berwitt Hough died when the women were around 62. Gross said the friends have supported one another through losses and other major changes in their lives.

“We’ve kept up with the good and the bad,” Gross said. “Some people’s husbands have passed away. We’ve always been there for each other.”

Despite years sometimes passing between seeing one another in person, Gross said their gatherings remain filled with laughter, memories and emotion.

Next year will mark the group’s 60th high school reunion. While Gross said she does not yet know whether everyone will attend the official reunion, the milestone offers another opportunity for the friends to come together.

For Gross, maintaining friendships that began so early in life is unusual and something she continues to value.

“I don’t know too many people who have friends from high school,” she said. “It takes effort to stay in touch with people, but it was well worth it.”

Shawna Polster, the Linda and Clifford Wolf Editorial Intern at the Cleveland Jewish News this summer, contribuited to this story.

The Mandel Jewish Community Center will celebrate two decades of Jewish storytelling at the 20th annual Cleveland Jewish FilmFest which began on Oct. 8 and continues through Oct. 18.

Among this year’s visiting filmmakers are Simon Mendes, director and producer of “The Darkest Light,” and Abby Ginzberg, director of “Labors of Love.” Mendes will attend two screenings of his film Oct. 13 at Cedar Lee Theatre in Cleveland Heights, while Ginzberg will attend the Oct. 18 screening of her film at the same theater.

“The Darkest Light,” Mendes’ feature-film debut, explores the complicated legacy of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, an influential Jewish musician and spiritual leader who was posthumously accused of sexual misconduct.

The film premiered at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival in July and won the inaugural Best First Feature Award. Cleveland will mark its first screening since the premiere.

“I’m just excited for more people to see it and to engage with it and talk about Shlomo’s legacy and also the complicated aspects of his legacy,” Mendes said.

Mendes, who grew up Modern Orthodox on New York City’s Upper West Side, said he developed a strong connection to Carlebach’s music while growing up.

“I was really, really drawn to Shlomo’s music and just have amazing memories singing his music at summer camp,” he said.

But learning about the allegations against Carlebach complicated that connection and inspired Mendes to examine how people reconcile the different parts of a person’s legacy.

“I was trying to reconcile these two realities, like how somebody who has such an immense spiritual gift and so much to offer could also be accused of doing these really vile things,” Mendes said.

“The Darkest Light” will screen at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Oct. 13 at Cedar Lee Theatre. Mendes will participate in a Q&A with Carlebach’s daughter, singer Neshama Carlebach. Following the 7 p.m. screening, Carlebach will also perform original music with her two sons.

Ginzberg will bring “Labors of Love” to Cedar Lee Theatre for a 4 p.m. screening on Oct. 18. The documentary tells the story of Henrietta Szold, founder of Hadassah, and her contributions to health care and Jewish life.

Ginzberg has a personal connection to the story. She is distantly related to Szold on her mother’s side and is also related to Louis Ginzberg, a Jewish scholar with whom Szold had a relationship.

Through making the film, Ginzberg said she learned more about Szold’s efforts to establish health care in Palestine and her work with Youth Aliyah, which helped rescue thousands of Jewish youth from Europe.

“Here’s a woman who sort of defied stereotypes and was able to get stuff done just because she was so dogged in her approach to everything that she did,” Ginzberg said.

The film also has a Cleveland connection. Rae Landy, one of two nurses Szold arranged to send to Palestine as part of her early health care efforts, was a relative of Cleveland resident Debbie Perkul.

Perkul, who is interviewed in the documentary, helped Ginzberg tell Landy’s story. She will join Ginzberg for a Q&A following the Oct. 18 screening.

“I’m really looking forward to bringing this film to Cleveland, where one of my main interviewees is based,” Ginzberg said.

The Board of Peace on Wednesday marked the third anniversary of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack, as it vowed to create conditions for a "lasting peace" through the demilitarization and deradicalization of the Gaza Strip.

"Three years ago today, on October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and carried out a massacre of staggering cruelty," the U.S.-backed Board wrote in a statement posted to X. "Some 1,200 people were murdered in their homes, at a music festival, and in their communities, and 251 were taken hostage into Gaza."

The Board noted that over the past year, the final captives were returned, even after "many observers had said it could not be done."

pic.twitter.com/ZB5tfz1XNq

— Board of Peace (@BoardOfPeace) October 7, 2026

"President Donald Trump said otherwise, making the return of every hostage the first demand of his plan," it stated, adding that Trump "fulfilled his commitment to the people of Israel."

The organization said Washington's ongoing efforts for peace in Gaza, as backed by the United Nations Security Council, are grounded in "pragmatic solutions, not statements or slogans."

The Board added that it mourned the "immense loss of life and profound suffering endured by Israelis and Palestinians" in the war unleashed by Hamas on Oct. 7.

"Genuine and durable security for Israel is the foundation on which any peace must be built, and it is the surest guarantee that no October 7 will ever happen again," it said. "On this solemn day, we renew that commitment, in memory of those we lost and for the sake of all who deserve to live in security and peace."

Hamas hails Oct. 7 as ‘military miracle,’ urges wider attacks

The spokesman for Hamas’s military wing, who uses the nom de guerre Abu Ubaida, marked the third anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks on Wednesday by calling the massacre a “military miracle” and claiming it shattered Israel’s deterrence and security doctrine.

Abu Ubaida also called for broader regional action against Israel, citing Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran and saying there was “no excuse” for others not to act. He also raised the possibility of opening an additional “western front” against Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned his Cabinet on Tuesday that Hamas will try to challenge Israel ahead of the Oct. 27 national election.

“Precisely because Hamas is so weak, it will try to challenge us with the remainder of its forces ahead of the elections,” the prime minister said. “We are ready for this. First of all, we will thwart such attempts. And, in any case, we will respond to them with tremendous force if they make this mistake. I say to all our enemies: ‘Look at what we did to you on seven fronts in the War of Revival. Don’t tangle with us.”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that he had instructed the Israel Defense Forces to be put on heightened alert ahead of the third anniversary of the Hamas-led massacre, citing intelligence indicating that the terror group plans to attack soldiers in the Gaza Strip.

Katz told the military to be ready for “any possible scenario,” according to a statement from his office.

“If, God forbid, our forces are harmed, Hamas and the population of Gaza will be the ones to pay a heavy price—beyond all proportion,” the statement added.

Katz on Monday night revealed that some 4,000 Gazan terrorists who invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, have been eliminated, but around 2,000 remain alive.

Katz said he and Netanyahu had ordered the IDF to “pursue and eliminate all of them—from senior to low-ranking.”

“This is what the murdered and the fallen have commanded us, and this is our duty as a people and as a state—and we will fulfill it,” the defense minister added.

Some 6,000 terrorists from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah, as well as unaffiliated Palestinian civilians, infiltrated the Jewish state on Oct. 7, murdering some 1,200 people, wounding thousands and kidnapping 251.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called on Tuesday for permanent Israeli sovereignty over territory held in Gaza and Lebanon, presenting territorial losses as a necessary penalty for enemies that initiate wars.

“A side that started a war and lost it will lose territory to the victorious side,” Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionism Party, told the first National Conservatism Conference (NatCon) held in Jerusalem.

In his address, which came three weeks before Israel’s Oct. 27 general election, Smotrich outlined a postwar agenda combining territorial sovereignty, voluntary emigration from Gaza and greater Israeli independence from Washington.

“I demand that the State of Israel permanently apply its sovereignty over the territories it currently holds, both in Gaza and in Lebanon,” he said.

Julie Menin, speaker of the New York City Council, and fellow council Jewish Caucus members Eric Dinowitz (chair), Lynn Schulman (vice chair) and Harvey Epstein hosted Oct. 7 survivor Shalev Biton and his rescuer Yunis Alkarnawi at City Hall on Sept. 23.

The meeting was a partnership with UJA-Federation of New York.

Biton survived the Nova festival. Alkarnawi, who is an Israeli Bedouin, saved him and many others.

Ira Kohler, a New York native who moved to Israel at age 21, will share his story from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 12 at B’nai Jeshurun Congregation at 27501 Fairmount Blvd. in Pepper Pike.

Kohler served as a lone soldier in the Israel Defense Forces paratroopers brigade. On Oct. 7, 2023, he fought in Kibbutz Be’eri and spent more than 100 days inside the Gaza Strip. After completing his service, Kohler became a public speaker and wrote “Once a Paratrooper,” a memoir about his experience as a lone soldier during the war. The event will be held in partnership with Park Synagogue.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the U.S. Navy is making sure Iran can never acquire a nuclear weapon.

"That will never happen," Trump said of Tehran's nuclear ambitions, as he announced a new shipyard in Maryland.

Trump noted Iran's air force, navy, radar and anti-aircraft equipment are all gone. The Islamic Republic's 159 ships are "lying at the bottom of the sea," he continued.

Iran's missile and drone manufacturing capacity is "way down" and "will soon be gone," he said, adding, "We know exactly where the rest of it is."

"Their economy is in ruins," he continued. "And thanks to the men and women of America's armed forces, dozens of Iran's terrorist leaders have been blown out of existence and straight through to the gates of hell."

"The biggest problem I have," Trump said, "is nobody knows who the hell is running the country. But maybe that's a good thing."

.@POTUS: "Thanks to the men and women of America's Armed Forces, dozens of Iran's terrorist leaders have been blown out of existence and straight through to the gates of hell." pic.twitter.com/pFJcYnGfrt

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 6, 2026

Rubio: Iran missed ‘multiple opportunities’ for nuclear agreement

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that Iran had squandered multiple opportunities to reach agreements on its nuclear program and that its economy was in “total and complete freefall.”

Speaking alongside his Greek counterpart during a visit to Athens, Rubio said the Islamic Republic had lost its grip on the Strait of Hormuz.

He credited Trump with destroying Iran’s military capabilities as part of “Operation Epic Fury.”

“They will never have a nuclear weapon, period. Not as long as President Trump is in office,” Rubio declared.

“There’s almost as much oil flowing out now as there was before this conflict began. So they’ve lost complete control of the straits,” he said.

“The Iranian economy is about to reach a place that few countries in the world have been in terms of how bad it’s going to get,” continued Washington’s top diplomat.

“It’s all the fault of the radical Shi’ite clerics that make the decisions in that country,” Rubio said. “Every dollar and every penny that regime gets, they don’t spend it on roads or bridges or helping improve the lives of the Iranian people. They spend that money on Hezbollah and Hamas and militias to fire rockets out of Iraq and the Houthis.”

HAPPENING NOW!!! Rubio on Iran 👇 pic.twitter.com/yDdldRw7a2

— Alex Raufoglu (@ralexdc) October 7, 2026

Vance on Iran: ‘We’re not going to trade words for actions’

U.S. Vice President JD Vance told Reuters on Monday that Iran must make a “meaningful” cut to its nuclear enrichment capacity to reach a deal ending the seven-month war.

“If you don’t want a nuclear weapon, then why do you need 60% enriched fuel?” the vice president asked in an interview with the news agency.

Vance said Washington remains open to a deal but wants concrete concessions from the Islamic Republic. “We’re not going to trade words for actions,” he said.

He added that it remains unclear who makes decisions in Tehran after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was eliminated in the joint U.S.-Israeli opening strike of the war.

“One of the things we picked up on is it’s not totally clear how their country makes decisions,” Vance said.

Vance declined to say whether he was still leading the talks toward an agreement.

“We’re certainly involved,” he said. “Ultimately, the president of the United States is driving things.”

IRGC calls Oct. 7 attack ‘beginning of the end for Zionism’

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Tuesday night marked the third anniversary of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack by calling it the “beginning of the end for Zionism” and claiming the terrorist assault “shattered” the image of the Israeli military’s “invincibility.”

The IRGC statement also claimed that regional strategic conditions had shifted in favor of Tehran and its allies, and warned that any new military action against the Islamic Republic would draw a “painful and devastating response.”

IRGC: The Al-Aqsa Flood Operation weakened Israel’s position and shifted regional dynamics in favor of the resistance axis. It warned that any new aggression against Iran would draw a severe response and reaffirmed its commitment to the resistance and the liberation of al-Quds. pic.twitter.com/dCrjeQPNkS

— Press TV 🔻 (@PressTV) October 6, 2026

Herzog: Middle East quietly cooperating against Iran’s ‘empire of proxies’

Israeli President Isaac Herzog told Fox News on Monday that the entire region believes Iran and its “jihadist regime” cannot be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

“One thing that President Trump repeats all the time correctly is that we are dealing with an empire of evil,” Herzog told Dana Perino, host of “America’s Newsroom.”

The Israeli head of state said Tehran seeks to “radicalize the world” and “get all the way to Europe and the United States,” adding that “they must not have any access to nuclear capabilities at all.”

Herzog said the entire region shares that view, though not always openly. “Under the surface there is an effort to cooperate and prevent this empire of proxies from tilting the balance,” he said.

The president pointed to Yemen, where “a small tribe,” meaning Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists, are “blocking a main artery of world trade.”

“Are we going to cave in to terror, harassment, blackmail or not? That’s why the war with Iran is so essential,” Herzog said.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog says President Trump is "correct" about the threat posed by Tehran, then lays out exactly why he believes Iran cannot be allowed access to nuclear capabilities.

"We are dealing with an empire of evil which wants to really radicalize the world,… pic.twitter.com/O3uZYNGt7d

— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 5, 2026

10 Western Hemisphere nations condemn Iran, terror proxies

The United States and nine other Western Hemisphere countries on Monday condemned Iran and its terrorist proxies for plotting attacks and “other malign influence operations” in the region, according to a joint statement published by the U.S. State Department.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies must halt these actions now,” the statement said.

The signatories also accused Tehran of “illicit fundraising, political interference and foreign influence activities, and operations meant to bolster terrorist networks, coerce perceived enemies, compromise legal or administrative processes, and harm regional security.”

The 10 nations pledged further measures and closer cooperation to address the threat.

The statement was signed by the United States, Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Peru and Paraguay.

It followed a counterterrorism forum co-hosted last month by the U.S. and Paraguay. According to the State Department, the forum aimed to “enhance law-enforcement cooperation among partners in our hemisphere on disrupting Iranian terrorist activity in our region.”

Joint Statement on Countering Iranian Terrorist Activity in the Western Hemisphere https://t.co/rEcXziY2Ao

— U.S. State Dept - Near Eastern Affairs (@StateDept_NEA) October 5, 2026

Bessent: Pressure campaign halted Iran crude tanker loading

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday that the Trump administration’s sweeping sanctions campaign against Tehran has cut off all crude oil tanker loading and driven the Iranian rial to record lows.

Writing on X, Bessent credited the pressure effort, dubbed “Operation Economic Outcast,” with pushing Iran into “one of the most difficult periods in its history,” citing acknowledgment by Iranian officials.

“Operation Economic Outcast is delivering results: the rial has plunged to record lows, Iran loaded zero crude oil onto tankers last month, and even Iran’s top security official has admitted the country is facing one of the most difficult periods in its history,” Bessent wrote.

“The Iranian regime allows its own people to suffer while it pours resources into terrorism,” he continued. “Operation Economic Outcast will not stop until the Iranian regime understands that the Trump Administration will never allow the regime to fund terrorism and develop a nuclear weapon.”

Operation Economic Outcast is delivering results: the rial has plunged to record lows, Iran loaded zero crude oil onto tankers last month, and even Iran’s top security official has admitted the country is facing one of the most difficult periods in its history.

The Iranian…

— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) October 5, 2026

JERUSALEM (AP) — As Israel gears up for its first elections since Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his opponents are putting it at the heart of their campaigns.

Nearly every poster, stump speech or televised debate seems to reference the attack, which has scarred the country and remains fresh in the minds of voters. Three years on, the worst security failure in Israel’s history now threatens to end the career of its longest-serving prime minister.

“October 7 is kind of a framework for the entire political discussion that is going on,” said Tamar Hermann, an expert on Israeli public opinion at the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank. “All of us are post-traumatic in a way.”

Netanyahu’s opponents want him to pay for the failures that led to the deadliest day in Israel’s 78-year history and plunged the country into a series of inconclusive wars. His defenders say Netanyahu was betrayed by the military establishment and that he has led Israel through a dramatic rebound from its darkest hour.

A loss in the Oct. 27 election would likely end the career of the soon-to-be 77-year-old Netanyahu. A victory would mark the greatest turnaround yet for a man who has defied naysayers for three decades.

A deadly day that has shaken an entire region

On the morning of Oct. 7, Hamas fired several thousand rockets into Israel and thousands of Hamas supporters attacked through holes blown in the border fence or with boats or motorized paragliders. Some 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken hostage.

Israel responded with a military offensive that has killed over 74,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to local health authorities, left the territory in ruins and sparked an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe. Israel later went to war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, seized a chunk of Syria, attacked targets in Yemen and joined the U.S. in two wars against Iran.

Hundreds of Israelis, mostly young soldiers, have died, and nearly every household has been touched by the violence. Netanyahu promised “total victory,” but Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran’s theocratic government all remain intact.

Israel’s international standing has plummeted, a number of foreign governments have accused it of genocide — a charge it vehemently rejects — and Netanyahu is now wanted by the International Criminal Court.

After a string of resignations by top security officials, Netanyahu is the only senior figure from Oct. 7 still in office, making this month’s election in many ways a referendum on his leadership.

It's the focus of the campaign for both sides

Netanyahu and his opponents have put Oct. 7 at the forefront of their campaigns — for different reasons.

His opponents — from across the political spectrum — call his outgoing coalition “the massacre government.” Netanyahu says he has led a “war of redemption.”

His chief rival is Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief whose son and nephew were killed in battle in Gaza. The opponents have pledged to form a government of “repair and reconstruction” — beginning with the formation of an official commission of inquiry into Oct. 7. They also have vowed to end draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox religious men, a long-standing policy that has outraged the secular majority at a time of war, and accuse Netanyahu of threatening Israel's democratic institutions.

“The most fateful elections in the history of the State of Israel are between evasion and enlistment,” Eisenkot wrote on X. “Between taking responsibility and fleeing from responsibility.”

Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected calls for a commission of inquiry while trying to shift the blame to security officials. He recently accused the then-head of the Shin Bet security service, Ronen Bar, of withholding information ahead of the attack. Bar has vowed to file a defamation lawsuit.

Netanyahu has meanwhile denied reports in American media outlets that the United Arab Emirates and Egypt warned him ahead of Oct. 7.

He insists the country is stronger than ever.

“Our enemies expected us to collapse,” Netanyahu said in a recent address to the United Nations. “Well, we didn’t collapse. Instead, we rose and fought like lions.”

Oct. 7 victims are seeking seats in parliament

Eisenkot’s new Yashar party list includes two parents who lost children on Oct. 7. Netanyahu’s Likud party also includes two grieving parents, among them the mother of a policeman killed in battle on Oct. 7 whose remains were the last to be returned to Israel as part of a ceasefire. Another Likud candidate lost both legs while serving in Gaza.

The leader of the dovish Democrats party, Yair Golan, is a retired general who put on his uniform and rushed to the southern border to fight on Oct. 7. The centrist Together party’s list has another former general, Noam Tibon, who also battled groups as he rescued his son’s family, and the mother of a soldier killed that day.

Other parties have also added people directly impacted by the attack.

Organizers, including victims' relatives, say they are keeping politics out of a mass memorial service in Tel Aviv on Wednesday. But they have hardly concealed their anger at the country’s leadership.

“We will not let anyone evade responsibility,” Yonatan Shamriz, whose brother was taken hostage and mistakenly killed by Israeli soldiers after escaping captivity, said in a radio interview.

There is little discussion of the Palestinians

Largely missing from the Israeli public discourse is any discussion of the dire situation in Gaza or the fate of the Palestinians.

Israeli leaders have said little about the unprecedented death toll in Gaza, the humanitarian catastrophe and the lack of reconstruction. Instead, they have focused largely on the country’s pain over Oct. 7.

There is almost no mention of peace talks, and even Netanyahu’s challengers largely oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, the international community's preferred solution for the decades-old conflict.

When a pair of Israeli filmmakers released a documentary last month about civilian deaths in Gaza, party leaders across the spectrum, including Eisenkot, accused them of treason.

Oct. 7 has hardened the bitter split over Netanyahu

Polling suggests a close race between Netanyahu and his chief rival, Eisenkot, with an uncertain outcome.

According to the Israel Democracy Institute, over 60% of Israelis say their attitudes toward Oct. 7 are a central factor in whom to vote for. That number jumps to 68% among the Jewish majority; Arab voters are most concerned with a crime wave in their communities.

But Hermann, the IDI polling expert, said this doesn’t necessarily mean bad news for Netanyahu. She says the past three years have hardened attitudes on both sides.

Just because everyone says Oct. 7 is important, she said, “doesn’t mean that they will come out with the same conclusion.”

