Editor’s Note: The following commentary appeared in the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. On Oct. 7, 2024, a large community gathering – Reflection Resilience, Renewal – was held at the Weinstein JCC to Stand With Israel and remember those who died.
During our holiest of days, we stand together to fight hatred
By Daniel Staffenberg, CEO, JCFR and
Josh Goldberg, President, JCFR
Oct. 6, 2024
Monday marks one year since the attack that has changed the course of Jewish history.
One year since 1,189 Israeli citizens were brutally murdered. Since 251 hostages were dragged from their homes, their families and their lives and taken into Gaza.
One year since our sense of safety was shattered, our world was broken, and our continuing nightmare began.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Jews in Greater Richmond and around the world woke up to text messages and phone calls asking if they had heard the news. For our community, the 365 days since have been a blur of disbelief, despair, isolation and dashed hopes.
Nobody would have imagined that the war would continue this long, that so many hostages would remain in Hamas hands, that Hamas would refuse cease-fire agreements, over and over.
Here at home, we watched in horror as antisemitism spread like wildfire, our community called out threatened, isolated and attacked. The unrest on college and university campuses continues to make physical safety a constant concern for Jewish students, faculty and staff.
We could not imagine that in Monroe Park, at City Council meetings, on college campuses and cultural events, we’d hear chants of “from the river to the sea” and “globalize the intifada,” normalizing calls for violence against Jews, and the plight of raped and abused women and children held in Hamas hell would be ignored and erased.
But our community did not stand by silently; our history has taught us the folly of that approach. Grateful for those across the United States who stood with us as our Jewish community came together, first to mourn our fallen brothers and sisters in Israel and then to mobilize help to those in need.
Throughout Greater Richmond we focused on giving, advocacy, security and education.
We showed up at rallies, at City Council, and for those who had questions and desired to learn more.
We raised record-breaking amounts to support all Israelis, including Druze, Arabs, Christians and Thai nationals, who also felt the wrath of terror.
With deep sadness we took steps to secure our Jewish institutions and community from record-breaking antisemitism and threats. We told the stories and engaged with those who sought the truth and a deeper understanding of the complexities of the conflict.
The anniversary of Oct. 7 takes place during the holiest days of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana, and our holiest day, Yom Kippur. These are the days when we are instructed to take account of the past year, of our world, our communities and our own souls as we seek to be inscribed in the Book of Life for the next year.
With that metaphor in mind, many of us are eager to turn the page on the past 12 months.
Yet, we must remember that we are not yet done writing this chapter. The work is not done. We must continue to do what we’ve been doing for a year — saying prayers, writing letters, hanging posters, wearing yellow ribbons or dog tags, lighting candles, telling the stories of hostages, leaving open seats at our holiday tables, creating public displays of empty Shabbat tables, and everything else that shows how much we need that piece of our hearts that was taken from us to be restored.
For our tradition teaches that every person contains a whole world — that is why saving a life is akin to saving the entire world. And we are all connected to each other in a sacred chain that spans time and space.
As we approach Yom Kippur, we put a bookmark on last year, because we will continue to return to it again and again — every minute of every day, in fact, until this war is over and the hostages have returned home, and Israelis finally live without the threat of rockets and terror.
Our Jewish story will continue to be written, and we are the ones who will continue to write it.
We have no choice but to go forward.
