One year ago today, the world witnessed the biggest massacre of Jewish persons on a single day since the Holocaust.
When we wrote about the horrific actions of marauding Hamas terrorists a year ago, calling October 7 “a day destined for multi-generational infamy,” we had not yet seen the shocking videos that would later be sent to us so we could witness the true horror of what took place, the unspeakable cruelty and violence that bespoke not of ordinary warfare or political difference but raw human hatred.
We had not yet been visited by the families of those Israelis taken hostage, gentle, mostly non-political people who were scared to death about the fate of their loved ones and came to our editorial boardroom to look us directly in the eye and say that all they wanted was help to bring them home. We did not yet know how prayers would turn to grief and a well-liked man Chicago’s Jewish community called Hersh would never return.
And, of course, we did not yet know the massive extent of the human suffering in Israel, Gaza and now Lebanon those cowardly attacks that day would unleash. October 7, it has been argued, was not a beginning but a reaction to the instability of a region marked by age-old conflict and distrust. That’s true. But it’s also true that the actions of that day unscrewed the lid on a bottleful of new horrors that can no longer be contained.
This most inauspicious of anniversaries falls in the middle of Jewish holidays. As families in this community gather, we suspect it will not be seen as a day to discuss politics or even the ongoing conflict now raging on another front.
Rather, October 7, 2024 will be a day upon which to mourn the dead and pray for peace. Which is how this and all the anniversaries to come should be marked.
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