Naomi Ragen, the New York-born Israeli novelist and playwright known for her portrayals of Orthodox Jewish women in crisis, says the cancellation of a planned Chicago revival of one of her plays represents a “return to McCarthyism” in the American cultural scene.

Ragen, 77, has revealed that plans by a Jewish arts company in Chicago to revive her 2001 play “Women’s Minyan” have been shelved. In a post shared with her thousands of followers on Facebook, Ragen included an email from the company’s artistic director saying that she had been inundated by messages from actors, directors and designers who feared that working with a “a pro-Zionist Jew/Israeli” like Ragen could damage their careers.

Ragen told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that Chicago-based Arts Judaica first approached her in July with a request to stage her play about a haredi woman trying to flee her abusive marriage. Elayne LeTraunik, the company’s artistic director, told Ragen they intended to stage 13 performances next March. 

Happy to collaborate, Ragen asked for a contract. She heard nothing until this week when she received a reply from LeTraunik, saying she “must sadly withdraw my intent to do the show.” 

LeTraunik’s email continued: “People were seeing you were a pro Zionist Jew/Israeli and I was bombarded with actors, directors and designers who were actually afraid that doing a show with you as playwright would hurt their careers. I never have faced this before and I was stunned about all the accusations of ‘genocide’ flying around.”

The episode stands in contrast to Arts Judaica’s stated mission: Its website says that “American audiences need Jewish stories on stage more than ever.”

“In the past I have done plays about suicide bombers and never had a peep from anyone,” LeTraunik told Ragen. “This world is getting insane. Perhaps once all this dies down (if it ever does) I will try again. I am so sorry.”

Born in New York, Ragen emigrated to Israel in 1971, where she settled in Jerusalem. In addition to best-selling novels like “Sotah” and “The Sacrifice of Tamar,” she regularly writes opinion pieces sharing her hawkish views on Israel. On her website and on social media, she shares dispatches from her “Israel War Diary,” expressing strong support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and IDF military action against Hamas. She has also spoken against what she describes as a worldwide “climate of hatred, fear, and intimidation.”

Some people, she said, have suggested the play was canceled because she is a right-wing Zionist. “Are we now back to McCarthyism, where you have to check the political credentials of an artist [before deciding] whether or not to promote their work?” she said.  

“I thought all the progressives were against McCarthyism. Now we’re back there where I have to pass some kind of political test in order to have my work shown.”

LeTraunik told JTA she could never have predicted the pushback or the cancellation when she first approached Ragen. “This situation is one I have never faced before after a lifetime in theater,” she said. 

“Since the play has nothing to do with politics I didn’t anticipate any problems,” she continued. “But unfortunately people had done research on Naomi and felt so triggered by her politics it appeared that there were concerns from would-be actors, etc. and even the person who had offered to put up some of the funding was not comfortable.

“As for me, I am almost 80 years old, [a] lifetime American and Jew and I have long decided not to get involved in the current political turmoil. I just want to do interesting theater.”

Ragen told JTA that while it is “strange to get such a response from a Jewish venue,” particularly one whose mission statement includes Holocaust education, she is not angry at LeTraunik.  

“I have only sympathy for her,” she said. “I think all these Jewish cultural organizations are now under fire and what we need is not to criticize them because they’re not brave enough, but to understand the pressures they’re under.”

Earlier this month the Anti-Defamation League published a report alleging “the systemic exclusion and marginalization of Jewish and Israeli artists across American cultural life.” In its examination of museums, publishing and live entertainment, the ADL said it found that Jewish, Israeli and Zionist artists have “faced growing scrutiny, organized protest activity, online targeting, event disruptions, reputational campaigns and, in some cases, cancellations or institutional distancing.” 

Ragen said her play, originally commissioned by Habima, Israel’s national theater, has previously been staged in the United States. She is not taking the cancellation personally, she said, but as a symptom of a far greater problem.

“You had a situation in Germany in 1938 where you couldn’t produce a Jewish play or any play which didn’t toe the Nazi line,” she said. “Are we going back to that?”

In her conversation with JTA, Ragen called on “American Jews and good people” to “be a little brave,” adding: “It’s not time to build another Holocaust museum — it’s time to wake up, smell the coffee, and put your money and your time and your effort where your mouth is. 

“If you are a person who wants to promote Holocaust education, well, you’re living in the middle of it.”

--

The post Chicago Jewish theater drops Naomi Ragen play, saying actors feared repercussions of working with the Israeli writer appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

The justice minister of a German state on Monday presented a legal opinion in favor of draft legislation that would make it illegal to deny Israel’s right to exist.

The defense was of a draft amendment to the German penal code that the State of Hessen submitted last year to the Federal Council of Germany for a vote in the Bundestag, the German parliament. If passed, the draft amendment would become part of federal law.

The draft amendment "fits seamlessly into the existing regulatory framework and systematically complements them in a meaningful way," constitutional law expert Steffen Augsberg wrote in the legal opinion, according to the Stagecoach news site. Germany already has federal laws against displaying Nazi imagery and praising Nazi ideology.

Hessen’s justice minister, Christian Heinz of the CDU party of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, said at a press conference in Berlin on Monday, according to Tagesschau, that the legislation was necessary also because of the increase in antisemitic attacks in Germany since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists murdered some 1,200 Israelis during a cross-border invasion.

Under the draft amendment, anyone who "publicly or in a gathering denies the right of the State of Israel to exist or calls for the elimination of the State of Israel" would be punishable by imprisonment of up to five years.

Before the draft amendment is brought to the Bundestag, it needs the federal government's support for the move. However, Merz's government expressed reservations about the draft amendment in August, prompting the Hessen government to seek the legal opinion.

The federal government had said that Hessen’s proposal carried a “significant constitutional risk,” and that existing laws already cover the acts that the draft amendment seeks to target. The Bundestag's research service has raised concerns that the draft amendment was unconstitutional in that it would restrict the freedom of expression protected by the Basic Law. The Left Party, Die Linke, commissioned that Bundestag report.

The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, attended the press conference in Berlin alongside Heinz, Hessen's justice minister, and expressed support for it. However, Schuster also doubted whether the draft amendment would pass, dpa reported on Monday.

"The hurdles our constitution places on this are rightly high. Doubts about its feasibility are permissible," dpa quoted Schuster as saying. Even if passed, the amendment "could be struck down by the Federal Constitutional Court," he added. The amendment might be counterproductive, he also said, as “it might motivate hate-mongers to then call for the destruction of Israel even more openly and blatantly."

The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem on Wednesday marked the third anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre and vowed to stand with Israel.

The embassy said in a post on X it remembers “the innocent lives murdered by Hamas terrorists.” It also honored “the heroes who risked everything to save others.”

“We remember. We stand with Israel,” the post concluded.

Today we remember the innocent lives murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, and honor the heroes who risked everything to save others.

We remember. We stand with Israel. 🇺🇸🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/tfUKDPaX04

— U.S. Embassy Jerusalem (@usembassyjlm) October 7, 2026

The statement came as world leaders marked three years since the terrorist attacks that killed more than 1,200 people in southern Israel.

French President Emmanuel Macron noted that 51 fellow citizens were among those murdered in "the barbaric terrorist attacks by Hamas."

Macron wrote in an X post that the nation shares "the grief of the State of Israel and the bereaved families," pledging Paris's commitment to "combating antisemitism and terrorism, everywhere and always, working for peace and the security of all."

7 octobre.

3 ans que les attaques terroristes barbares du Hamas ont coûté la vie à plus de 1200 personnes, dont 51 de nos compatriotes.

3 ans que nous partageons la douleur de l’État d’Israël et des familles endeuillées.

3 ans plus tard, nous n'oublions ni les noms,…

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) October 7, 2026

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz wrote on X that the Hamas attack "marks a profound rupture" and that Germany commemorates the victims and shares their pain.

"We must confront antisemitism with even greater resolve," Merz said. "Jewish women and men should be able to live here without fear."

Der Überfall der Hamas auf Israel am 7. Oktober 2023 markiert einen tiefen Einschnitt. Wir gedenken der Opfer, wir teilen ihren Schmerz.

Antisemitismus müssen wir umso entschiedener entgegentreten. Jüdinnen und Juden sollen hier ohne Angst leben können.

— Bundeskanzler Friedrich Merz (@bundeskanzler) October 7, 2026

European Council President António Costa paid tribute to the victims of the "horrific Hamas attacks," pledging to "never forget" the atrocities.

"We pay tribute to the Israeli and foreign citizens massacred that day and stand with their families and loved ones. We also remember the injured and those taken hostage," the former prime minister of Portugal wrote on X.

"We will never forget. Nothing can justify such terror, and it must never happen again. The EU will always defend Israel’s right to exist in peace and security. The two-State solution remains the only viable path to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East."

Today we remember the victims of the horrific Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023 in Israel.

We pay tribute to the Israeli and foreign citizens massacred that day and stand with their families and loved ones. We also remember the injured and those taken hostage.

We will never…

— António Costa (@eucopresident) October 7, 2026

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas marked the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by condemning the Hamas assault as a "barbaric act of terror" and reiterating European support for Israel.

"Today, we stand with Israel in remembering every life taken and destroyed at the hands of the Hamas terrorists," Kallas wrote in an X post. "Our thoughts are with the victims, the survivors, their families and all those who continue to carry the pain of that terrible day."

Kallas, the E.U.’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, also issued a call to counter antisemitism and demanded that Hamas surrender its weapons.

"We must firmly reject any form of antisemitism across Europe. Jewish communities must be able to live openly, safely and without fear," she wrote, adding that "Hamas must disarm so that the Gaza Peace Plan to move forward."

The 7 October attacks were a barbaric act of terror. Today, we stand with Israel in remembering every life taken and destroyed at the hands of the Hamas terrorists.

Our thoughts are with the victims, the survivors, their families and all those who continue to carry the pain of…

— Kaja Kallas (@kajakallas) October 7, 2026

Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten marked the anniversary by condemning the initial assault while claiming that "tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army since the Hamas attack."

Writing on social media, Jetten remembered the nearly 1,200 people killed and more than 250 taken hostage in what he called a "horrific terrorist attack."

"All of them ordinary Israelis, attacked by unimaginable violence at a festival, in their own homes, on the street, or wherever they were," Jetten said.

The Dutch leader pointed to the broader toll of the war, saying the region descended into a "spiral of conflict and misery" while asserting that the Israel Defense Forces killed tens of thousands of "innocent Palestinians." Jerusalem rejects the claim, maintaining that the IDF targets terrorists and works to avoid civilian harm, while placing ultimate responsibility for all noncombatant deaths on Hamas for embedding its operatives in civilian neighborhoods.

"These are horrifying, hopeless figures. Because there is no goal that justifies this violence, and above all, no suffering that is alleviated by it," Jetten wrote. "All grieving families know this, both Israeli and Palestinian. They live in fear and insecurity. I wish them peace. In their land and in their hearts."

Vandaag is het drie jaar geleden dat bijna 1200 onschuldige mensen om het leven kwamen door een afschuwelijke terreurdaad van Hamas. Meer dan 250 anderen werden gegijzeld. Allemaal gewone Israëliërs, die op een festival, in hun eigen huis, op straat of waar dan ook werden…

— Rob Jetten (@MinPres) October 7, 2026

Geert Wilders, founder and leader of the Dutch Party for Freedom, issued a scathing response to Jetten’s statement, writing on X, "You are no friend but a traitor to Israel and the Jewish people with your boycotts, condemnations, ICC support and sanctions."

"And you leave our own borders wide open so that what happened in Israel can happen here tomorrow too," the opposition figure added. "Get lost with your cheap hypocritical nonsense."

Je bent geen vriend maar een verrader van Israël en het Joodse volk met je boycotts, veroordelingen, ICC-steun en sancties. En je laat onze eigen grenzen wagenwijd open zodat wat in Israël gebeurde hier morgen ook kan gebeuren. Ga weg met je goedkope huichelachtige teksten. https://t.co/kKM0a79Jhe

— Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) October 7, 2026

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong singled out Australian Galit Carbone in an X post remembering the victims of "Hamas’ horrific terror attacks on Israel."

"Our thoughts remain with her loved ones and all affected by Hamas’ abhorrent acts," wrote Wong, who also serves as leader of the government in the Senate.

"We continue to work to combat antisemitism and terror in all its forms," she added.

On October 7, we remember those killed by Hamas’ horrific terror attacks on Israel, including Australian Galit Carbone.

Our thoughts remain with her loved ones and all affected by Hamas’ abhorrent acts.

We continue to work to combat antisemitism and terror in all its forms. pic.twitter.com/VHcAghqx1Z

— Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) October 7, 2026

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said he was in Israel to mark the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, paying tribute to the victims, including the 51 French citizens killed in the onslaught.

In a social-media post, Barrot described the assault as "the worst antisemitic massacre since the Shoah" and vowed that France would remember those who died.

"We will never forget them," Barrot wrote. "Nothing will erase either their faces or their names."

Je suis aujourd’hui en Israël pour rendre hommage aux victimes du 7 octobre.

Ce jour-là, le Hamas perpétrait le pire massacre antisémite depuis la Shoah, dans lequel 51 ressortissants français ont perdu la vie.

Nous ne les oublierons jamais. Rien n’effacera ni leurs visages,… pic.twitter.com/H1VEKibsZK

— Jean-Noël Barrot (@jnbarrot) October 7, 2026

French politician Bruno Retailleau also traveled to Israel to pay homage at the site of the Nova music festival, writing on X that the massacre at the site was a "Bataclan in the open air," referring to the Paris venue that was the the site of the November 13, 2015, Islamist terror attack that killed 90 concertgoers.

The former French interior minister and 2027 presidential candidate for The Republicans, wrote, "Thousands of innocent young people were dancing at dawn; 364 of them were massacred by Hamas terrorists, others kidnapped and tortured. Because they were Jewish."

"That morning, more than 1,200 people were coldly murdered, the vast majority civilians, and 251 taken hostage: children, women, the elderly. 51 French nationals died, on October 7 or in captivity, in what was the worst pogrom since the Shoah," Retailleau wrote.

"I came to Israel to honor their memory, to gather with their families, and to share their pain. I came to tell them that despite the resurgence of antisemitism, which shames our history, there is a France that does not forget, a France that does not downplay the atrocities committed that day by Hamas terrorists, a France that seeks no excuses for Islamist barbarity. And that France is the overwhelming majority of the French people. Before their faces and their names, I make this solemn vow: we will not forget you."

Israël, Re’im, sur le site du festival Nova. Il y a trois ans, ici, un Bataclan à ciel ouvert. Des milliers de jeunes innocents dansaient au lever du jour, 364 d’entre eux ont été massacrés par les terroristes du Hamas, d’autres enlevés et torturés. Parce qu’ils étaient juifs.… pic.twitter.com/E5Kcxza59o

— Bruno Retailleau (@BrunoRetailleau) October 7, 2026

French National Rally parliamentary leader Marine Le Pen condemned the assault as a "day of infamy" and criticized those who sought to rationalize the violence.

In a statement posted to social media, Le Pen described the 2023 attack as an act of antisemitic hatred, writing that "men, women, and children were killed solely because they were Jewish."

"No one has forgotten those scenes of unimaginable barbarity that brutally recalled the pogroms we believed belonged to the tragic history of humanity," Le Pen wrote. "No one will forget those who, by supporting the unsupportable, excusing it, or relativizing it, crossed the threshold of inhumanity."

The French conservative leader added that her thoughts are with the "mourning and remembrance of the Israeli people struck to the core" as well as the families of the victims.

Le 7 octobre 2023, le monde se figeait dans l’horreur devant les images insoutenables des massacres perpétrés par le Hamas en Israël.

En ce jour d’infamie, des hommes, des femmes et des enfants ont été tués uniquement parce qu’ils étaient juifs.

Nul n’a oublié ces scènes d’une…

— Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) October 7, 2026

Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa wrote on X that on Oct. 7 "Palestinian terrorists unleashed unspeakable barbarism on Israel," killing men, women and children because of their Israeli nationality.

"We remember the victims. We stand with their families, with the people of Israel and with Jewish communities around the world," he stated.

"We must continue to speak out against every attempt to justify, excuse or relativise the atrocities of that day. As well as against the antisemitism that too often lies behind such attempts," Jansa continued. "Terrorism can never be justified. Antisemitism must never be tolerated. Never again is not merely a promise. It is a duty."

Three years ago today, on 7 October 2023, Palestinian terrorists unleashed unspeakable barbarism on Israel. Around 1200 people were murdered and 251 taken hostage. Men, women and children were killed simply because they were Israelis. We remember the victims. We stand with their… https://t.co/UKOKOOE8IJ

— Janez Janša (@JJansaSDS) October 7, 2026

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama recalled his visit earlier this year to the site of the Nova music festival, writing on X that "for the families whose loved ones were murdered by the butchers of Hamas... that morning has never truly ended".

Invoking Besa—the traditional Albanian code of honor under which Albanians sheltered Jews during the Holocaust—Rama said that history demands friends remain steadfast.

"It demands that memory never surrender to indifference, that grief never be abandoned to loneliness, that antisemitism never again be allowed to hide behind silence, slogans or excuses, and that we remain faithful to our friends even through their darkest hours," Rama wrote. "May the memory of your loved ones be an eternal blessing."

Three years have passed since the horror of October 7. But we must all understand that, for the families whose loved ones were murdered by the butchers of Hamas, for those whose lives were torn apart, and for the survivors carrying wounds no eye can see, that morning has never…

— Edi Rama (@ediramaal) October 7, 2026

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, alongside Israeli and German leaders, on Tuesday marked the 85th anniversary of one of the largest mass shootings of Jews during the Holocaust, at a ravine in Kyiv known as Babi Yar.

The annual commemoration was held as the Russia-Ukraine war continued for the fifth year, with the Ukrainian leader drawing a parallel between the need to remember the crimes of the past and the shared struggle against contemporary threats.

“It is important that, despite the brutal Russian war, on the 85th anniversary of the tragedy, our partners have the opportunity to come to Kyiv and pay tribute to all the innocent victims of this horrific crime,” Zelenskyy said. “And it is our shared duty to unite against evil so that such tragedies never happen again,” he continued.

More than 33,000 Jews were murdered at the site in just two days between September 29–30, 1941.

Later killings at the site included Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, and other civilians.

“Historical truth is not a weapon to be bent to the needs of the present,” Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan said in his remarks. “It is a responsibility entrusted to us.”

Diplomats, rabbis and representatives of Jewish communities also attended the event, held near the Jewish memorial at the site, and lit memorial candles.

On the third anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack—the deadliest against Jews since the Holocaust—Diaspora organizations in North America and Europe say they are working to ensure that the Jewish future is shaped by identity and unity rather than fear.

Communal leaders described to JNS a long-term challenge that extends beyond protecting Jewish institutions: sustaining visible Jewish life, strengthening ties with Israel and empowering the next generation to lead.

"External pressure tests us. Jewish renewal will define us," William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told JNS.

"Young Jews are already organizing, leading and building community," Daroff said. "Our institutions must do more than praise them. We must trust their judgment, give them meaningful responsibility and let them shape what comes next."

Communal organizations are responding through stronger coordination and security preparedness. Confronting antisemitism and protecting communities have become "central, permanent responsibilities of communal leadership," shaping education, public events, budgets and relations with governments, the European Jewish Congress told JNS.

SACC by EJC, the organization's Security and Crisis Center, supports that work through threat assessments, training, crisis management and cooperation between Jewish communities and law enforcement, the EJC said.

Daroff described a parallel effort to strengthen communication among Jewish communities worldwide. As inaugural chair of J50, established in partnership with Israel's foreign minister to bring Diaspora leaders together, he said regular contact helps participants share perspectives, align priorities and coordinate action.

"Advocacy cannot end antisemitism on its own," Daroff said. "It can move governments, strengthen protections, and make it harder for institutions to look away."

"When we coordinate, our voices carry further and our advocacy has greater impact," he added.

But communal leaders cautioned that stronger protection must not come at the expense of Jewish confidence and belonging.

"The normali[z]ation of airport-style security at Jewish schools, kindergartens and synagogues is particularly troubling," the EJC told JNS. "These measures save lives, but they also risk teaching children that being Jewish means constantly needing protection from someone who wants to hurt them."

"Growing up behind guarded entrances can gradually erode their sense of belonging and confidence in a future within their own community," it added.

The EJC said governments have provided vital protection, but official solidarity is not always matched by society's willingness to confront antisemitism.

"Communities cannot be expected to shoulder the burden alone, nor can guarded schools and synagogues become Europe's accepted and only answer to antisemitism," the group said.

"Protecting Jewish buildings must be accompanied by defending Jewish belonging, including against the acceptance and normali[z]ation that Jews should be targeted because of events relating to Israel," it added.

