One Year Later: Remembering October 7th
Vigil on Cross Campus, October 7, 2024
(Taken after this letter was published)
A letter from Uri Cohen
Dear Friends,
Today we commemorate the first anniversary of the horrific terror attacks Hamas perpetrated against Israel on October 7th, 2023. That terrible day was also the first of what is now 367 days in which our hostages remain captives in Gaza. The murders, torture, rapes, abductions, displacements, and other horrors experienced by the victims and their immediate families haunt us all, and the closeness so many of us feel to them makes the attacks feel very personal. Despite the geographic distance from these events, Jewish communities worldwide have been deeply affected, including our cherished Jewish community at Yale. As I reflect on the external and internal crises that made last year so impossible, I also look at the enormous energy, level of engagement, and participation in Jewish life that we have seen so far this semester. I write today to reflect on what has happened here.
A critical theme of this past year was the imperative for constant vigilance and unrelenting advocacy for ourselves as a Jewish community. We can take nothing for granted. We owe enormous gratitude to Yale Public Safety for the immediate and still ongoing presence, partnership, and protection of our building and community. We could not ask for better support.
Even so, last year was still incredibly hard. Our campus had protests and chants calling for violence against and death to Jews. Too many classrooms, residential college suites, open campus spaces, student social media feeds, and local streets filled with vitriol at levels we thought were relics of history. Jewish students were isolated, ostracized, and targeted by organized groups, members of the faculty, and their peers in person and on social media. Jews everywhere were reminded that we must look out for ourselves, and that role quickly became a top priority for Slifka.
Alongside the external threats, we faced a massive internal challenge, too. The joke goes that if you have two Jews there are (at least) three opinions. Indeed, there is an enormous divergence of views on Israel within the Jewish community broadly and here on campus at Yale. This is our responsibility to navigate. This tension between Jews forced us to get clear about who we are and what values we hold.
Slifka Center’s stated purpose is to nurture Jewish life at Yale, cultivating cultural, spiritual, religious, and intellectual experiences that enrich the lives of Yale students in a way that endures. We empower Yale students to grow as Jewish adults, connect with each other across personal histories, and drive a compassionate and welcoming community — all inspired by Jewish ideas, traditions, and values. This is an approach that applies to the Jewish community in all its diversity – to all who wish to enter our space and join in seeking and building a vibrant and strong Jewish community at Yale and the future it is preparing to create.
As a pillar of this work, Slifka is committed to supporting a strong and vibrant Israel. We demonstrate this commitment by working to create many opportunities for students to engage productively with the Jewish State. From the Israeli flag over our front door to the resources we allocate to Israel education, experiences, Israel travel, and day-to-day Israel engagement opportunities at and through Slifka, evidence of our commitment to Israel is everywhere and unmistakable.
We hold our fundamental commitment to fostering a pluralistic Jewish community alongside our abiding commitment to Israel together, always. We understand there may be some who see inherent conflict between these core values and our methodologies to support them. We disagree, and embrace the challenge involved.
Holding the Jewish community together this past year has been extraordinarily difficult and even painful at times. Yet, it is unbelievably important. We have heard students both from the political left and right using the term “betrayal” to describe how they feel when they see their fellow Jews on the other side of the spectrum publicly contravening the values that they hold dear. We tend to think to ourselves, “How can I stay in a relationship with Jews who are actively working against what I believe is most important and beautiful about being Jewish?” And yes, I’m talking about critical disagreements about the merits, means and ends of the ongoing conflict which — just as it may be — has claimed tens of thousands of lives and now threatens to spread even further.
To offer a way through this, I want to take you back with me to October 9th, 2023. I was in a meeting in which a dozen or so student leaders went around the room sharing what their part of the community needed immediately after October 7th. The last student began to speak, but before he could get too far, other students shouted him down. He became quite emotional. Through his tears of sadness and anger he taught us all. “You know,” he said, “if you had only listened to me for a few seconds longer you would have realized that I agree with you. But you didn’t give me that chance.” Then he said, “You are my friends! Don’t you owe me better than to treat me this way?” Finally, he asked, “Why do you insist on doing to me what you hate having done to you?”
There was silence. Then – a few beats later – those in the room began what has become an ongoing (now yearlong) journey first to preserve our sense of community and then to strengthen it. The process began with listening, arguing, crying, sharing with and respecting each other. There have been both steep ups and precipitous downs along the way, and through it all our students have fought hard to continue the journey because they know what Jewish community is really worth.
They are succeeding. So far this semester we are averaging over 300 participants at Shabbat dinner, and every day the ruach—the energy in our community to be together eating, singing, praying, talking, celebrating—is through the roof. No one has forgotten where we were last year, and disagreements between us about Israel and the conflict are just as deep and divergent as ever. But our students are continuing the work of building community despite their differences. They are celebrating their shared commitment to Jewish identity and community. Visitors who have come to campus have noticed and remarked upon the strength, vitality, and mutual support that our students find in each other. Students are raising their voices in song together and putting their arms around each other. Critically, they have also come together to plan tonight’s October 7th Yale Jewish Community Vigil.
This hard work has been well worth it because the Jewish identities of our students – your children – and the future of our people are at stake. For us, nothing could be more important than this. We’ve had hard conversations about this with some of you about goals and methods, and received appreciation from many others. We value both, and look forward to continuing in partnership with all of you.
The story of the long arc of Jewish history is that we are resilient. We’ve been knocked down over and over and each time we get up stronger, more dynamic, and we adapt for the next phase. On this day a year ago we were knocked down, and a year later we are – while deeply wounded and still mourning – ever ready, willing, and able to engage with our future with eyes wide open. The phrase “Am Yisrael Chai” is most powerful because of its truth in the face of the longest odds. The Jewish people endure with all our colors, and I’m so proud to be part of that story here at Yale.
Between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur we are steeped in a time of deep remembrance, mourning, and reflection, yet with the potential for renewal. May 5785 help us remember October 7th, 2023 and also find our own contributions to a future that is better than our past.
May we all be inscribed and sealed in the Book of Life.
Uri