In New York, police data released on Oct. 6 showed that anti-Jewish hate crimes accounted for 245 of the city's 463 confirmed hate crimes during the first nine months of 2026, or approximately 53%. The anti-Jewish total represented a 1.2% increase over the 242 recorded during the corresponding period in 2025.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and director of the Global Social Action Agenda at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told JNS that American Jews were unprepared for the convergence of rising antisemitism before Oct. 7 and the hostility that followed the attacks.

Cooper argued that established Jewish organizations cannot counter the threats alone. He called for protests and sit-ins modeled on the Soviet Jewry movement, alongside legal challenges to discrimination in professional life.

"We need all hands on deck," he said.

He also urged Jews to enlist their neighbors and professional colleagues in confronting antisemitism, while warning against retreat from public life that leaves communities with "no clout in either major political party in the United States."

Daroff told JNS the attacks and their aftermath underscored the reciprocal nature of solidarity between Diaspora Jews and Israel.

"October 7 made clear that solidarity runs both ways," he said. "We stood with Israel through the war and the profound tragedy of October 7. Israelis, too, have watched Jewish communities around the world confront rising antisemitism, Jew-hatred and violence."

"Three thousand five hundred years of Jewish history teach us a hard truth: at the end of the day, we can count only on ourselves," Daroff added. "We are only as strong as we are united."

For Cooper, responding to external threats must also involve strengthening Jewish identity. He urged Jews not to "let the narrative of our enemies dictate how we behave" and emphasized that young people must understand Jewish values and Israel's centrality to the Jewish people.

"That doesn't mean a blank moral check for anything," he said.

The EJC likewise argued that resilience must serve a larger purpose than enduring heightened security.

"Fear has changed Jewish life, but renewed determination has the greater potential to shape its future," it said.

"The goal must be a thriving Jewish life in which young people feel they belong and can build a future," the group said. "Europe's success will be measured by whether Jews can live openly and confidently, without fear or having to justify their identity."

The European Union is ready to deploy an election observation mission for Palestinian legislative, the bloc's foreign policy chief said on Tuesday.

In a post on X, Kaja Kallas said she discussed the issue with Palestinian Vice President Hussein al-Sheikh during a telephone call.

"Palestinians have the right to choose their representatives in elections that are credible, inclusive and transparent," she wrote.

Kallas said the elections would offer a long-overdue opportunity to renew the legitimacy of Palestinian institutions after nearly 20 years without a parliamentary vote.

The EU is ready to deploy an Election Observation Mission for the Palestinian legislative polls planned for November.

This was among the issues I discussed in my call with Palestinian Vice-President @HusseinSheikhpl.

Palestinians have the right to choose their representatives…

— Kaja Kallas (@kajakallas) October 6, 2026

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree in July scheduling legislative elections for Nov. 28 in Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Abbas called a similar election in 2021 but later canceled it.

If held, the vote would be the first since January 2006, when Hamas defeated Abbas’s Fatah party. Following the terrorist group’s victory, a violent factional civil war erupted, culminating in Hamas seizing total control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 and leaving Abbas to govern in Ramallah.

A separate Palestinian presidential election is planned for the first quarter of 2027.

The first cranes of the autumn migration season have arrived at KKL-JNF Hula Lake Park in northern Israel, heralding the return of one of the country’s most spectacular annual natural phenomena.

The first birds arrived overnight Monday into Tuesday, with tens of thousands more expected to descend on the Hula Valley in the coming weeks, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund said in a statement.

The cranes migrate to Israel primarily from northern Russia, as well as from Finland and Estonia. At this time of year, they travel in family groups, accompanied by young birds that hatched in the spring.

They join numerous other migratory species already at the park, including flamingos, spoonbills, shorebirds, ibises and herons.

The Hula Valley is a major stopover along one of the world’s most important bird migration routes between Europe, Asia and Africa. The lake and surrounding wetlands provide abundant food and a resting place where migrating birds can replenish their energy before continuing their journeys.

The arrival of the first cranes marks only the beginning of the migration, which will continue over the coming weeks.

“KKL-JNF Hula Lake Park is far more than a unique nature site—it is an anchor and a significant tourism and economic asset for the residents of northern Israel and the Galilee,” said KKL-JNF Chairman Eyal Ostrinsky. “The cranes’ annual return reminds us of the importance of protecting nature, while also underscoring our responsibility to keep strengthening the Galilee, local tourism and the communities that live and work here."

Inbar Shlomit Rubin, field manager at KKL-JNF Hula Lake Park, said she had spent several nights watching the park’s cameras in anticipation of the birds’ arrival.

“Every night over the past few nights, I’ve been glued to the field cameras at the park, waiting to see whether they had arrived yet,” Rubin said. “What an exciting moment!”

She added, “The cranes were a little late this year—and tonight, they’re finally here. At first light, we were waiting in the hide cart to see them and share this beautiful sight with everyone.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog and first lady Michal Herzog opened Wednesday’s commemorations marking three years since the Oct. 7 massacre by lighting a memorial candle at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem at 6:29 a.m., the time the Hamas-led attack began.

At the Knesset, relatives of victims and hostages recited “Yizkor,” a Jewish memorial prayer for the deceased. In southern Israel, survivors and bereaved families gathered at the former site of the Nova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im, where 378 people were killed and 44 abducted to Gaza.

Official state commemorations for Oct. 7 were held Monday, according to the Hebrew calendar date established by the government, separate from the national events being held on the Gregorian anniversary Wednesday.

Some 6,000 terrorists from Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Fatah, along with unaffiliated Gazan “civilians,” crossed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, murdering some 1,200 people, wounding thousands and kidnapping 251.

Israel launched its ground offensive in Gaza on Oct. 27 with the stated goals of destroying Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, returning the hostages and ensuring Gaza could no longer threaten Israel.

The conflict subsequently expanded across the region, with Israel fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon, terrorist groups in Judea and Samaria, conducting operations in Syria, confronting Houthi attacks from Yemen, striking targets in Iran and responding to attacks from Iran-backed militias in Iraq.

היום, בוקר שבעה באוקטובר, בשעה 06:29 הדלקנו נר זיכרון בבית הנשיא.

שלוש שנים מאז הבוקר הנורא ההוא. שלוש שנים של כאב, של אובדן, ושל זיכרון שלא יימחה.

אנחנו מרכינים ראש לזכר הנרצחות והנרצחים, הנופלות והנופלים.

יהי זכרם ברוך. pic.twitter.com/WFcLABzV0r

— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) October 7, 2026

Israel Police Commissioner Daniel Levi and the force’s senior command saluted and observed a minute of silence at 6:29 a.m. on Wednesday at sites where officers fell on Oct. 7, 2023, the Israel Police said.

The ceremonies coincided with the start of the Hamas-led terror attack exactly three years ago, according to the Gregorian calendar.

The main ceremony took place at the site of the former police station in Sderot, where terrorists seized the building, killed 11 officers and fought Israeli security forces for hours until the station was demolished.

Memorial ceremonies were also held at other sites where police and Border Police officers were killed defending civilians.

A commemorative convoy was set to leave for Re’im later on Wednesday morning as part of the senior command’s visit to southern Israel. Hamas terrorists slaughtered 364 people at the Nova music festival there on Oct. 7.

“The Israel Police bows its head in memory of its fallen, and continues to carry their memory and legacy. We stand with and support the bereaved families and the police officers who were wounded in the battles defending the State of Israel and its citizens,” the statement concluded.

גבורת השוטרים בשבעה באוקטובר – המפכ"ל וסגל הפיקוד הבכיר של המשטרה, הצדיעו ועמדו דקת דומיה בזירות הלחימה בהן נפלו שוטרים ולוחמים בקרבות הבלימה

הבוקר, בשעה 06:29 בדיוק, השעה שבה החלה מתקפת הטרור הרצחנית לפני שלוש שנים, מפכ"ל המשטרה רנ"צ דני לוי, ספ"כ המשטרה ועשרות שוטרים הצדיעו… pic.twitter.com/kbzadOZFCB

— משטרת ישראל (@IL_police) October 7, 2026

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Tuesday night marked the third anniversary of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack by calling it the “beginning of the end for Zionism” and claiming the terrorist assault "shattered" the image of the Israeli military’s "invincibility."

The IRGC statement claimed that regional strategic conditions had shifted in favor of Tehran and its allies and warned that any new military action against the Islamic Republic would draw a “painful and devastating response.”

Israel’s National Security Council warned that terror organizations, including Iran and its proxies, Hamas and global jihadist groups, view the anniversary as a significant milestone. It said demonstrations and public disturbances are also expected to increase worldwide.

The council advised Israelis not to post travel plans on social media in advance and to avoid destinations under Israel’s highest, Level 4 travel warning: Jordan, Qatar, Somaliland and Egypt, including the Sinai Peninsula.

In destinations under Level 3 warnings, including South Africa, Thailand and Morocco, Israelis were advised to minimize speaking Hebrew in crowded areas, stay away from demonstrations and avoid large gatherings.

Troy Jackson, Maine’s Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, said he opposed “giving a blank check” to Israel at a debate on Tuesday, while also linking American military assistance to the killings of Palestinians.

“I didn’t want any more offensive weapons going to murder people in Palestine,” Jackson explained, in a rebuttal to his opponent, Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins.

The two candidates were participating in their first general election debate, aired on CBS13 and moderated by news anchor Gregg Lagerquist, without a live audience. Jackson, who holds a narrow lead over Collins, has rattled many members of the Jewish community in recent weeks, as he has intensified anti-Israel rhetoric and made controversial comments to Maine Jews.

A former state lawmaker and union advocate, Jackson secured the Democratic nomination at the end of July in a landslide victory. He won the nomination after the former Democratic nominee, staunch Israel critic Graham Platner, left the race amid a sexual assault allegation, which Platner denies. 

Jackson had previously said little publicly about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but during the contest to replace Platner, he accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza and called for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel.

Collins, a five-term senator, has been a staunch supporter of Israel over the past three decades.

Asked by Lagerquist during a lightning round whether the U.S. should increase, decrease or keep military funding for Israel the same, Collins responded that “the current level is good,” adding that she is “a strong supporter.”

Jackson, meanwhile, argued that “it’s kind of unfair to ask that like this,” while also noting that he has the endorsement of J Street, the liberal pro-Israel organization. 

After Jackson then declared that the U.S. should not be “giving a blank check” to Israel, Collins accused him of making comments that were “very different” from his past remarks. Jackson denied this claim, while arguing against the supply of more offensive weapons to “murder people.” Calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “a war criminal,” he noted that “Senator Collins likes him.” 

Jackson’s remarks came just a week after he apologized to members of the Jewish community for controversial comments he had made in a News Center Maine television interview. 

During the interview, he had described the war in Gaza as “a genocide,” adding that “there are people here in Maine that don’t like to use that term only because, you know, they’re Jewish and, you know, what that means to them with the Holocaust.” 

Although he did not retract his views on the conflict, he acknowledged that the word genocide “carries particular weight for many Jewish families given the Holocaust – the genocide of six million Jews.”

“In trying to acknowledge that, I misspoke and made a generalization about Jewish Mainers’ views that doesn’t reflect what I meant to say. I apologize for the pain that caused,” he added.

Just before the Democratic nominating convention this past summer, Jackson vowed that he would “never vote in favor of U.S. taxpayer-funded military aid to Israel.”

The Pine Tree State Poll, released by the University of New Hampshire two weeks ago, found that the two candidates were in a statistical tie, with 51% of voters polled favoring Jackson and 47% opting for Collins.

--

The post Maine Senate candidates spar over military aid to Israel appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire on Tuesday inaugurated a memorial pathway named for Ariel and Kfir Bibas, two children who, along with their mother, Shiri, were murdered by Hamas terrorists after being abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, 2023.

The mother and her two boys, aged 4 and nine months at the time of their abduction, were “cowardly murdered by terrorists in what is the deadliest pogrom in recent history,” Grégoire said at the ceremony, alongside Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), and others, Le Parisien reported.

The plaque marking the Ariel and Kfir Bibas Pathway also mentions Shiri and describes the three as “victims of Islamist terrorism and antisemitic hatred.”

The Paris City Council observed a minute of silence on Tuesday at a separate ceremony ahead of the third anniversary of the Hamas massacre.

“The violated innocence of Ariel and Kfir Bibas has become a symbol of the antisemitic hatred of the mass attacks perpetrated on Oct. 7, 2023,” read a resolution unanimously adopted by the council.

The pathway named for Ariel and Kfir is in Parc Monceau, which the city describes on its website as “one of the most beautiful gardens in Paris” and a “particularly peaceful” corner of the city.

Yarden Bibas, Shiri’s husband and the father of the two boys, attended the inauguration and recalled the last time he saw his family alive.

“I asked you: Do we fight or do we surrender? You said we fight, so we fought. I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you. If I’d have known what would happen, I never would’ve fired,” he said, referring to his decision to open fire with his sidearm on terrorists who invaded the family’s home.

Yarden Bibas was wounded, captured and taken to Gaza, where he was held hostage until his release.

“We won’t forget and we won’t forgive,” Jimmy Miller, Shiri Bibas’s cousin, told JNS. “The fire may have died out long ago, but the light of Ariel and Kfir will continue to burn forever.”

For Miller and his family, as well as the country as a whole, Oct. 7 is a day of mourning.

“Anyone who does not feel this way is disconnected from reality. What happened in Israel on Oct. 7 was the worst tragedy to befall the Jewish people since the Holocaust, and that day must never be forgotten,” he said.

“The grief for my family is immense. The wounds will remain open. I don’t believe that I or my family will ever be able to live like we used to, because of what happened in general on Oct. 7, but also because of what happened to our family—to Shiri, the children and Shiri’s parents, Uncle Yossi and Aunt Margalit, who were both murdered."

The pathway in Paris was a particularly significant gesture, Miller said, because such names endure for generations.

“It’s a gesture of remembrance, so that they won’t forget Ariel or Kfir or Shiri and what happened to them,” Miller told JNS. “They will remain in the minds of the people of this generation, and I hope also in the next generations.”

In a first-of-its-kind conference, more than 80 farmers and farm owners from across Judea and Samaria met online on Monday evening with representatives of government ministries and security authorities to discuss strategy ahead of the olive harvest season—a period anti-Israel activists exploit to incite against the region's residents and the State of Israel as a whole.

The olive harvest season officially starts the first week of October and runs through November. The goal of the conference was to prepare in advance for the activities of anarchists and left-wing organizations.

“These groups recruit foreign elements every year to come to the area, provoke farmers, take over harvest areas, and produce material for false incitement campaigns,” JNS Hebrew editor Ariel Kahana reported.

Farmers received updates and guidelines to defend themselves against the expected provocations. The conference also strengthened coordination with the army and the relevant government bodies.

"In recent years, the olive harvest has turned into a festival for anarchist organizations, who exploit it to harm farmers, the settlement enterprise, and the image of the State of Israel,” Israel Ganz, head of the Benjamin Regional Council and chairman of the Yesha Council, said.

Cooperation among the farmers, the regional council and the government will ensure that the farmers can work safely, "and that the truth about what is happening in the field will be heard in the country and the world." Gantz said.

IDF Brig. Gen. Kobi Heller, commander of the Judea and Samaria Division, gave a security briefing dealing with the end of the Jewish holiday season and the start of the olive harvest.

Avi Cohen-Scali, director-general of the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, provided an overview of the ministry's activities regarding the entry of anarchists into Israel.

"The olive harvest campaign is not humanitarian aid to Palestinians, but a campaign of hatred and violence against the residents of Judea and Samaria,” Cohen-Scali said.

“We will not allow this reality to repeat itself and will do everything required in collaboration with all forces and bodies to prevent the entry of potential anarchists and deport those who come to make trouble. The party is over."

Judea and Samaria District Police Chief Moshe Pinchi, said that his command is working to expel and prevent the arrival of foreign citizens who come under the guise of tourism or human rights, but work to delegitimize the State of Israel.

"The Judea and Samaria District of the Israel Police will continue to act to enforce law and order and prevent harm to the State of Israel and the settlements. We will continue to act hand in hand with local authority heads and farms and in collaboration with the Population Authority and the Foreign Ministry,” he said.

Also participating in the conference were representatives from the Farms Association, which represents agriculturalists in Judea and Samaria, the Foreign Ministry and the Public Diplomacy Ministry.

Brett McGurk, who led efforts to release Israeli hostages held by Hamas while a senior official in the Biden administration, caused a stir in Israel when he said during an interview on Sunday that “the idea that Hamas just was ready to release all the hostages is complete bull**t."

He made the remark during an hour-long interview with Dan Senor, host of the “Call me Back Podcast,” on the eve of the release of his new book about the hostage negotiations: “Brink: Inside the Race to Free the October 7th Hostages.”

McGurk refuted recent reports, including from Hebrew daily Haaretz, that Hamas had signaled within a day of the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre that it was prepared to release all civilian hostages.

“Hamas was sending signals: ‘We're ready to have a discussion,’ but their core demand from the beginning was, ‘Yeah, you can have the hostages in exchange for all Palestinian prisoners, and we stay in power ... permanent ceasefire, Oct. 6 status quo. ... We will reconstitute on Israel's borders.’ And no Israeli government was ever going to accept that. But that was their core demand throughout,” said McGurk.

His comments were welcomed by Israelis who had demanded that Israel not end the war prematurely in return for the hostages.

Tzvika Mor, whose son Eitan was kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and who founded the Tikva Forum, a group of families of hostages abducted on Oct. 7, advocated for increased military pressure on Hamas and opposed any hostage deals until the terror group was defeated.

“The truth always wins in the end,” Mor posted to X on Sunday in response to the McGurk interview. “They called us death-eaters, said we didn't care about Eitan. ... But we didn't break. Despite the pain and the worry, we insisted that the State of Israel must not yield to Hamas, and throughout the entire two years, we repeated one sentence: ‘Only pressure on Hamas will bring back the hostages.’

“A year ago, all the hostages returned. Today, it was revealed from the mouth of Brett McGurk—a senior official in the Biden administration—that we were right all along: Deals don't come out of thin air, but from pressure on Hamas.”

Mor’s son was freed in the final hostage deal on Oct. 13, 2025, after 738 days in captivity.

Israeli Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Minister Amichai Chikli posted to X on Monday: “Brett McGurk, a senior figure in the Biden administration, shatters the mask of lies: A comprehensive deal was never on the table. The fantasy that such a deal was within reach, and only the government is preventing its realization, served the media and the opposition as a tool to attack the government during wartime.”

McGurk described how Hamas tried to change the conditions of the first deal in November 2023, designed to release the female hostages. The terror group claimed that it couldn’t locate all the women and wanted to switch to releasing older men. “The point is we had a deal for all women and children, unequivocal,” McGurk said. “And the decision from the Israeli side was unanimous: ‘No, we cannot. If we skip over the women, it's basically we're signing their death sentence.’”

Hamas saw the female hostages as the most valuable, McGurk said. “Israel had a key demand in every offer: Women come out first,” but Hamas would try to moderate that demand, he said. “Hamas believed, particularly [Hamas leader] Yahya Sinwar, that this war would end with Hamas holding a number of hostages ... for years.”

McGurk revealed that he also felt pressure on Hamas was the key. “I always thought, look, the only way to end this is a deal, and we've got to put the screws to Sinwar,” he said.

He also said every Israeli leader agreed that Hamas could not stay in power. “That wasn't just [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu. That was everybody. ... However this ends, Hamas cannot be in power in Gaza, and the Israelis were unanimous.”

Police in Paris banned an anti-Israel protest rally scheduled for Oct. 7 amid fears that it would become a celebration of the third anniversary of the 2023 Hamas massacre in Israel, the top police officer of the French capital’s region said on Tuesday.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez instructed police to ban the rally, which organizers were preparing under the banner: “Against the genocide in Gaza and for respect of the ceasefire" on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, the office of Patrice Faure, the prefect of police of the Paris region, wrote in a statement.

“This date marks the third anniversary of the Hamas terrorist attack against Israel and will give rise to numerous commemorations. In a context of heightened terrorist threat and while antisemitic acts remain at a historically high level in our country, such a demonstration on that day poses significant risks of disturbances to public order. In light of this, in particular, and in view of all the risks identified, my responsibility is to ensure the safety of all. I have therefore decided to prohibit this demonstration,” Fauret’s office quoted him as saying.

Separately, a French lawmaker in the European Parliament accused a fellow lawmaker from France, the anti-Israeli activist Rima Hassan of the far-left LFI party, of desecrating the Israeli flag in front of a memorial commemoration for the victims of the massacre.

“Tonight, on the occasion of a commemoration of Oct. 7, in front of the photos of the victims of the massacre, Rima Hassan threw the European flag and the Israeli flag to the ground. The message is perfectly clear. The condemnation must be as well,” François-Xavier Bellamy of the Republicans party said during a speech in the European Parliament on Tuesday. Hassan did this at the seat of the European Parliament in Brussels, he said, calling this “complicity with those who seek, including in Europe, to import antisemitic hatred once more into Europe.”

Israel's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism said on Monday that anti-Israel activists were expected to hold events worldwide around the anniversary.

During the first two weeks of October, the ministry identified 262 events in 37 countries. About one-third of the events posed a medium or high level of risk, according to the ministry’s National Situation Room.

The Likud Party signed a vote-sharing agreement on Tuesday with the Religious Zionism-Zehut joint list ahead of the Oct. 27 elections to prevent vote wastage.

“Vote-sharing” between two separate party lists helps reduce the number of votes that go unused.

After parties pass the 3.25% electoral threshold, seats are allocated according to each party’s vote total. Because 120 seats cannot usually be divided perfectly between the parties, there remain leftover seats. Parties can pool their votes together to increase their chances of gaining additional seats.

A mathematical equation determines how the excess seats are divvied up.

The system doesn’t completely eliminate vote wastage. Parties must pass the electoral threshold to compete. The votes of those parties that don’t are excluded from the count. They are effectively lost.

For that reason, Netanyahu has been urging smaller right-wing parties to unite. He warned on Aug. 24 that the right risked repeating its 1992 mistake, when fragmentation led to multiple parties failing to cross the threshold, resulting in a left-wing government rising to power.

Heeding Netanyahu's call, Religious-Zionism, headed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and Zehut, led by Moshe Feiglin, signed an agreement on Sept. 1 to run as a joint list.

“At this critical moment, responsibility is required of us: to unite forces, to expand the camp, and not to allow any vote on the right to go to waste,” Smotrich said.

New parties are a recurring feature of Israeli elections, Liron Lavi, a member of the Department of Political Studies at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, told JNS in August. In the last, Nov. 1, 2022, election, 39 parties ran, of which 10 passed the electoral threshold. Thirty-eight lists are competing in this election, though some are running as part of alliances or on joint ballot lists.

In the upcoming election, Lavi said, the right is more at risk from failing splinter parties than the left, which has partly learned from past mistakes. Among the right are disaffected voters, mainly “moderate” or “liberal right-wing,” who struggle to find a home among the current constellation of parties, she said.

Former hostage Omri Miran and his wife, Lishay Miran-Lavi, shared their story of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre and his 738 days in captivity at a special gathering at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem on Monday.

The event marked the launch of hundreds of “Salon Otef” gatherings being held across Israel this week, at which former hostages, survivors, bereaved families and members of the security and rescue forces will share firsthand accounts of Oct. 7 and its aftermath.

Miran and his wife recounted the morning of the Hamas attack, his captivity in Gaza and her nearly two-year campaign for his release. They also discussed their lives since his return and the challenges facing former hostages and their families.

“To understand what happened to us on Oct. 7 and what the hostages and their families have been through since then, we need to hear the stories firsthand, from those who lived through them,” Miran said.

“The hundreds of ‘Salon Otef’ gatherings taking place across the country allow these stories to pass from person to person and from home to home,” he continued. “I see passing these stories on to the public as a whole and to the younger generation as an immensely important national mission—a life mission.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog opened the gathering, saying that preserving the stories of those affected by the Hamas attack was an important part of Israel’s recovery.

“This gathering is deeply meaningful for all of us as a society. We must continue to listen, remember and ensure that the stories of those who paid the heaviest price are heard,” Herzog said.

“Recovering from the trauma of Oct. 7 is a long process for Israeli society, just as recovery and rehabilitation are for any individual,” he continued. “Seeing all of you here today, and seeing you here with us, Omri, is an important part of our recovery as a nation.”

Michal Herzog said that three years after the massacre, “the pain does not ease with time, and we carry it with us every day.”

“Gatherings like ‘Salon Otef,’ which bring people together to share their stories and experiences, are incredibly important for Israeli society,” she said. “We must continue speaking about Oct. 7 and keep its memory alive.”

‘Hear their testimonies’

The “Salon Otef” initiative is led by 255, the Hostages and Families Organization, in partnership with Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

Hundreds of gatherings are scheduled in homes, communities and public spaces across Israel, allowing participants to hear firsthand testimony, ask questions and discuss the experiences of those directly affected by the massacre and war.

Eyal Ostrinsky, world chairman of KKL-JNF, said the initiative was intended not only to preserve the memory of Oct. 7 but also to highlight the continuing process of recovery.

“Three years after Oct. 7, our responsibility is not only to remember what happened that day, but also to listen to the people who carry with them what they experienced on that terrible day and what they have been going through ever since,” Ostrinsky said.

“The direct encounters created through ‘Salon Otef’ allow us to hear their testimonies and understand the ongoing challenges of recovery and rebuilding,” he added.

Mor Peretz, CEO of 255, said the story of the massacre should be told primarily by those who experienced it.

“The more these testimonies are heard and resonate in more homes and among more people, the better we can preserve the story as it was experienced by those who were there,” Peretz said.

“‘Salon Otef’ allows them to be the ones who tell and write that story. As a society, we need to be there to listen, remember and pass it on.”

The initiative is being held in cooperation with Atid LaOtef, ZAKA, Kumu, the Nova Tribe Community, the Kibbutz Movement and other organizations.

King Ogiame Atuwatse III of Nigeria’s Warri Kingdom visited the Binyamin region on Tuesday, touring biblical and historical sites as part of local efforts to build international partnerships across Africa.

The monarch, the 21st Olu of Warri in Delta State, arrived in Israel with an international Christian delegation. Warri lies in the Niger Delta, a hub for oil and gas production. The monarch has extensive experience in the energy sector and leads companies in infrastructure and maritime services.

Yisrael Ganz, head of the Binyamin Regional Council and chairman of the Yesha Council, hosted the king and his delegation at Psagot Winery, where guests learned about the region’s viticulture and historical heritage. The delegation later traveled to Ancient Shiloh, where Eliana Passentin, head of the council’s international desk, outlined the site’s biblical history as the longtime home of the Tabernacle and discussed archaeological discoveries there.

"I was pleased to host His Majesty Ogiame Atuwatse III, King of the Warri Kingdom, a leader of stature and international influence, and to introduce him to the developing Binyamin region," said Ganz.

"The Land of the Bible draws leaders from around the world. Those who come here, meet our residents, and visit Ancient Shiloh see firsthand the depth of the Jewish people’s connection to their land. We are building partnerships and opening Binyamin to the world. We will continue expanding our circle of friends and translating these relationships into partnership and support for Israel and for the communities of Judea and Samaria."

Pro-Palestinian protests and solidarity events are expected to increase worldwide around the third anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre, according to a report released Monday by Israel's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism.

The ministry’s National Situation Room identified 262 events in 37 countries scheduled between Oct. 1 and Oct. 14, with the largest concentration expected during the weekend following Oct. 7. The ministry classified 87 of the events—about one-third—as posing a medium or high level of risk.

The United States has the most identified events, with 45, followed by Spain with 40, Australia with 21, the United Kingdom with 19 and Italy with 16. Germany and Canada each have 14 events, while France has 10 and the Netherlands eight.

The report said the concentration of demonstrations over the weekend is expected, in part, to maximize participation as well as public and media exposure.

The ministry classified New York, Los Angeles, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Melbourne, Sydney, London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Athens, Milan, Rome, Barcelona, Paris, Istanbul, Bangkok, Bogotá and Santiago as the highest-risk locations.

According to the report, 45 of the scheduled events are expected to take place near an Israeli embassy, consulate or other property identified with Israel.

Hamas-led terrorists attacked communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 250 Israelis and foreigners hostage in Gaza.

Wendy Raymond, president of Haverford College, said that she is "heartbroken and furious" that a member of the private, Pennsylvania liberal arts college community could be so hateful, after Guangtian Ha, a religion professor, was arrested and charged with online harassment and intimidation.

"I am deeply distressed by these allegations and want to state in the plainest of terms that any form of harassment or discrimination based on identity is unacceptable, antithetical to our values and has no place at Haverford," Raymond stated on Tuesday.

The professor, "who was on sabbatical leave and not teaching this academic year, has been placed on administrative leave and barred from campus while the criminal process moves forward," Raymond stated. "A representative of the college has been in contact with the individuals targeted by these heinous online attacks, which were antisemitic in nature."

"I am heartbroken and furious at the possibility that an individual within our community would seek to inflict such pain on another," she added. "This disturbing news is made even more harmful for many given its proximity to both the Jewish High Holidays and the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks."

Lori Lowenthal Marcus, legal director of the Deborah Project, told JNS that "the charging by the FBI of Haverford College associate professor Guangtian Ha for harassment and intimidation of a Jewish Israeli professor closes the dotted line between verbal acts of harassment and actionable violence which, when Jews are the recipients, is far too often ignored or falsely clothed as 'academic freedom' by academic and other institutions."

Ha "threatened 'Zionists' on his social media for several years, as the Deborah Project explained in our civil rights complaint," she told JNS. "Those threats and its speaker were coddled and condoned, and so it escalated. This morning’s action by the FBI was taken because moral clarity had been erased and replaced with immoral depravity."

According to the indictment in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Ha allegedly used at least four anonymous social media accounts to send about 50 harassing messages to an unnamed victim from Oct. 9, 2025, until May 20, 2026. The professor is also accused of having "frequently utilized virtual private networks to obfuscate his internet protocol address and make tracing the source of the messages more difficult."

Among the messages he is accused of sending are "Jew, get the f*** out of my country," "Jew pig, get the f*** out of Lower Merion" and "If Jews are so special, then they should also be placed in special camps and receive special treatments." The professor also allegedly wrote to the victim and included a picture of the victim's home mailbox and wrote, of Jews, "you scum have had it too easy. Goyim are taking American back, blood-guzzling demons." On four other occasions, he also allegedly posted the victim's address.

After the victim took security measures, including blurring his address on Google Maps, Ha allegedly wrote, "The Goyim have woken up, Jew. Run. Flee. Leave. Blurring your home on Google Map and installing a security camera next to your mailbox won't help."

The professor is also accused of responding to a post of the victim's about the assassination of Iranian terror leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and writing, "Get the f*** out of my country, Jew. Go back to your Jew land. Don't force us to kick you out. Lower Merion will be cleansed of the Jew filth."

The indictment also alleges that Ha posted about the victim's son, a minor, by name and wrote that "the Jewish state will stop existing, whether you like it or not." He also is accused of writing that "we know Jews are blood-sucking demons" and that "soon we are going to make sure you have no place to hide, fat rat." He also allegedly used a shorthand for "heil Hitler" and wrote "give it another 10 years, and you shall see a true Holocaust."

LifeAct will host its fourth annual Move for Mental Health 5K Run and 1 Mile Walk on Oct. 11 at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo at 3900 Wildlife Way in Cleveland.

LifeAct’s programs educate middle and high school students about recognizing warning signs of anxiety, depression and suicide in themselves and their peers and how to seek help. The programs provided at no cost to participating schools, served more than 35,000 students last year. Proceeds from the event will support LifeAct’s efforts to provide its programming to more schools and students across Northeast Ohio.

The 5k timed walk starts at 8:30 a.m., and is $35 for adults or $25 for ages 17 and under. The 1 mile walk starts at 8:45, and is $35. Nonrunners, dubbed “cheerleaders,” are $12. Prices for attendance will increase day-of-run.

To register, visit lifeact.org/events.

When parents hear their child has scoliosis, one of their first questions is, “What does this mean?”

Fortunately, most children with scoliosis can continue to participate fully in sports and other activities, and the vast majority will never need surgery. Early diagnosis, however, can make a significant difference in treatment options available.

Scoliosis is an abnormal sideways curvature of the spine. Rather than appearing straight when viewed from behind, the spine curves into a “C” or “S” shape. The vertebrae also ro-tate, which can cause the ribs or muscles of the lower back on one side to appear more prominent than the other. One shoulder or hip may also appear higher than the other.

The most common form is adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, which typically develops around the growth spurt at or just before puberty. “Idiopathic” means that we do not know exactly why it occurs. Scoliosis is not caused by poor posture, carrying a heavy backpack or any-thing a child or parent did wrong.

Scoliosis is sometimes first noticed during a well-child visit or sports physical. Other times, a parent notices uneven shoulders, an asymmetric waist crease, one hip appearing higher, or one side of the rib cage becoming more prominent when the child bends forward. Parents may be especially likely to notice these changes during the summer, when children are wearing tank tops and bathing suits.

If scoliosis is suspected, an orthopedic evaluation and standing X-rays of the spine can confirm the diagnosis. The curve is measured in degrees using the Cobb angle. A curve measuring 10 degrees or more is considered scoliosis; curves measuring less than 10 degrees are considered spinal asymmetry.

The key issue is growth. Scoliosis is more likely to progress when a child has significant growth remaining. A small curve in a child who is nearly finished growing may require little more than observation until skeletal maturity. The same curve in a younger child who is still growing may require closer monitoring.

Detecting a progressive curve early may also allow us to use treatments designed to prevent it from worsening. Waiting until a curve becomes severe can limit those options.

Treatment depends on the size of the curve, the child’s age and skeletal maturity, and whether the curve is increasing over time.

Many small curves require only observation, with periodic examinations and X-rays during growth. For growing children with moderate curves – often beginning around 20 to 25 de-grees – a brace may be recommended. A brace is not intended to permanently straighten the spine, but when worn as prescribed, it can significantly reduce the risk that the curve will progress to the point that surgery is needed.

Physical therapy and scoliosis-specific exercises may also play a role for some patients, par-ticularly as part of an overall treatment plan. Families interested in this approach can look for a physical therapist trained in the Schroth method. Vitamin D deficiency is also common in adolescents, and maintaining adequate vitamin D is important for bone health, although vitamin D supplementation has not been established as a stand-alone treatment for scolio-sis.

For curves measuring approximately 50 degrees or more, or for curves that continue to pro-gress despite nonsurgical treatment, surgery may be recommended. The most common operation is posterior spinal fusion with instrumentation, which corrects much of the de-formity and prevents further progression. Newer surgical techniques may be appropriate for selected patients as well.

Most importantly, a diagnosis of scoliosis does not mean a child needs to stop being a kid. In most cases, we encourage children with scoliosis to remain active, play sports and par-ticipate fully in the activities they enjoy.

If you notice asymmetry in your child’s shoulders, back, waist or ribs – especially during a preadolescent growth spurt – mention it to your pediatrician or orthopedic provider. Find-ing scoliosis early gives a child the greatest opportunity for bracing, if needed, and reduces the risk that the curve will progress to the point where surgery is indicated.

Dr. Sheryl Handler-Matasar is a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Akron Children’s. She sees patients in Beachwood and Boardman, Ohio.

Eliya Cohen had a blunt message for his former Hamas captors and terrorists worldwide: “I won.”

That’s what Cohen, who spent 505 days in captivity in Gaza, told about 400 people at an event hosted by the Israeli mission to the United Nations on Tuesday marking the third anniversary of Oct. 7.

Television host and psychologist “Dr. Phil” McGraw moderated a discussion with Cohen and Ziv Abud, both of whom survived the Nova festival on Oct. 7.

Abud told attendees that she and others at the festival fled by car after rockets began to fill the sky and the music stopped. They crowded into a roadside shelter, which came to hold 29 people. Terrorists threw grenades inside, fired into the shelter and eventually entered, she said.

She lost consciousness after being shot in the leg and later awoke among a pile of dead bodies. She didn’t know what happened to Cohen, Abud said.

“I fought for them for 505 days without knowing anything,” Abud said, of those she lost. “It will stay with me for the rest of my life.”

She and Cohen, who recently married, now look to the future. “We are here, and we survive,” she told attendees. “We need to live a normal life.”

Dr. Phil asked Cohen what his defining emotion was after 505 days in captivity. Cohen said that he didn’t have to let anger or bitterness define him and rejected the idea that he is fundamentally different from other Israelis due to his experiences.

“I don’t count myself as special or something,” he said.

He noted that Israelis across the country continue to live with the fear of terrorism.

Dr. Phil told attendees that the psychological effects of Oct. 7 cannot simply be separated from the present.

“This isn’t Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,” he said. “This is something that is ongoing.”

Dr. Phil described Abud’s experience lying beneath bodies for hours as almost impossible to grasp from the comfort of an air-conditioned room at the United Nations. Physical and psychological trauma continue long after an immediate event, he said.

In his remarks, Dr. Phil, who grew up in Texas and Oklahoma, also spoke about his journey toward understanding Israel and Jews.

As a kid, he had never met a Jew, and didn’t learn about Israel. As an adult, he has traveled to Israel, where he met with hostage families and released hostages, Holocaust survivors and rabbis and sought to understand the country and its people firsthand.

He told JNS that his faith has played a central role in that journey.

“Faith, for me, is a foundation,” Dr. Phil told JNS. “I think it’s the foundation for your family, and I think it’s a foundation and a moral compass of how you live your life.”

That’s especially true in trying times, he said.

Faith is “the one thing that never varies,” and a person can “lean on” it every day, he told JNS.

During his address, Dr. Phil said that Oct. 7 has become a psychological dividing line for Israelis and Jews, and time is now understood as “before Oct. 7 and after Oct. 7.”

“Oct. 7 will never be just another date,” he said.

He has seen Israeli resilience after the attack. “The one thing that struck me is their extraordinary ability to carry the memory of this immense loss, suffering and pain but at the same time live beautiful lives,” he told attendees.

Danny Danon, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, also addressed attendees.

“Oct. 7, Hamas tried to break us. They did not,” the envoy said. “They changed us. They wounded us. They left a scar that will never fully heal, but they did not break us.”

Danon cited Cohen and Abud as examples of that resilience. The two survived separate horrors that morning and eventually reunited and married, he said.

Abud described losing friends and the difficulty of returning to ordinary life after surviving the Nova massacre. She also said that she carries “survivor’s guilt” since Oct. 7, wondering why she came home and so many others did not.

Dr. Phil asked Cohen what he had to say to Jews and Israelis, who supported him during his time in captivity.

“Stay proud to be Jewish,” he said. “Stay proud to be Israeli.”

Mike Waltz, U.S. ambassador to the global body, praised Cohen’s resistance to Hamas propaganda in captivity and said that the terror group tried to force him to record a video and say that he was being treated well before his release.

“He refused. He held firm,” Waltz said. “He said, ‘No.’”

Waltz also recalled how Hamas tried to use Cohen’s release as a propaganda spectacle, but again, Cohen refused to comply.

“You are a proud, strong Jew. You’re undefeated,” Waltz told Cohen.

The U.S. envoy also praised Abud for surviving the Nova massacre and for enduring more than a year without knowing if Cohen was alive. He said that Abud’s nephew, Amit, was killed at the festival after repeatedly throwing grenades back at Hamas terrorists.

Hamas’s and Iran’s efforts to isolate Israel won’t work, and the Abraham Accords are growing, Waltz said.

“Oct. 7 completely, and I think irreversibly, has backfired on Iran and all of their terrorist proxies,” he told attendees. “Peace is possible. America will stand with the Jewish people.”

“The terrorists are on their back foot,” he added.

Twelve Jewish educators have filed human rights complaints against four Ontario school boards and two teachers’ unions, alleging workplace antisemitism and retaliation for reporting the discrimination.

The educators filed separate applications with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario on Oct. 1 and plan to request a joint hearing. The applications name the Toronto District School Board, York Region District School Board, Simcoe County District School Board and Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, as well as the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario and Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation.

Each applicant is seeking CA$150,000 in general damages, along with compensation for psychological counseling. They are also asking the tribunal to order the boards and unions to develop enforceable policies addressing antisemitism with input from the Jewish community and to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism. Ontario’s government adopted and recognized the IHRA definition in 2020.

The complaints describe incidents including swastikas drawn in schools and allege that educators who reported antisemitism were ignored, disciplined or otherwise penalized.

Michelle Outmezguine, an educator and ETFO member, said she was “consistently targeted with harassment by colleagues and fellow union members.”

In one case, a teacher alleges that the Toronto District School Board failed to investigate a swastika drawn on a desk. In another, a Simcoe County teacher alleges that a student who drew a swastika on a classroom chart was not disciplined.

“For too long, Jewish teachers in Ontario have gone to work facing antisemitism, and when they asked their school boards and unions for help, they were ignored and in some cases faced reprisal,” Kathryn Marshall, attorney for the educators, stated.

Students for Justice in Palestine at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania reposted a video on Instagram on Monday showing an effigy of an Israeli soldier being set on fire and promoting a protest in Philadelphia on Oct. 7.

The video, which Swarthmore College told JNS appears to have originated with a Philadelphia-based group, shows gasoline being poured on the legs of an effigy dressed in an Israel Defense Forces uniform with an Israeli flag patch as a Palestinian flag waves over the flames. The words “Long live Al-Aqsa Flood” appear on the screen, referring to Hamas’s name for the Oct. 7 massacre.

“The Zionist entity and its collaborators will never know peace,” the group Shut Down D&Z wrote in the post accompanying the video. The group also promoted a rally at Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.

The official Swarthmore SJP account, which has since deleted the repost, was not promoting protests on the Swarthmore campus, according to the college.

"It’s important to emphasize that the college is committed to cultivating an environment free of intimidation, harassment and discrimination," a spokesperson for Swarthmore told JNS. "We have not only publicly condemned antisemitism, Islamophobia and all forms of discrimination within our community, but we have also taken measures to enhance our response to reports of bias on campus and support members of our community in need."

Swarthmore revoked SJP’s official affiliation in 2025. As a result, the group is prohibited from accessing college funds and other resources, scheduling or hosting events on campus or having other student organizations co-sponsor or act on its behalf.

The college previously condemned its SJP chapter in October 2024 after it shared a message glorifying the first anniversary of the Hamas-led terrorist attacks.

"We expected that this week’s one-year anniversary of Oct. 7 would elicit a range of emotions and reactions across the campus community and that people would process it in different ways. We also expected some would mark the occasion with protests and acts of dissent," the college stated at the time. "What we didn't expect, however, is that members of our campus community would celebrate Oct. 7, a day of unimaginable violence and the death of so many innocent people."

In May 2025, police dismantled a pro-Palestinian encampment at Swarthmore and arrested nine people, including a current student and a former student. The group, dubbed the “Swarthmore 9,” later pleaded no contest to summary noise violations in June 2026.

Swarthmore told JNS that it supports freedom of expression and peaceful protest but will hold individuals accountable for conduct that violates college policies or disrupts campus operations.

A version of this piece first ran as part of the New York Jewish Week’s daily newsletter, rounding up the latest on politics, culture, food and what’s new with Jews in the city. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.

What you need to know today

• How New Yorkers are marking the Oct. 7 anniversary: A number of New York Jewish institutions are holding events to commemorate the third anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Meanwhile, some anti-Zionist groups are holding demonstrations against Israel tomorrow. Click here for more on what to expect.

• Tisch says anti-Jewish hate crimes are NYC’s ‘most striking trend’: NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the city’s “most striking trend continues to be antisemitic hate crimes.” Despite making up about 10% of the city’s population, Jews have been targeted by 53% of hate crimes in New York City this year, she said at a press conference. There were 245 hate crimes against Jews in the first nine months of 2026, compared to 242 in the same time frame last year.

• **Debra Messing backs Blakeman: “**Will & Grace” actor Debra Messing, who was a longtime Democratic donor and critic of President Donald Trump, is backing the Trump-backed Republican Bruce Blakeman in his campaign to unseat New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. Messing, who is Jewish, has been a vocal supporter of Israel and is a staunch critic of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has worked in collaboration with Hochul.

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The head of the Jewish Greens said she may leave the Green Party of England and Wales after it adopted a policy that defines Zionism as racism and calls for a single democratic state “in all of historic Palestine.”

Vivien Lichtenstein, a 29-year member of the Greens who worked on Israeli-Palestinian peace initiatives since the 1980s, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the policy “won’t make any difference to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank” but “potentially puts Jewish and other members at risk.” She will make a decision about her future in the party before the Jewish Greens hold elections in November.

The Green Party is facing global backlash and internal schisms after passing the “Zionism is Racism” motion at a conference in Brighton on Sunday by 1,022 to 813 votes. Members also voted down an amendment to protect Jewish Green Party members from being reported, pressured or disciplined based on their affiliation with synagogues or Jewish community centers that identify with Zionism.

The left-wing party, which enjoyed breakthrough victories and surging popularity earlier this year, was criticized on Monday by the European Green Party, representing 47 Green parties across the continent. 

The umbrella group “unequivocally” distanced itself from the motion, demanding the English and Welsh Greens clarify their position on Jewish self-determination and “the protection of Jewish people and members in the party.”

The EGP said it condemns “the genocide against Palestinians and the human rights abuses committed by the current Israeli government,” while equally emphasizing “the fight against antisemitism and for human rights.” The group added that it has “always supported a two-state solution, with self-determination for both Israelis and Palestinians.” The International Court of Justice has not yet issued a final judgment on allegations of genocide against Israel, which rejects the charge.

Multiple English and Welsh Greens members said they were quitting the party in protest against the motion, including Sandy Ruthven, the chair of Amnesty International UK’s charitable trust, and Waterloo councillor Kieran Dams. Ruthven said the party “failed to confront prejudice when it appears on our own side.”

Lichtenstein said she was “considering” leaving the party as she weighs conversations with senior members and her colleagues in the Jewish Greens group.

“It isn’t up to the party to decide on the definition of Zionism — there are many definitions,” she said.

Zionism is a highly contested concept, defined by many supporters as the right to self-determination for Jews and by many opponents as an ideology of colonialism and apartheid. A survey released Monday by the London-based Institute for Jewish Policy Research found that 66% of British Jews identified as Zionist in 2025.

Ahead of the vote, the Jewish Greens shared a survey showing their members were deeply divided on the motion. Although 81% of 108 respondents said they did not identify as Zionist, 53% — including self-identified anti-Zionists — thought its adoption could make discrimination against Jews more likely. Meanwhile, 68% of respondents said they were concerned about the policy’s potential impact on the party’s electoral prospects.

There are 225 members of the Jewish Greens group, who do not include all Jewish party members.

Jewish Greens secretary Sam Alston proposed the failed amendment to protect synagogue-going members. Alston himself does not identify as Zionist, but he is a longtime member of a Liberal Jewish synagogue that promotes connection with and debate about Israel. He said his great-grandparents founded the Liberal Judaism movement in the U.K.

Alston told JTA that he believed the motion passed because “a number of people are rightly horrified about what’s happening in Israel and what the Israeli government is doing.” But he said that it backfired by fueling division, alienating Jewish members and reducing “our ability as a force to do anything to help the Palestinian people.”

“I think there’s an ongoing genocide in Gaza,” he added. “The party has been very successful at putting pressure on to try to stop the Israeli government doing the terrible things they’re doing, and there’s a big social coalition they could build to do that, and instead they’ve chosen to make the debate a focus about etymology.”

Alston and Lichtenstein also disagreed with the motion’s call for “a single democratic Palestinian State in all of historic Palestine,” saying that the form of a future state or states in the region should be decided by Palestinians and Israelis who live there.

“The particulars of the constitutional setting are not going to be dictated by Britain as a colonial power,” said Alston. “We’ve done that enough times to disastrous results.”

Fallout from the vote intensified scrutiny over the party’s decentralized structure, with policies made at two annual conferences that generally involve a small proportion of members. Less than 1% of the party’s membership voted on the Zionism motion. Four of the Green Party’s five MPs — Ellie Chowns, Adrian Ramsay, Siân Berry and Carla Denyer — publicly opposed the motion. 

Zack Polanski, the Jewish leader of the Green Party who is seeking election to Parliament on Thursday and formerly served as treasurer of the Jewish Greens, did not attend the vote. That prompted criticism from party members.

“Zack should have made the effort,” said Lichtenstein, noting that members could register to vote remotely. “There was nothing stopping him being online.”

Polanski said in a statement Monday that no party member “will be made unwelcome because of their background, their faith, or where they worship” under his leadership, without explicitly disavowing or supporting the motion. 

“As leader I will not accept any exclusion, or refusal to engage with anyone, because of the religious or communal body they are part of,” he said, adding that he was proud of the party’s “principled position on fighting for freedom and justice for Palestinians.”

Israel’s foreign ministry on Sunday said it banned Polanski from entering the country, calling the Zionism motion a “clear antisemitic text.”

Britain’s Movement for Progressive Judaism, which encompasses the Liberal Judaism movement, said the motion was “antisemitic in its formulation and intention” and made the Green Party “a racist party.” British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis also called it “poisonous antisemitism, a threat to British Jews and to Britain.” 

Greens for Palestine, a group that is not officially affiliated with the party and led efforts to pass “Zionism is Racism,” urged supporters in recent months to join the party specifically to back the motion. The group said on Instagram that Greens member and Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos spoke in support of the policy. Greens for Palestine did not immediately respond to JTA requests for comment.

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Jewish institutions in New York are gearing up to mark the third anniversary on Wednesday of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, as some anti-Zionist groups prepare to hold demonstrations against Israel.

About 1,200 people were killed in Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel that day three years ago, most of them civilians, with another 251 taken hostage, according to Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Another 452 soldiers have been killed in the fighting since then, according to the Israel Defense Forces. In the ensuing war in Gaza, more than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. The war has reshaped the region and reverberated around the world.

Here is a list of events around New York City to commemorate the attacks and their aftermath.

• Manhattan’s Marlene Meyerson Jewish Community Center is holding “a day of remembrance, music, and community” in its lobby, from noon until 7 p.m. “Strokes of Hope,” an exhibition of drawings by Israeli artist Zeev Engelmayer, will be on display.

• UJA-Federation of New York is launching “Rooted,” a public art installation at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, which will be on display until Oct. 25, made up of thousands of hostage solidarity tags and pins. At 92NY on the Upper East Side, Claire Shipman — the former acting president of Columbia University — is moderating a conversation between an Israeli father, Jonathan Dekel-Chen, and a Palestinian father, Jaser AbuMoussa.

• Omer Shem Tov, an Israeli former hostage, will speak at Yeshiva University’s memorial at 8 p.m.

• In Brooklyn, the Park Slope Jewish Center will host an event at 7 p.m. including personal testimony from Atir Vinnikov, a survivor of the Nova music festival massacre.

• At 7 p.m. in Union Square, the group Israelis for Peace is set to meet for an evening of “quiet reflection and mourning” of the people killed on Oct. 7 and in “its bloody aftermath.”

• A number of anti-Zionist student groups are planning walkouts on campuses across the city, including City University of New York campuses, Columbia and NYU. The walkouts will culminate in a rally held outside City Hall at 4 p.m., organized by Pal-Awda and endorsed by a number of groups, calling on Mayor Zohran Mamdani, himself a strident critic of Israel, to stop “[capitulating] to Zionist pressure.”

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SDEROT, Israel – Shalom Aida was at home when the first air raid siren sounded at 6:29 a.m. on October 7, 2023, but he wasn’t initially fazed.

Rocket sirens were a common occurrence in his city of Sderot, which is less than a mile from Gaza at its closest point.   

It wasn’t until he heard gunshots that Aida, a retired police officer, realized that dozens of heavily armed Hamas terrorists had infiltrated Sderot and were gunning down any civilian, soldier or police officer they came across. 

By the time he arrived at the police station “it was a battlefield,” he said. The sight almost paralyzed him. 

“The entire street in front of the station was full of bloodied people. Police, civilians, dead or dying. Hamas kept firing.”    

One of the police officers killed that day was Aida’s cousin. Many others were his friends.  

Three years later, he is still haunted by the memories. 

“Sderot seems quiet now, but it’s not quiet or peaceful inside our heads,” he said as he watched groups of visitors walk around the Sderot Memorial and Heroes Park. It is situated at the site of the police station, which was destroyed on that day and built elsewhere. 

Shalom Aida, a retired police officer, said that on Oct. 7, the police station and street in front of it became “a battlefield.” (Michele Chabin)

Despite the ongoing trauma of Oct. 7 and its aftermath, Aida said he wouldn’t dream of moving elsewhere. 

“I never once thought about leaving,” he said, shocked by the question. “The best people in the world live in Sderot.” 

Not all residents of the “Gaza Envelope” who experienced the horrors of Oct. 7 returned home when the government gave the all-clear, after ordering them to evacuate for their own safety. But the vast majority of Sderot’s residents —  set at over 37,000 by the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2024 —  who had already lived through two decades of rocket barrages from Gaza, returned to the city within months.   

Once it was a struggling development town where successive governments sent immigrants who had just arrived from the Middle East and the former Soviet Union. 

It generated domestic and international headlines over the last two decades, as it became the first city hit by Hamas rockets as early as 2001, and remained one of the places the Gaza-based terror group has most frequently targeted.  

International dignitaries including U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2009 and then Sen.  Barack Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign visited Sderot.   

Initially a city without adequate protective shelter for its residents, it became the only place in Israel where every single apartment and bus stop has its own bomb shelter. 

Despite it all, the city has prospered: gleaming new apartment buildings, parks and a sprawling mall greet visitors as they enter. 

Ilan Abecassis, a retired educator and now a tour guide, says “the more they try to destroy us, the stronger we become.” (Michele Chabin)

“If you were to input all the data about Sderot into OpenAI, the 25 years of rockets and Oct. 7 and the bomb shelters, it would say this must be a ghost town. But that’s not the reality here,” said Ilan Abecassis, a retired educator and now tour guide who has lived in the city all his life. 

Rather than shrinking, he said, the city’s population has grown by about 5,000 people since the Oct. 7 attack. 

“I know it’s counterintuitive, but the more they try to destroy us, the stronger we become,” Abecassis said. “In the Torah, a new pharaoh sees the Israelite population growing and enslaves them. But the Torah tells us ‘the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew.’ We are like those Israelites.” 

Arie Yagudaev, 30, from Sderot, and his cousin Eitan Izayev, 28, who lives in nearby Kibbutz Nir Am, said they are also committed to staying, even after they encountered terrorists in the street on Oct. 7. 

Drinking strong coffee outside his family’s grocery store in Sderot, Izayev recounted how he had begged his cousin to pick him up from the kibbutz, which terrorists were trying to infiltrate, so he could help defend loved ones in Sderot. Along the way, they picked up two teenage girls, survivors of the Nova music festival.

“As we approached the roundabout into Sderot, we saw some pickup trucks ahead of us,” Izayev recalled. “We thought the men in the bed of the truck were IDF soldiers. But when the terrorists saw us, they shot at us nonstop.”  

“One of the bullets shattered my car’s back window. It’s a miracle we survived,” Yagudaev said. Even though he suffered from PTSD every night as an evacuee in an Eilat hotel room, he said, “I wanted to go home.”   

“It wasn’t just because the hotel room was cramped,” he said “Leaving Sderot and Israel is exactly what the terrorists want. We’re not going anywhere.”

Cousins Arie Yugudaev left and Eitan Uzayev, right, encountered Hamas terrorists when they tried to drive into Sderot to save their families. (Michele Chabin)

One Sderot restaurant owner, who was born and raised in Sderot but moved to Kibbutz Nir Am several years ago, feels the same way.  

“Not to return would be rewarding Hamas for its terrorism,” said the restaurant owner who requested anonymity because of his ongoing stints in the IDF reserves.    

As it was, he and his wife and baby spent almost a year in a small Tel Aviv hotel room before returning to their kibbutz two years ago. It wasn’t an easy homecoming, he said. For one thing, IDF soldiers had lived in their empty house, and it needed major repairs. Returning to the area also triggered traumatic memories from the Hamas attack. 

“For 22 hours I stood outside our house to protect my wife and newborn baby,” he recalled, sitting at a table in his restaurant. “Eventually we decided to flee in our car with just the clothes we could throw into a trash bag. We placed the baby under the seat of the car, hoping to protect him.” 

Once the owner of three restaurants, he now owns only one. He needed to sell the two popular restaurants he owned at another kibbutz because he couldn’t operate them from Tel Aviv, and, back then, the Gaza border was an active war zone. 

Although the Gaza border is much more secure due to the buffer zone the IDF maintains in Gaza, “it’s not quiet on the border,” he said. “We live one kilometer from Gaza. Every day we hear the choppers and the shooting.”

Still, he and his wife have no plans to leave. 

“My parents live here, my grandparents live here,” he said. “On Oct. 7 I saw an apocalypse, bodies on the ground. I knew 100 people who were killed or kidnapped. The ground beneath us is soaked with their blood. I can’t leave.”

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More than double the number of Jewish likely New York voters, 78%, say that Oct. 7 and its aftermath have affected them a lot more than do their non-Jewish peers, 32%.

That’s according to a survey that Honan Strategy Group conducted between Oct. 2 and 6 of 1,167 likely general election voters.

The firm, which has worked for former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and the Orthodox Union, shared its findings about Jewish voters exclusively with JNS.

The survey oversampled those with Jewish-sounding names and polled 503 people who self-identified as Jews. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.87 percentage points.

It suggests that Israel and the Hamas attack and its aftermath have deeply affected a majority of Jewish New Yorkers and taken a personal toll.

Just 11% of Jewish respondents said that Oct. 7 and the ensuing war didn’t impact them very much or at all. Among non-Jewish voters, 42% said that Oct. 7 and its aftermath either didn’t affect them very much or at all.

More than two-thirds of Jewish likely voters, 68%, said that they believe that the world has moved on from the victims of Oct. 7. Just 28% of Jewish respondents said that the world remembers the victims.

Non-Jewish voters split the other way. Some 45% said that the world remembers the Oct. 7 victims, and 42% said that people have moved on.

“We are trying to open up the eyes of policymakers to what the vox populi, the voice of the public, thinks,” Bradley Honan, president and CEO of Honan Strategy Group, told JNS.

“We want to raise issues that are in the public domain to civic and business organizations, to discuss them and enact policies that will make the city, the state and the world a better place to live,” he said.

The survey “shows that unfortunately the city is fairly divided right now, which is very troubling,” Honan told JNS. “It also says that this is very personal, that the world has moved on and perhaps forgotten victims.”

“It has created this very bad divide we see in the city which everybody agrees exists,” he said.

Two thirds (66%) of Jewish respondents said that disagreements about Israel have strained relationships with family, friends or coworkers, including 23% who said that it has strained such relationships “a great deal.”

Among non-Jewish respondents, 34% reported strained relationships and 66% reported no such tensions.

Almost half of each group—45% of Jewish and 48% of non-Jewish likely voters—saw a more divided New York City today than before Oct. 7. Almost no Jewish voters (1%) and 23% of non-Jewish voters see a more united city today.

A slight majority of Jewish voters (51%) said New York City is about the same.

Nearly all Jewish New Yorkers, 99%, said that they watched the war against Hamas closely or very closely, while 34% of non-Jewish voters said the same.

On Oct. 15, Medicare opens its annual enrollment period. That period ends on Dec. 7. During this time, anyone eligible for Medicare can sign up for an Advantage plan as well as a prescription drug plan. For those enrolling in Medicare for the first time, the process can seem a little daunting and it can be easy to just go with what you see advertised. But it’s important to look past the postcards and cold calls to find a plan that fits you.

When choosing a Medicare plan the three biggest areas of focus for enrollees to consider are cost, if they can still see their doctors, and whether their medications are covered. This year the prescription component will require an extra level of attention.

“This year, more than any other, there is an incredible amount of stress on insurance companies to provide affordable and expansive drug formulations,” Brian Friedman, president of Nest Insurance Solutions in Cleveland, said. “There are probably more changes in that area this year than in any other year, but there are less coverage options in Northeast Ohio.”

Ivy Kopit of IvyK Insurance said that many people use this time of life to meet their travel ambitions so it is also important to consider how portable a Medicare plan is.

“Many people are still travelling and they want to be sure they are covered while outside their state,” Kopit said. “For example, the majority of Advantage plans only offer emergency and urgent care services when leaving the state where someone is enrolled. There are Advantage plans that have other travel benefits but it is important to understand the benefits for each plan.”

Enrollees often want to maximize the perks a plan has.

“Most Advantage plans have a no cost gym or fitness facility membership included in their plan,” Kopit explained. “Many enrollees may also be looking for transportation to and from doctor appointments and other essential needs. Some plans offer transportation and some do not.“

Some people also want their plans to help with other medical needs like over the counter drugs.

“Over the counter benefits are common amongst most Advantage plans,” Kopit said. “This is an allotted amount of funds that are put on a card that the enrollee can use to purchase over the counter wellness products from specific retailers. The amount of money varies with the carrier and is usually put on the card quarterly.”

Friedman said that other needs that people have are dental and vision which are “embedded in Advantage plans.”

But those options are not one-size-fits-all and some research will be needed to match those offerings with the enrollee’s health needs.

“In regard to dental, understanding if they are going to pay at the office visit and be reimbursed or if the office will submit their claims,” Kopit said Also, understanding if the plan will cover dentists out of the network. For vision, you’ll need to look at what is covered, the entire set of glasses or only the lenses or only the frames and if this benefit is yearly or every other year?“

Friedman also suggested that people explore what plans offer in the way of durable medical equipment which would cover wheelchairs, CPAP machines, rollators and other devices.

“Different plans provide different levels of comfort,” Friedman said.

While there are a number of online resources to use and friends, family members and neighbors to discuss plan options, working with Medicare specialists can offer enrollees experienced insight into the nuances each plan offers.

Noell Wolfgram Evans is a freelance journalist.

Laurel School senior Eliana Fieldman understands that despite social media’s promises of connection, the digital world can be a lonely one for teens to navigate, with effects felt far beyond the screen.

“I thought about the public health crisis that I lived through, which was of course the COVID-19 pandemic, and I began researching the after effects,” Fieldman, a Beachwood resident and congregant of Congregation Shaarey Tikvah in Beachwood, told the Cleveland Jewish News. “I felt really lonely during the pandemic, which was kind of the precipice for this entire thing.”

Hoping to provide teens with an opportunity to discover local, social outlets, Fieldman is spearheading the first Find Your Thing Fair for teens ages 13 to 18 through Youth Connect CLE from noon to 4 p.m. Oct. 10 at the Cleveland Public Library main branch at 325 Superior Ave.

Fieldman, 17, founded Youth Connect CLE as a direct result of her school capstone research project that focused on social connection and loneliness in the post-pandemic digital age. The research, she shared, was inspired by her own experience participating in isolating, online Zoom classes in 2020.

“I began researching in hopes that there would be some type of new innovation or something that I could do to create action and make teens feel more connected,” she said. “I came across an organization in Pittsburgh called Pittsburgh Social Health that has organized connection fairs for adults. A connection fair is basically a big event that brings together clubs and different organizations across the community to get people involved.”

After speaking with Pittsburgh Social Health founder Haley Ingersoll about how she could adapt the program for teens in Cleveland, Fieldman launched Youth Connect CLE in March 2026 with the goal of hosting the Find Your Thing Fair as the organization’s main annual event.

Taking place at the Cleveland Public Library, Fieldman said that the fair will feature clubs, hobby groups, and youth organizations from throughout Northeast Ohio in attendance to speak with teens about involvement opportunities outside of their school communities. The idea, she said, is for teens to “find their thing.”

“We have 16 organizations spanning all types of interest areas, from healthcare opportunities and future careers, to leadership opportunities,” Fieldman said.

To encourage participation, Fieldman said that attendees will each receive a “bead passport” to help them navigate from table to table, in addition to a few other surprise activities.

“Every organization will have a bowl of beads and each participant will take their string and build a bracelet as they walk around and visit the different tables,” she said.

For Fieldman, the goal behind the event is to help local teens feel more connected outside of their school communities and to help them build a network of “weak ties” throughout Northeast Ohio – a theory that she came across during her research.

“The Weak Tie Theory basically says that acquaintances will ultimately help you get more jobs down the road than your best friend,” Fieldman said. “I think creating those acquaintances across the Cleveland community is going to be a network that we can leverage for our entire lives, and by starting as teenagers, we have the ability to cultivate a community that goes far beyond our own beliefs.”

Outside of the fair, Fieldman hopes to launch a local organization directory on Youth Connect CLE’s website in early November, invest seed money in teen organizations that wish to form outside of schools, and train peer “connection boosters” to attend events throughout the city and get more teens involved.

“Cleveland is such a diverse and vast place with so many different opportunities,” she said. “I want teens to come away from the experience having been connected with more opportunities, being connected with each other, and being connected with different future opportunities for themselves.”

The event is free, but space is limited. To reserve a spot, visit shorturl.at/4yeWc.

Youth Connect CLE is part of the Thriving Youth Series through the city of Cleveland.

Lenny Steinberg, executive director of the Oregon Hillel Foundation, was outraged and disgusted when he first learned that posters with his face and the words “enemy of the people” were appearing on the campus of University of Oregon.

The posters also said that he supports “the ongoing genocide in Palestine” and that Hillel should be removed from campus, he told JNS.

“There was a huge level of like, I saw this coming, and that’s absolutely absurd in and of itself,” he said. “This is my face being plastered in places and falsely accusing me of things I don’t actually support, and this is really truly affecting my staff, our students, our parents.”

Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Rep. Val Hoyle (D-Ore.) stated on Sunday that “we should all unequivocally condemn the antisemitic targeting of Oregon Hillel and its executive director on the University of Oregon campus.”

“Targeting Hillel and its leadership with this hateful rhetoric is a blatant effort to intimidate and demonize a Jewish organization and the Jewish students it represents,” the lawmakers stated.

Karl Scholz, president of the public university, which is based in Eugene, stated in a campuswide message that “while we do not know if the flyers were posted by someone affiliated with our university, this type of language on our campus—language that targets based on religious and ethnic identity—is reprehensible.”

The flyers “promoted isolation and fear, and fear erodes the foundation of our community,” he wrote. “Antisemitism, violence and threats have no place here.”

Steinberg told JNS that he has “buckled up and gotten things done for my community,” but there also have been moments where he “sat down and cried with my wife and my dog.”

It’s hard not to think “Why me? Why is this happening? How is this 2026?” he said.

And it is “heartbreaking,” he said, that the posters showed up the same week that the Hillel’s sukkah was stolen.

“To have to send my community two messages of, ‘Hey this happened and guess what, now this happened,’ I don’t want to be sending these messages,” he told JNS. “I want to be promoting Jewish joy and having smiling students go on hikes and sing prayers with us and be in the sukkah.”

“It’s not fair,” he said.

Steinberg said that he and his family are finding a balance between making sure they’re safe “without feeding too heavily into being so over the top and scared.”

He told JNS that he talked to university officials, university police and the Eugene Police Department. He spoke with the latter about having a community risk assessment officer come to his home and “make sure that we are doing the right things and have the right cameras,” he said.

“Got to be prepared for the worst and hope for the best,” Steinberg told JNS.

Posters with his face appeared right below materials promoting an “al-Aqsa flood demonstration” on Wednesday evening a few blocks from the Hillel building on campus, he said.

The Hillel building generally has security when it hosts Shabbat or other events, he told JNS.

“Right now, we have security at the building from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. every single day this week,” he said. “It’s not easy to say to our students, ‘Hey, come to Hillel, but now we have almost round-the-clock security.’ It’s not fair to them, and it’s not fair to anybody else, and we have to do what we know is right for our community.”

Over the past 48 hours, Steinberg has received “messages of love and support” from people all over the world, he told JNS.

“It’s been wildly beautiful and it’s overwhelming,” he said.

António Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, stated ahead of the third anniversary of Oct. 7 that the pain “endures for the families who lost loved ones, for survivors and for all those whose lives were forever changed.”

“Captors subjected the hostages to horrific abuse in captivity, including torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and sexual violence,” Guterres stated. “These horrors must never be repeated.”

The outgoing U.N. head mentioned stories from former hostages “about the unthinkable torment they and other captives endured as they were held in Gaza in deplorable conditions and the anguish and uncertainty suffered by their families throughout their captivity.”

He also mentioned Israeli families, “whose worlds were shattered that day” and survivors, “who continue to carry deep physical and emotional scars.”

Tension has broken out between the U.N. chief and the Jewish state over Guterres’s harsh criticism of Israel and, in a message shortly after Oct. 7, appearing to justify the Hamas-led terror attacks.

In his new message, he noted what he said have been “the devastating hostilities that followed” the Oct. 7 attacks that have “inflicted untold suffering on Palestinians in Gaza, including massive loss of life, displacement and destruction.”

His second term, which is his last, ends on Dec. 31.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the Young Democratic Socialists of America in New York City, which is planning an Oct. 7 rally outside City Hall, is organizationally separate from the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, of which he is a member.

"It's not NYC DSA, it's young DSA, a separate org," a spokesman for Mamdani told JNS.

Mamdani is listed as a member of NYC-DSA, which includes him among its “socialists in office.” The chapter handbook states that “YDSA is our youth section focused on organizing on college campuses.” YDSA’s constitution identifies the group as DSA’s youth section, with its own governance and chapters, while remaining subject to DSA’s broader principles and governance.

The rally is scheduled for 4 p.m. outside City Hall on the third anniversary of the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Promotional materials list NYC YDSA and YDSA chapters at City College, Hunter College, Lehman College and the New School among the endorsing groups, along with anti-Israel organizations including Within Our Lifetime.

"Oct. 7 marks three years since resistance against imperialism changed the fate of our world forever," organizers stated.

The organizers also accused Mamdani of breaking campaign promises to “the Palestine movement” and claimed that the mayor has “repeatedly capitulated to Zionist pressure.” They cited his administration’s restrictions on protests and his recently announced strategy to combat antisemitism.

The strategy includes $26 million in funding for the city’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes, as well as $1 million for security at synagogues and other houses of worship.

They criticized funding for "security infrastructure for Zionist synagogues" and called on rally participants to "honor our martyrs, prisoners and liberators."

Florida has emerged as one of the more surprising battlegrounds of the 2026 midterm gubernatorial elections amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s sagging approval rating, high gas prices and nationwide cost-of-living issues.

Recent polls suggest that the race to succeed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who won nearly 60% of the vote in 2022, could be close in November despite an enormous Republican advantage in voter registration in the Sunshine State.

JNS spoke with Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), the GOP nominee for governor, about the race as he seeks to lead what DeSantis once called “the most Israel-friendly state in the country.”

“A lot of Jewish Floridians—many of them have come to Florida to escape New York and escape other states, and they came here for freedom and opportunity,” Donalds said. “They came here to be safe, and I just want to assure them that the standards that they came for are going to continue.”

First elected to the House in 2020, Donalds represents a district in southwest Florida that includes the cities of Naples and Fort Myers. He is facing off against David Jolly, a former Republican congressman who became a Democrat in 2025.

Both candidates are pro-Israel but have differed on Trump’s actions against Iran.

On the day Trump commenced hostilities, Jolly wrote that the president “lacks the clear support of Congress or our allies, and lacks the unity of the nation he leads.”

Donalds supports the Trump administration and believes that gas prices will decline when the war concludes.

“When it comes to the Iranian conflict, I think the president is right,” Donalds told JNS. “They can’t have a nuclear weapon.”

“This used to be a completely American view until this election cycle, where the Democrats basically say, ‘Oh no. It’s OK if the Iranians have free rein,’” he said. “No, that is a theocratic dictatorship, and they need to be stopped from having a nuclear weapon.”

He hammered Jolly for what he said was a record of political flip-flopping.

“David Jolly has been on every side of every issue in the last decade,” Donalds told JNS. “Why would you trust somebody who made so many drastic changes in what they say they believe?”

As a former Republican, Jolly represents one theory for how Democrats can seek to win back Florida in a statewide race after nearly 30 years of GOP control of the governor’s mansion and seven years since Florida elected a Democrat to the Senate.

At the other end of the spectrum for Democrats is Angie Nixon, a Florida state representative and member of the Democratic Socialists of America whom the Democratic electorate tapped to be its nominee in November’s special Senate election.

Donalds told JNS that Republicans wouldn’t tolerate a candidate like Nixon, who has accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza.

“You won’t see David Jolly criticize Angie Nixon about her stance,” he said. “This is a very radical party with socialism at the cornerstone of their policy ideas, and they are demonstrating very clearly that they are no friend to Israel at all.”

Donalds believes that Democrats are now trying to minimize their divisions over Israel to have it both ways with Jewish voters.

“A lot of people are saying, ‘Oh well, the Democrats really aren’t talking about it right now,’” he told JNS. “That’s because they know that their rhetoric and their antisemitism has really soured on Jewish voters, and so I believe the memo went out and they’ve been very quiet—not to talk about Israel—even though it is clear that that party is becoming more and more anti-Israel as the day goes by.”

Democrats have proven more willing to nominate anti-Israel candidates, but it is increasingly clear there is an Israel-skeptical wing of the Republican Party as well.

Donalds won the Republican gubernatorial primary handily in August, but that race saw James Fishback, an alt-right investor who invoked antisemitic memes and used racial insults against Donalds, win more than 10% of the vote.

Donalds told JNS that he believes that those votes were the result, in part, of a social media landscape that often scapegoats foreign countries for American domestic problems and that the solution is to engage voters with bread-and-butter politics.

If Fishback is an aberration, polls suggest that Jewish voters find it more difficult to dismiss concerns about U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who has refused to condemn his friend Tucker Carlson and has been perhaps the most critical of Israel of any member of the Trump administration.

A poll of Jewish voters in September found that 82% of respondents had a negative view of the vice president, against just 14% with a positive opinion.

Vance campaigned with Donalds on Thursday in Lakeland, Fla., as part of a pre-election red-state tour that has seen the president and vice president campaign in Alaska, Florida, Oklahoma and Texas.

Donalds told JNS that he hasn’t spoken with Vance about his views on Israel or his friendship with Tucker Carlson, who has hosted antisemitic guests on his podcast and who has made anti-Israel statements often.

“It’s more than likely that those voters will have an opportunity to weigh in if the vice president decides to take the next step and try to run for president,” Donalds said, of Jews who have concerns about Vance.

Some Jewish Republicans may be skeptical of the self-described “realist” foreign policy views of Vance, but Donalds said that those discussions are “not even close” to what has happened in the Democratic Party on Israel.

“In the Republican Party, there is some debate about how independently our foreign policy decisions are being made,” he told JNS. “My point has always been: Do you know Donald Trump? Have you met the man? Nobody tells Donald Trump want to do.”

Donalds laughed when JNS asked if he had any thoughts about whether to endorse Vance or fellow-Floridian, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a hypothetical 2028 matchup.

“Man, I’m focused on the next 29 days. I’m trying to win a race for governor,” he said. “The presidency will take care of itself. It always does.”

In that race, he said that a mixture of politics and geography has contributed to Florida ranking among the fastest growing states economically and in terms of population in recent years.

“Common sense, safe communities and safe streets, no state income tax, a very friendly business climate and our weather is phenomenal,” Donalds said.

“At its core, where Florida has really distinguished itself, and you have to credit Gov. DeSantis with this, is that Florida is always going to make sure that our people are free, that we’re not going to have a situation where you’re going to have government come in and start dictating what you can and can’t do,” he told JNS.

He espoused a simple guideline for how to keep his state on that track if he is elected in November.

“Part of the way we know how to do the right thing in Florida is we see New York and California do something and we do the opposite,” he told JNS.

\From a researcher of Israeli political cartoons reflecting on artistic portrayals of Oct. 7 at the JCC in San Francisco to a student-run exhibit at Boston University memorializing the victims of the Hamas-led attacks, art is at the center of many events scheduled for the third anniversary of Oct. 7.

“Some of the events are a little different,” Jon Falk, senior vice president of campus solutions at Hillel International, told JNS.

“We’re seeing art installations. We’re seeing walks of remembrance. We’re bringing awareness,” he said. “We continue to see a high level of educational programs, both about the Arab-Israeli conflict, about Israel in general, about hope and what the future holds within the region.”

“I think you just see a variety of programs, all really remembering the atrocities of Oct. 7,” he said.

Steven Fine, professor of Jewish history at Yeshiva University and director of its Israel studies center, told JNS that it isn’t new to see art at Oct. 7 commemoration events. Hostage Square in Tel Aviv has featured cultural responses to the massacre, he said.

But art that responds to the attacks is becoming more retrospective in the way it reflects on the past, he said.

“We’re three years out,” Fine told JNS. “Things have calmed considerably, and there’s a time to breathe, and people are now organizing what they have done and felt for over this period.”

“That’s why there are so many Oct. 7 books that are going to come out in the next year,” he said. “It’s pretty normal in all communities, not just Jews, to use visual things as a way of communicating, especially in times of trauma.”

“There are, of course, the Jewish artists, and Israeli artists especially, who were blocked from the mainstream, and so they started exhibiting together and talking to each other,” Fine said. “They are banding together in ways that they hadn’t before.”

In the past two years, there were efforts made to raise awareness about the hostages, whom Hamas held in Gaza, and to pressure the terror group to release them. But this Oct. 7, all of the hostages and their remains have been liberated.

“This is now about remembering the loss of life on Oct. 7,” Falk, of Hillel, told JNS.

An American Jewish Committee spokesman told JNS that “unlike in 2024 and 2025, there are, finally, no more hostages being held in Gaza, which of course changes how we reflect on this anniversary.”

“In addition to this community focus, we are also painfully aware that the facts about what happened on Oct. 7, 2023, are increasingly being misconstrued, reframed and contested,” the spokesman said.

“Our events with public officials are a counter to those who would deny the horrors perpetrated against Israel and the Jewish people,” the AJC spokesman said. “As we look back, we are also using this period of reflection to look toward the future. After the last three years, where do we go from here as a community? What can the future look like for the region?”

Tali Brauman-Volkov, vice president of communities at the Israeli-American Council, told JNS that “what feels particularly unique this year is the breadth and depth of the programming.”

“Beyond remembering those we lost, communities are creating opportunities to hear firsthand accounts, preserve the truth of what happened and address the ways Oct. 7 is being portrayed and remembered,” she said.

Many dozens, if not hundreds, of events are expected nationwide to memorialize the victims and call attention to events of the bloodiest day for Jews since the Holocaust and its aftermath.

Survivors of the Nova festival are slated to speak at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, Calif., in a program sponsored by the Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Southwest and Jewish organizational partners. The event is scheduled to include speeches, musical and dance performances and a candle-lighting ceremony.

In northeast Florida, the local Federation is hosting a survivor from Kibbutz Nir Oz, who “will share his first-hand testimony of the life-or-death decisions he had to make to survive.” And the Combined Jewish Philanthropies, in Boston, plans to host a Nova festival survivor and a man who survived 500 days in Hamas captivity in Gaza.

The Federation and Bender JCC in the Washington, D.C., area are slated to hold a concert to “unite our community” in “shared music, memory, reflection and hope,” and the Federation in Nashville is hosting a Kibbutz Nir Oz survivor. It also intends to dedicate a “permanent memorial designed and sculpted by Alex Limor.”

Judy Alperin, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville, told JNS that “in years past, our focus was on bringing the hostages home and hoping for their safe return.”

“This year, we’re remembering those we lost and honoring what our community has endured, while also recognizing our resilience and our strength,” she said. “In Nashville, that means not only coming together to remember, but creating something lasting.”

The sculpture “by a local artist” features “figures of adults and children dancing, inspired by the theme ‘We Will Dance Again,’” she told JNS. “To me, it represents our determination to continue living proudly and Jewishly, even after unimaginable loss.”

In Manhattan, the UJA-Federation of New York and Museum of Jewish Heritage-A Living Memorial to the Holocaust plan to host an event, which includes the launch of an installation by Israeli artists titled “Rooted” that the museum says “commemorates the enduring impact of Oct. 7.”

“Incorporating thousands of metal hostage tags and pins contributed by New Yorkers and Jews around the world, the communal tree trunk sculpture made of acrylic preserves a collective story of both solidarity and remembrance,” the museum says of the work by Dede Bandaid and Nitzan Mintz.

“The installation invites visitors to reflect on loss, resilience and the bonds that unite communities in times of crisis and hope,” it says.

The installation “turns objects worn close to the heart into a lasting testament to remembrance and connection,” stated Tali Farhadian, CEO of the museum. “We are honored to welcome this work and offer visitors a place to reflect on the lives that were taken and forever changed by the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, and on our shared responsibility to carry their stories forward.”

“Music and stories of healing and resilience from communities affected by Oct. 7” are to be at the center of an event at the JCC of Central New Jersey.

The performance by Stav Shoham, Yaniv Paskal and Ori Keren “is more than a concert,” the JCC says. “Through music and personal storytelling, they will share a moving journey of loss, resilience and recovery, demonstrating how creativity can transform pain into strength and bring communities together in hope.”

Names of victims are to be illuminated in Beverly Hills, Calif., and Hollywood, Fla., will be the site of a flag-raising ceremony. The Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles plans to light its facade blue for 72 hours, a day for each year since Oct. 7.

Among the places where documentaries are to be screened are Houston and Philadelphia, and student groups are planning events, like the Students Supporting Israel chapter at Florida State University displaying chairs for each of the 46 Americans killed on Oct. 7 and a campus vigil and conversation with a survivor at Penn State Hillel.

Rabbi Yisroel Rubin, the longtime Chabad-Lubavitch leader in Albany, N.Y., who spent more than five decades building Jewish institutions and communities across the region, died on Shemini Atzeret, the holiday that follows Sukkot. He was 78.

Rubin died after participating in hakafot, dances with Torah scrolls held as part of the holiday celebrations, COLlive reported. (JNS sought comment from Chabad about whether Rubin died on Oct. 2 or 3.)

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, told JNS that the rabbi was instrumental in shaping the region’s Jewish community.

“I extend my deepest condolences to the Rubin family and the Chabad-Lubavitch community on the passing of Rabbi Israel Rubin,” the governor said.

“Rabbi Rubin leaves behind a tremendous legacy, serving as a Chabad emissary for the capital region for 52 years and playing an instrumental role in shaping the capital region’s Jewish community,” she told JNS. “May his memory forever be a blessing.”

The governor told JNS that she hosted Rubin in her office in March to mark the 124th birthday of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe. That same day, Hochul presented a proclamation declaring “124 Days of Education” across New York in Schneerson’s honor.

Rubin and his family also celebrated Chanukah at the governor’s residence in Albany annually, Hochul told JNS.

Rubin arrived in Albany on Sukkot in 1973 as a shaliach, or emissary, of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. He became the movement’s head emissary for Albany, the capital region and northeastern New York, overseeing a growing network of Chabad centers and rabbis in the area.

In 1980, he helped found Maimonides School in Albany and remained involved in the school and the region’s Chabad network until a recent illness, COLlive reported.

He was also known for his approach to Jewish education and outreach. Over the years, Rubin produced religious publications and campaigns aimed at making Jewish practice more accessible, including the Torah Times, which he began as a student, and educational materials promoting Jewish observance.

Rubin continued teaching and writing about Jewish law and tradition during his illness, according to COLlive. He authored “Marbeh L’Saper,” a work on two passages in the Passover Haggadah, and had completed a more than 600-page, unpublished Torah manuscript titled “Hirhurei Torah.”

The first time most of the world heard Hannah Gann’s name was in late September, when the 34-year-old Philadelphia high school teacher and activist confessed to having fabricated a Palestinian and Black identity — with media reports revealing she was Jewish in real life. 

But Jason Holtzman, director of Philadelphia’s Jewish Community Relations Council, first heard Gann’s name long before that: in December 2023.

At that time, he recalled to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, she “made some pretty strident remarks” at a local rally called “Flood Philly For Palestine,” an apparent reference to the “Al-Aqsa Flood,” Hamas’s name for its Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.

In video from the event shared with JTA, Gann said in reference to children in Gaza, “We owe them to take it to the streets and f–k the police until Palestine is free.”

Gann would appear on the JCRC’s radar several more times before her name hit the news for being “the Palestinian Rachel Dolezal,” when her story — accompanied by Philadelphia Inquirer reporting that she has Jewish family living in Israel — ricocheted across the internet to gain her instant notoriety. (The real-life Dolezal, a white woman who posed as Black for years and held a NAACP leadership role while teaching Africana Education at a Pacific Northwest college, has meanwhile expressed interest in meeting Gann.)

Gann’s revelations have led to the dissolution of the local pro-Palestinian educators group she had helped to lead since 2024. After leaving her Instagram confessions public for more than a week, Gann’s account was deactivated in the last few days.

Yet now that Gann’s background has grabbed headlines, Jewish groups alarmed by her behavior said the real story is being missed.  

“It’s just being reported as if she simply is guilty of fraud, that she’s the new Rachel Dolezal,” Holtzman told JTA. “It’s missing part of the story, which is that she’s also an extremist who has spread antisemitic tropes and has brought inflammatory content into the classroom.”

The post The Philadelphia teacher who pretended to be Palestinian raised alarms for Jewish groups before she became infamous appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

A federal judge denied an emergency request from the Council on American-Islamic Relations and its Florida chapter on Tuesday to block being designated as domestic terrorist organizations under Florida law.

Mark Walker, a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, ruled on Oct. 6 that the designations do not take effect until Nov. 5, allowing time to hear the state's arguments before deciding whether to intervene.

Walker scheduled an Oct. 8 conference to arrange further proceedings.

CAIR and CAIR-Florida sued Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, and other state officials on Oct. 1 after the governor and state Cabinet approved the terror designations on Sept. 29.

The lawsuit challenges HB 1471, which authorizes Florida officials to designate domestic terrorist organizations. The groups argue that the law violates their constitutional rights and conflicts with federal law. (JNS sought comment from the governor's office.)

CAIR claimed that it doesn't engage in terror activity and that the designation would halt its operations in Florida and expose people providing it with support to criminal penalties.

The group blamed Israel for being attacked on Oct. 7 and was initially an advisor on the Biden administration's national strategy on Jew-hatred, before the White House removed it.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly this year came at a critical time for Israel. Talks were underway to resolve the conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, and Israel was awaiting the outcome of the on-again, off-again U.S.-Iran ceasefire negotiations. The country had also just been sanctioned by 12 countries, led by Britain, over its West Bank policies. 

Yet it was Zohran Mamdani, the New York mayor who has virtually no say in international relations, who drew the Israeli prime minister’s fiercest, most lengthy criticism. Mamdani, Netanyahu charged, was an antisemite, a “buddy” of Hamas, the husband of a supporter of the Oct. 7 massacre and the friend of a 9/11 enthusiast. 

The U.N. address wasn’t the only time in the weeks leading up to Israel’s Oct. 27 election that Netanyahu focused his sights on Mamdani in an unusual forum. In August, Netanyahu’s Likud party launched an election billboard campaign showing Mamdani alongside Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, and Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem, with the slogan, “They want Netanyahu to lose, don’t let them win.” 

In the weeks leading up to his visit to U.N. headquarters in New York, the prime minister and Mamdani went at each other on social media, with Mamdani calling for Netanyahu’s arrest in New York (while acknowledging he had no power to order it), and the prime minister accusing the mayor of antisemitism and support of Hamas.  

Netanyahu is making the New York mayor a central bogeyman this election season – is it working? 

It’s true that Mamdani, who is Muslim, is unpopular across most of the Jewish political spectrum in Israel. During his election campaign and since taking office, Mamdani has constantly accused Israel of genocide and ethnic cleansing, charges most Jewish Israelis and politicians from both coalition and opposition parties reject.

But it is unlikely that the average Israeli would base his or her vote on a candidate’s attitude towards the mayor of New York. After all, Israelis have many other issues on their plate that are closer to home, such as the state of national security, accountability for the failures that allowed Hamas to carry out its deadly raids inside Israel on Oct. 7 and the exemption of ultra-Orthodox Israelis from IDF service. 

Still, Netanyahu aide Caroline Glick, the prime minister’s international affairs adviser, said in an interview it was “obvious” and “self-explaining” that the prime minister would push back against a person who has been “spewing antisemitism.” 

Glick repeated Netanyahu’s claim in his speech that New York Jews felt unsafe as a result of Mamdani’s rhetoric and policies. She said Mamdani “got what he ordered up” in the premier’s U.N. address. (Mamdani pushed back sharply on what he called Netanyahu’s “baseless lies” in the speech.)

Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, said Mamdani started it. Mamdani “began a smear campaign already in July,” Danon said, referring to the video in which Mamdani called on the federal government to arrest Netanyahu, and the beefs on social media since then. Mamdani “fuels the fire and incites, and our approach is not to keep quiet versus inciters,” Danon wrote to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in response to a query. 

There are plenty of other targets that Netanyahu can attack to bolster his reputation as a fighter. He took aim in his U.N. speech at the “moral cowards” who left the hall when he rose to speak, the Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa, French President Emmanuel Macron, Turkish President Erdogan, Qatar, and the protestors outside the U.N. building.

So why did Mamdani consume so much oxygen?

Guy Levy, a spokesperson for Netanyahu’s Likud party, explained that Mamdani is not just a personal adversary but an emblem of a larger struggle. “Mamdani is a symbol of the rise in the West of the connection between the radical Left and Islamists and antisemites,” he told JTA. 

That connects with a larger theme in Netanyahu’s campaign: arguing that a governing coalition without him would be dependent on a majority-Arab party and on the left-wing Democrats to get enough seats to form a majority. As such, he contends, they would be unable or unwilling to safeguard Israeli security interests. 

The campaign’s most recent slogan is, “It’s either the Right or Palestine” (the two words rhyme in Hebrew), indicating that a rival government would agree to Palestinian statehood, which many Israelis view as a danger. Mamdani, according to Levy, is part of the same left-wing/Arab camp; attacking Mamdani is therefore an attack against Netanyahu’s political rivals. (Mamdani appears to favor a one-state solution – as do many on Israel’s right, although envisioning a very different type of single state.)

Dahlia Scheindlin, a veteran Israeli-American pollster and senior political analyst for the left-wing Haaretz newspaper and a staunch Netanyahu critic, speculated that the decision to go after Mamdani may not have represented a premeditated strategy but rather a “scattershot” approach born out of the prime minister’s poor performance in polls. 

“First of all, not much has helped Netanyahu electorally,” Scheindlin said in a phone interview with JTA. “His party is stuck in the polls. It hasn’t changed in a very long time.” She noted that the Likud is currently polling at around 20 to 22 seats or even lower and that the bloc of parties loyal to him for forming a coalition hovers at about 50 to 52 seats – far short of the 61 needed to be in the majority.

Netanyahu has been pushing two major themes in his election campaign, according to Scheindlin: a “positive” theme, stressing his government’s successes against Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran; and a “negative” theme against likely Arab participation in a rival government led by Yashar party head Gadi Eisenkot, who is polling best right now. 

The attacks against Mamdani fit into the negative frame, Scheindlin argued.

“The one about Mamdani plays into the theme that the whole world is against us, the world is being taken over by Muslims,” Scheindlin said. “These are openly racialized and racist themes against an Arab party and the Israeli government, against Muslims and anywhere else in the world.” 

She added that Netanyahu and his government have been claiming that “any criticism coming from Europe of Israel is all because Europe has been taken over by Muslims,” and the New York focus now only expands that message in arguing that radical Islam has taken over the world. 

During this government’s tenure, Israel’s standing in both Europe and the U.S. has plummeted, with many European countries imposing sanctions, arms sales blocks and harsh criticism of Israel’s actions in the West Bank and Gaza. Now Netanyahu “is going to be the defender by attacking people like Mamdani rhetorically and politically,” she said.

Scheindlin said she did not believe that Mamdani’s presence in the Likud’s election campaign would sway any voters. “The Mamdani sign came and went. I would doubt if most Israelis even remember it right now,” she said. And while the attacks against Mamdani generally “played into his message,” the bottom line is that Netanyahu is “trying everything” at this point in the campaign.

Yaakov Katz, the former editor in chief of The Jerusalem Post, viewed the speech less as a desperate play and more as a natural part of Netanyahu’s election campaign. In an interview with CBS, Katz said that the speech’s idea was for Israelis to think that “The world is against us no matter what, but thank God we have a leader, in this case, Netanyahu, who can stand up to everyone and stick it to them.” Katz added that “this could bring him some votes, or at the very least consolidate the base.” 

Calling Mamdani an antisemite and blaming him for Jews feeling unsafe in New York “plays out well,” Katz said to CBS, “because Israelis look at people like Mamdani and they don’t see much of a difference, whether it’s Mamdani or it’s President Erdogan of Turkey, or it’s some other tent encampment or protest on the streets of Sydney or Paris or London. It’s one and the same.”

With the U.N. speech behind him and more pressing issues to address, including new revelations about warnings Netanyahu received prior to Oct. 7 and the flydubai attack last week, the Mamdani-Netanyahu fight has receded into the rear-view mirror. But if Netanyahu is reelected or if he stays on as caretaker prime minister, the issue will likely resurface. 

Mamdani focuses on Netanyahu now, but he has made clear over his career that his problem is generally with Israel, whichever government is leading it. Even if a new administration takes over in Jerusalem, it may find itself at odds with the mayor of New York – and with the growing movement of young democratic socialists that he represents.

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Within weeks of Oct. 7, 2023, a group of psychologists mobilized to respond to the fear, pain and invalidation experienced by Diaspora Jews. 

There were no blueprints for clinicians to support a population of Jews whose distress was indescribable and permeated the soul. We knew Diaspora Jews were in crisis and although pain is pain, it manifested differently than it did among those who were living, working or just surviving in Israel. Many U.S. Jews had been privileged, naïve, or, dare I even write, blind, to the experiences of antisemitism. It was something of the past, something that happened infrequently, or something that could be brushed under a rug. 

Post-Oct. 7, we Jews learned that countless communities, thousands of miles away from the tiny State of Israel, held negative feelings or outright disdain for Jews (and Israel). And we learned fast. 

Through listening to individuals and focus groups and delving into the limited existing research, it became clear that Diaspora Jews were not OK. Jews described the shape-shifting of friends, community, teachers, mentors, family and institutions that had been in their lives for decades. We heard stories of Jews who had advocated and fought for marginalized communities, only to find silence, disregard and even outright hostility when they themselves came forward with Jewish pain. The rugs had been lifted, and it was messy. 

As psychologists, we needed a plan, ways to reach people and research. Days after the attacks, a group of concerned volunteer clinicians, under the leadership of Dr. Tara E. Liberman, held a Zoom meeting and decided to build a plane while flying it. We became the Jewish Community Mental Health Initiative at the American Psychological Foundation, a rapid response to the mental health crisis post-Oct. 7. We are now over 100 volunteer clinicians, researchers and educators. We offer approximately 25 free weekly support groups, have 10 ongoing research projects and provide consultation and training to Jewish and non-Jewish communities. 

From the outset, we stayed up well into the night planning, organizing and learning. One of our initial findings: Although people experienced immense fear of and pain from antisemitic physical violence, we observed significant increases in symptoms of anxiety, depression and PTSD from broken trust, denial of someone’s reality, dismissal of feelings, gaslighting and minimization of experiences. We recognized these as incidents and patterns of “invalidation.”

We connected with Drs. Miri Bar-Halpern and Jaclyn Wolfman, who had already begun applying the framework of “traumatic invalidation” to the post-Oct. 7 Jewish experience, giving language to our observations. In collaboration, Drs. Wolfman, Bar-Halpern, Liberman, Anna Vaynman and I, along with graduate students Zoe Bernstein and Ben Koliski, set out to explore Jewish traumatic invalidation post-Oct. 7. Seven hundred and thirty-three American Jewish participants showed us that invalidation was happening. They described being demonized, emotionally neglected and excluded — accused of being evil or harmful, ignored when they needed care, treated unfairly, left out or denied access. 

When asked who or what made them feel invalidated, participants most often reported politicians, celebrities and strangers. However, participants claimed it was most upsetting when institutions, like universities, and affinity or community groups invalidated their experiences. 

These Jews found invalidation to be emotionally harmful, destabilizing and unsettling — in a word, traumatic. Invalidation was associated with heightened symptoms of PTSD, anxiety, depression and anger, along with poorer global mental health. 

We also looked at the external and internal changes associated with being Jewish post-Oct. 7, including some that could be seen as positive. Participants expressed a stronger connection to their Jewish identity, religious practices and Jewish community. We found that almost half of the sample reported wearing distinctly Jewish items more frequently. Other data showed that participants found support, most often, from Jewish friends, family and rabbis and other clergy. Notably, every participant who endorsed seeking support from clergy found them to be useful, and although support groups were infrequently utilized, they were found to be highly beneficial. 

The invalidation study was a drop in the bucket of the research needed. We know the grave need for more research, more understanding and more training for Jewish and non-Jewish clinicians. Now that data and clinical observations are in, we can show the world what the Jewish people already know: We are not OK.

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Sanford "Sandy" Arnold Fox passed away peacefully at his home on Sept. 27, 2026, with his daughter, Melissa, at his side.

Sandy was born in Cleveland on July 13, 1937, to Edward and Fay Fox. He earned his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from The Ohio State University College of Dentistry and then served three years in the U.S. Air Force in San Antonio, Tex. He returned to Cleveland, where he married, started a family, and established his endodontic practice.

He was the beloved husband of the late Sheila Fraigun Fox; adoring father of Melissa, Drew (Beth) and Eric (Melissa); and proud grandfather of Ethan, Grayson and Sidney. 

Sandy was a generous and passionate supporter of the arts, the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, Jewish Federation, and Parkinson's research in the neurology departments at University Hospitals and Cleveland Clinic. He always said his greatest accomplishments were his children.

Sandy had a gift for talking with anyone and made lifelong friends wherever he went. His warm smile made everyone feel special. He will be dearly missed.

Services will be held at 11 a.m. on Oct. 11 at Berkowitz-Kumin-Bookatz Memorial Chapel, 1985 S. Taylor Road in Cleveland Heights. Interment will follow at Mt. Olive Cemetery.

To view the service, please visit bkbmc.com and scroll down to the Services Section and click on “Join Livestream." 

Family will receive friends from 1:30 to 6 p.m. on Oct. 11 at Beechmont Country Club, 29600 Chagrin Blvd. in Orange. 

The family kindly asks that in lieu of flowers, food or trays, donations can be made to the Sheila and Sandy Master Clinician in Neurosurgery C/O University Hospitals.

MedWish MedWorks hosted its annual MedBash fundraiser on Oct. 3 at the Agora Theatre in Cleveland, bringing supporters together for an evening of live music, food and entertainment.

The event, held at 5000 Euclid Ave., raised funds to support MedWish MedWorks and its work in the community.

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PHOTOS: MedWish MedWorks MedBash raises funds

MedBash 2026 featured live music from Faith & Whiskey and a farm-to-table plated dinner prepared by Cleveland Field Kitchen. Guests also had the opportunity to participate in an online auction throughout the evening.

New to this year’s MedBash were casino-style games, adding another entertainment option for attendees.

The fundraiser embraced a 1920s-inspired theme, with guests encouraged to dress in clothing inspired by the era. Attendees arrived in flapper-style fashion, suits and other outfits reflecting the theme while taking part in the evening’s activities.

A former University of Arkansas professor, who was fired for antisemitic social media posts, is challenging the state's campus antisemitism law and use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's working definition of Jew-hatred.

Shirin Saeidi filed the complaint on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas. She asked the court to strike down Arkansas Act 721, alleging that the campus antisemitism law violated her constitutional rights, because it singles out "adverse opinions regarding the State of Israel."

Passed in 2025, the law prohibits antisemitism in schools and specifies the IHRA definition, including its "contemporary examples." It notes that "criticism of Israel similar to the criticism leveled against any other country shall not be regarded as antisemitic," which is consistent with the IHRA definition.

An Iranian-born Shia Muslim, Saeidi was a tenured political science professor and director of the university's King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies. She was fired for social media posts, using university letterhead, calling Israel "a terrorist and genocidal state that must be dismantled" and calling Ayatollah Ali Khomeini "the leader who kept Iran intact during the Israeli attack."

"May God protect you and the Iranian people from the Israeli regime," she allegedly wrote.

She was also accused of sharing a post in December 2025 that read, "Warm blood, brave one, thrust the dagger from Doha into the throats of the Zionists, so that all of them howl."

Her complaint alleges that university officials, along with Arkansas state senator Dan Sullivan, journalist Benjamin Weinthal and activists, coordinated to get her fired.

Saeidi argued that the state's law justified her dismissal, and that it is "unconstitutionally vague" because "it makes the IHRA definition and its examples a standard of employee discipline." She is seeking reinstatement and damages, and for the judge to strike down the state's law.

A bipartisan group of U.S. House members introduced a resolution Monday honoring the captain, crew and passengers of flydubai Flight 1073 and condemning the attempted terrorist attack aboard the Israel-bound flight.

The resolution, H. Res. 1612, sponsored by Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and co-sponsored by Reps. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Don Bacon (R-Neb.), honors Capt. Smit Machchhar for his “extraordinary courage” after he was seriously wounded by the flight’s first officer.

“Captain Machchhar is a hero,” Gottheimer stated. “Congress must honor his extraordinary courage, and we must be clear that this was an act of terrorism and an attack on the safety of international air travel.”

Despite his injuries, Machchhar managed to unlock the cockpit door, allowing off-duty pilots, crew members and passengers to enter and subdue the attacker. The Boeing 737 then diverted to Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, and landed safely after losing more than 14,000 feet of altitude in less than 30 seconds, according to the resolution.

“The world owes a debt of gratitude to these heroes, especially Capt. Smit Machchhar, who sustained injuries fighting the attacker and still managed to unlock the cockpit door and allow others to land the plane,” McCaul stated.

“Were it not for his extraordinary courage, this story could have ended in horrific tragedy,” he added.

The resolution, which was referred to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wishes Machchhar and the other injured victims a full recovery and commends the off-duty pilots, cabin crew and passengers who secured the flight deck.

It also calls for a full and expeditious investigation by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with the United States and Israel to be kept fully informed.

Flight 1073 departed Dubai International Airport for Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv on Sept. 30 carrying approximately 174 passengers, most of them Israeli citizens, including four U.S. citizens and 27 children. During the flight, the first officer allegedly attacked Machchhar with an emergency crash axe and attempted to seize control of the aircraft.

The UAE attorney general, Hamad Saif Al Shamsi, said on Oct. 3 that an Emirati investigation determined that the first officer, identified in reports as Hamam al-Hammami, had attempted to carry out a “terrorist act.”

Ashland University honored longtime benefactors Dwight Schar and his wife, Martha Schar, with the dedication of Schar Plaza outside the main entrance of Amstutz Hall on campus on Oct. 2.

Dwight Schar, founder of Brecksville-based NVR, a home construction company, helped transform the university’s residence halls with a $20 million donation, the largest gift in Ashland University’s history, and bringing the total of philanthropic support from the Schars to $60 million, according to a news release.

“Dwight and Martha Schar have helped shape the trajectory of Ashland University through decades of remarkable generosity and a shared vision for the university’s future,” Ashland University President Jon Parrish Peede said in the release. “Their donation highlights their commitment to building quality housing, not only for families but also for students. This historic $20 million gift is the latest chapter in a legacy that has touched every corner of our campus, strengthening our academic and athletic programs, enhancing our facilities, and enriching the student experience. We are profoundly grateful for the Schars’ lasting impact on our institution.”

The recent $20 million donation helped renovate and modernize nine-story Amstutz Hall, four-story Jacobs Hall, and the first floor of Andrews Hall – with all construction taking place during a five-month timeline.

The three residence halls now feature air conditioning, pod-style bathrooms and lobby and room updates which include new flooring, furniture and LED lighting. Amstutz Hall now has a glass façade running the full height of the nine-story building, bringing natural light into open-concept study lounges on every floor. The renovations provide students with more modern, comfortable, and collaborative living and learning environments, the release said.

“Ashland provided me with an outstanding education and experience that shaped me as an adult,” Dwight Schar said in the release. “I want the current and future students to have the same opportunity and the living environment that reflects the exceptional quality of the Ashland faculty, staff, coaches and academic facilities.”

Dwight Schar was raised in Jefferson, Ohio, alongside six siblings by their mother, who didn’t let financial “tough straits” define their aspirations. He attended Ashland University by working the night-shift at a pipe-fitting factory and graduated in 1964. He began a career in teaching, but began selling property and soon founded his own company, NVHomes. NVR is now a Fortune 400 company and is the parent company of Ryan Homes, NVHomes and Heartland Homes.

The projects the Schars have supported have touched every area of campus, from modernized student housing and two academic buildings to campus beautification and gathering spaces, according to the release.

”They tried to kill us. We survived. Let’s eat.” 

Alan King’s joke about Jewish holidays gets to the essence of Jewish persistence in the face of horror. He might have added “Let’s sing.” Music has accompanied the Jewish people for millennia through periods of joy and sorrow. Moses and the Israelites praised God for His salvation from the Egyptians in  the “Song of the Sea.” Weddings, the Shabbat table and kumsitzes all come with joyous soundtracks.

In times of overwhelming devastation, songs have served as expressions of survival, determination and memory. During the Holocaust, Jews continued to compose and perform it in ghettos and concentration camps, including Theresienstadt. ”The Partisan Hymn,” “Zog nit keyn mol” (“Never Say”), was composed in the Vilna Ghetto.

Three years ago this week, music and tragedy once again intertwined when Hamas-led terrorists attacked the Nova Music Festival as part of the Oct. 7 assault on Israel. Approximately 1,200 people, including 364 civilians at the Nova festival, were killed that day, and 251 were abducted to Gaza.

Two months later, David Fishof, who founded Rock ’n Roll Fantasy Camp, saw music and trauma bound together at the funeral for Yotam Haim, the red-headed hostage who escaped with two others but was killed by friendly fire.

“Yotam’s brother, Tuval, and father, Raviv, are drummers,” said Fishof, an L.A. sports agent and entertainment producer. “They performed a 20-minute drum solo in Yotam’s honor, after which Tuval threw the sticks in the grave. At that moment, it hit me: I wanted to bring Tuval and nine other Oct. 7 survivors to Rock Camp in L.A.”

With the help of Sam Grundwerg, former world chairman of Keren Hayesod – United Israel Appeal, the 10 survivors were flown to Los Angeles in March 2024 to participate in the sold-out camp.

Now, their experience is chronicled in “The Bridge,” a new documentary produced by “Friends_”_ executive producer Kevin Bright that highlights how music can become a pathway from trauma to healing. Its message: “When tragedy strikes the Jewish people, we play louder.” Ahead of a wider theatrical release in November, the film is now playing at select North American venues.

Rock Camp, founded by Fishof in 1997, brings amateur rockers alongside music legends for four days of mentorship, rehearsals and performances at such iconic clubs as Whisky a Go Go and The Viper Room.

Music, memory and trauma informed Fishof’s upbringing. Music saved the life of his father, Mark, a survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald.

“My dad would sing to the Nazis, just to entertain them,” Fishof said. “They would say, ‘Sing this song,’ and he would. Music saved him. It was a way for him to take his mind off of what he was going through.” 

His father served as a cantor in Hackensack, New Jersey, for 33 years.

Fishof said his memories of his father’s sufferings made Oct. 7 the worst day of his life.  

The post They survived Oct. 7. At Rock Camp, they found a way to feel alive again. appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Jewish groups and police departments have expressed alarm at rising antisemitism in Canada, but Deborah Lyons, former Canadian special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism and a former ambassador to Israel, told JNS that she has seen promising signs from Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister.

After he launched a national panel to fight hate in June and directed it to tackle Jew-hatred as its first focus, Carney attended one of the council’s early meetings. That is “very unusual, almost unheard of,” Lyons told JNS.

That kind of high-level attention “must translate into outcomes,” and the panel must issue “very solid recommendations” for government actions on Jew-hatred “before Chanukah,” she said.

Chanukah begins at sundown on Dec. 4 this year.

“The proof will be in the results that we see soon,” she told JNS, after speaking at a Toronto conference on Jew-hatred.

Lyons served as the Canadian special envoy on Jew-hatred from October 2023 until she retired in July 2025, several months before the Canadian government eliminated the office in February 2026. The non-Jewish diplomat told JNS that she faced “too many times when I felt like I was standing alone.”

She would have wanted “more courage” from government, business and religious leaders during her tenure “to stand beside me in the fight,” she said.

The change in the office came “with the understanding from today’s government that they would be looking at other approaches,” and those other approaches include the new panel, she said.

Lyons framed her Chanukah deadline as a test of whether the federal government’s replacement for her former office can convert a substantial body of pre-existing research, committee work and community expertise into an effective, actionable national response.

She rejected the idea that the Jewish community should just wait for the government to solve the problem or “be expected to solve it alone.” Her prescription was a broad, “trilateral coalition,” involving federal, provincial and municipal governments, alongside universities, business leaders, religious leaders and non-Jewish allies.

“The federal government and the provincial governments and municipal governments will never be absolved of responsibility in this matter,” Lyons told JNS.

'A very useful instrument'

She urged those at the conference not to dismiss the current federal advisory council outright and to give it a chance to succeed. “You may not like the advisory council, and sure as heck, you and I don’t like the way in which it was launched,” she said.

The council’s membership drew sharp criticism from major Jewish groups, which argued that a body confronting antisemitism needs specialized expertise. The panel includes appointees whose past records have raised concerns about impartiality on Israel and antisemitism. B’nai Brith Canada called for two members to recuse themselves or be removed.

“I think that the establishment of the advisory council is a very useful instrument if it produces what it must produce, and Prime Minister Carney, the highest office in the land, has given them clear instructions,” Lyons told JNS.

“Frankly, I agree with most of those instructions,” she said. “I’m here to support the council to have success, and if they don’t have success, then we’ll deal with it.”

The former envoy said that the council has a secretariat and has been meeting regularly. Its task isn’t to begin from scratch but to consolidate work that Parliament, the Senate, her former office and researchers in areas including “education, universities and Canadian public opinion” have already completed.

Lyons told JNS the council has an important role to play in understanding antisemitism both as an issue affecting Jews and “an overall threat to Canada’s democracy.”

The former Canadian ambassador to Israel and Afghanistan, who was also the United Nations secretary-general’s special representative for Afghanistan, has largely stayed out of the public eye since her former office was eliminated.

Lyons plans to continue speaking and writing about the rise of Jew-hatred and aims to place op-eds in Canadian newspapers and focus on developing broader non-Jewish allyship, she told JNS.

She thinks antisemitism has “calmed a little bit” in Canada but said “that doesn’t mean that the crisis has subsided.”

“It doesn’t mean that the problems have gone away,” she told JNS.

“I’m hoping that what it means is that we have a bit more latitude,” she said. “If not a more comfortable environment, at least more space to work on the issues, and there are still many.”

The issues relate to law enforcement, training at schools and social media. “There is much more work that we’ve begun,” she told JNS. “We’ve got a foundation. Now we move forward.”

Ottawa must also remain alert to the groups and networks that foment Jew-hatred and other forms of hatred, according to Lyons. The government needs to remain “very vigilant” about Islamist groups “and continue to be very open-eyed about where this hatred is coming from,” she said.

“It’s not just disruptive, of course, to our Jewish community,” she told JNS. “It is incredibly dangerous to our democracy.”

The Israeli embassy in Washington held a memorial to mark the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks on Monday at Washington Hebrew Congregation, a Reform synagogue in the District.

Michael Needham, U.S. deputy national security advisor, described the Hamas massacre in southern Israel as evidence of a struggle between “civilization and barbarism” that unites Israel and the United States.

“The war between the people of Israel and the terrorists of Hamas is a war that is playing out in various forms here in the United States and in Europe and all over the Western world,” he told about 400 attendees.

Members of the Trump administration, U.S. and Israeli military officials, members of the Washington diplomatic corps and leaders of Jewish community groups attended the event, where Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, was notable for his absence.

Leiter has been in Israel since September to support the recovery of his son Neriyah, who was critically injured when a Palestinian terrorist rammed him with a car at an Israeli military checkpoint in Samaria. Another of Leiter’s sons, Moshe, was killed serving in Gaza in 2023.

Needham quoted Leiter’s comment about the attack on his younger son. “They choose death,” he said, echoing the envoy. “We choose life.”

“Those who choose to defend civilization may be willing to die for our cause, but it is only because we love and value life that we choose to sacrifice to defend it,” Needham said. “Over the last three years, the people of Israel have chosen life—to fight and suffer and sacrifice for it—and civilization will continue to prevail so long as our nations are blessed by heroes like Yechiel and Moshe and Neriyah and their brothers and sisters across the United States and across Israel.”

Speaking in Leiter’s place, Nevo Barchad, chief of mission, credited those who served in the Israeli military after Oct. 7 as “the greatest generation of Israelis.”

“Oct. 7 showed us that our greatest enemies sought to ruin us and couldn’t,” he told attendees. “We suffered many losses, but our enemies cannot and will never destroy our soul, courage or resourcefulness.”

CHICAGO (AP) — It’s official: Skydance-owned Paramount closed its $81 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday, ushering in a new Hollywood giant.

The merger brings two of America’s oldest moviemaking studios together, under a new name: Skydance. The deal, which followed a tumultuous, roughly yearlong fight, further concentrates power in an industry already run by just a handful of major players.

HBO Max, titles ranging from “Harry Potter” to “Sinners” and networks such as CNN now find themselves under the same roof as Paramount+, CBS and the likes of “Top Gun” and “The Godfather.” All are under the helm of billionaire David Ellison and his new co-CEO Ynon Kreiz.

“Today is a historic day, not just for Skydance but for our entire industry,” Ellison said in a statement Tuesday. “We couldn’t be more excited to get to work.”

Including billions of dollars in debt, the Warner acquisition amounts to nearly $111 billion.

Ellison’s Skydance bought out Paramount for $8 billion last year before setting its sights on Warner. What followed was one of the biggest tie-ups ever in the media and entertainment industry.

Netflix gets into a bidding war with Paramount for Warner

The early days of Paramount's quest for Warner turned into a messy bidding war.

Months after disclosing it was open to selling parts or even all of its business, Warner initially struck a studio and streaming deal with Netflix in December. But Skydance-owned Paramount, which claimed Warner management “never engaged meaningfully” with its previous proposals, soon launched a hostile counterbid aimed at taking over the entire company — including networks like CNN and Discovery.

The Hollywood giants spent much of early 2026 in a heated back-and-forth over who had a stronger offer, with Warner leadership repeatedly backing Netflix as its preferred suitor. But Paramount eventually upped its offer to buy all of Warner for $31 per share, and Netflix bowed out of the race. Warner and Paramount inked a mutual merger agreement by late February.

Hollywood stars made their thoughts known

Hollywood was closely watching the fight over Warner's future. From awards shows to online petitions, A-list celebrities and other creatives made their voices known.

In April, thousands of movie stars, writers, directors and other professionals announced their “unequivocal opposition” to the Paramount-Warner merger. An open letter — which was signed by long-outspoken critics of the deal like Jane Fonda and Mark Ruffalo, as well as Hollywood heavyweights from Denis Villeneuve to J.J. Abrams — warned of fewer jobs and “less choice for audiences in the United States and around the world.”

Other stars lined up to back Paramount as Ellison reiterated his commitments to the movies. At CinemaCon, the company debuted a glossy mini movie about the studio directed by Jon M. Chu and narrated by Tom Cruise — who ended the spot atop the iconic Paramount water tower, with the words “the future is paramount and the future looks pretty great from here.” Director James Cameron also doubled down on his support of Ellison.

The prospect of a new Warner owner also loomed over awards season, from #BlockTheMerger pins to more subtle nods in acceptance speeches. When accepting her Emmy last month, “Remarkably Bright Creatures” actor Sally Field — who also signed the open letter in opposition to the Paramount-Warner deal — stressed that “unique storytelling matters” and “we can’t let those voices be silenced, or compromised or merged.”

Many industry critics were also outspoken when Netflix's studio and streaming deal was on the table, with particular focus on the future of movies staying in theaters.

Trump has attacked CNN

President Donald Trump has regularly attacked reporting he deems unfavorable at CNN (most recently attempting to bar the outlet from the White House altogether). Over the course of the Warner buyout, his administration wasn't afraid to chime in about hopes for a new owner.

Days after Paramount launched its hostile bid for Warner last year, Trump said that CNN spread “poison and lies,” adding that “I think the people who have run CNN for the last long period of time are a disgrace” and “it’s imperative that CNN be sold.”

The White House took aim again at CNN in March, over the network's coverage of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told reporters that “the sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.”

Ellison has said editorial independence will be maintained at CNN. The combined company is retaining Mark Thompson as CNN’s editor-in-chief.

Under a settlement finalized last month with states that had sued over the takeover, the company agreed to form a “News Editorial Independence Board.”

Critics point to turmoil already seen at CBS under Skydance ownership and aren’t convinced this new body will move the needle much, because Ellison is set to have ample oversight over appointments.

Trump has continued to criticize CBS coverage under Skydance ownership. Still, the president has held a long relationship with the Ellison family.

Paramount's chief reportedly hosted a dinner in Washington in Trump’s honor in April, on the same day Warner shareholders gave their green light for the merger. In June, just two days after the Justice Department said it wouldn't intervene in the deal, Ellison attended an Ultimate Fighting Championship match on the White House lawn for Trump’s 80th birthday (streamed by Paramount+).

3 Gulf countries helped back the deal

To help fund its Warner buyout, Paramount racked up billions of dollars in financial backing from three Gulf countries: Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The Federal Communications Commission approved the company’s request for sizable indirect ownership from those foreign investors.

Paramount previously disclosed it expected those funds to indirectly own nearly 50% of equity interests — but no voting rights — of what is now the larger Skydance. But the company asked for clearance of up to 100% to account for potential future investments, which the FCC granted, citing in part that access to more capital would strengthen the broadcast industry and was therefore “in the public interest.”

Critics — including FCC’s sole Democratic Commissioner, Anna Gomez — have called the move alarming and unprecedented. They argue that amount of money opens the door to behind-the-scenes influence.

Legal fights stalled the deal

Paramount cleared antitrust hurdles for its Warner acquisition from regulators worldwide over the summer, including the Justice Department.

But in July, Democratic attorneys general from 12 states — led by California's Rob Bonta — sued to block the merger, alleging the combined company would “extinguish competition” and lead to fewer choices for consumers, particularly movie theatergoers and cable customers across the U.S.

The Writers Guild of America followed suit.

Settlement agreements emerged in September. The states' terms, eventually approved by a judge, include pledges from the company to increase film production in the U.S. over the next five years, commit millions of dollars to a fund aimed at supporting workers displaced by the merger and again establish new editorial monitoring of CNN and CBS.

Those settlements cleared the way for the deal to close. Critics said the remedies were too weak.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has accused the Jewish state of “genocide” and who campaigned on having the Israeli prime minister arrested, might change his tune if he takes the time to watch footage of the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks.

That’s why Ofir Akunis, Israeli consul general in New York, told about 1,000 people at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, an Orthodox synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, on Monday evening that he was inviting the mayor to attend a screening of footage of the attacks.

“In less than 48 hours, on Oct. 7, we will screen in New York City the 47-minute footage compiled by the IDF documenting the atrocities of Oct. 7,” Akunis said. “I invite Mr. Zohran Mamdani, the mayor, to come and watch the film.”

“For the first time, he will be able to see what the people he supports actually did, and perhaps he will stop his relentless incitement, hatred and blood libels against the State of Israel,” the Israeli envoy said.

Akunis previously told JNS that Mamdani is “the biggest liar ever, who actually served this city as a mayor.”

Soft music played at the beginning of the event at the synagogue, which drew consuls general, elected officials, rabbis and Jewish communal leaders and marked three years since Oct. 7.

The music gave way to a moment of silence, for which the audience stood. A video then played on a screen, depicting the brutality of Oct. 7. Throughout the evening, recordings from the attacks were played between speeches, bringing the voices and sounds of the massacre into the sanctuary.

Akunis recalled being awakened by hundreds of rockets on Oct. 7 and seeing the first images emerging from the kibbutzim, the Nova festival and military bases. He visited families of fallen Israeli soldiers, recalling sitting in their homes and listening to parents and grandparents share stories about their children.

“I’m still thinking of them,” he told attendees. “I would salute each and every one of them until the last day of my life.”

Simcha Greiniman, a volunteer at ZAKA, which painstakingly collects and preserves bodies and fragments of bodies, attended the event at the synagogue. He responded to the Oct. 7 attacks and spent weeks helping recover remains of victims.

“I’m the voice of the victim,” he told JNS. “You can’t be silent. The only thing that we can do for them is to continue speaking.”

He said that he and others who are preserving the stories and memories of Oct. 7 victims are akin to the numbers tattooed on the arms of Holocaust survivors.

“We are the number,” he told JNS.

Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, senior rabbi of Kehilath Jeshurun, told attendees that at about 8:15 a.m. on Oct. 7, 2023, a neighbor knocked on his door and told him there had been an attack in Israel. It was a holiday, so the Orthodox rabbi couldn’t use anything electronic to check the news.

At first, he didn’t grasp the scale. “He looked at me, and he said, ‘Rabbi, you don’t understand. This was a big attack,’” Steinmetz said.

Then the rabbi learned that hundreds had already been killed. “My life was turned upside down,” he said.

Steinmetz reminded attendees about how the U.S. Jewish community mobilized in the days and months that followed, raising money, packing supplies, traveling to Washington and advocating for Israel amid rising antisemitism.

“We stand with Israel,” he said. “We are there with you.”

Rabbi Ayelet Cohen, dean of the rabbinical school and religious leadership division at Jewish Theological Seminary, the flagship organization of Conservative Judaism, attended the event.

“We are all gathering to mourn the tragedy of Oct. 7, to remember the horrors, to honor the horrific loss of life that day, all of those who have suffered,” she told JNS.

“Never again” means hoping that such a tragedy will never happen again and working toward a world “where violence is not met with more violence,” she said.

Akunis, the Israeli envoy, said that the third anniversary of Oct. 7 presents a chance “to ask world leaders, presidents, heads of government, elected officials and mayors who continue to criticize us: What would you have done if those same savages had invaded your country or your city and brutally murdered innocent civilians?”

“What would you have done if a member of your own family, your son or your daughter, had been burned alive before your eyes?” he said. “We are done listening to your empty criticism, and I say this loud and clear. ‘We are not impressed by your cowardly actions, your hypocrisy, or your weakness. We are not impressed by an approach designed to appease your new political base.’”

Sagi Gabay, a survivor of the Nova festival attack, told attendees that at first he thought he was looking at a beautiful sky on Oct. 7, only to realize that thousands of rockets were flying overhead.

He and a friend fled by car and took shelter before running through open fields as Hamas terrorists attacked. He and the friend walked for about five hours toward safety, as rockets flew overhead and nearby villages burned.

Three years later, the experience has changed him fundamentally.

“Pain is part of life, but suffering is a choice,” he told attendees. He said that resilience means choosing light and gratitude, despite what he endured.

As the evening drew to a close, the tone in the sanctuary shifted, and a montage played of released hostages reuniting with relatives. Many in the room were moved to tears.

Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, rabbi emeritus of the synagogue, led a prayer for Israel’s safety. All those in the sanctuary then rose to sing “Hatikvah,” the Israeli national anthem.