Listen to this articleLong Islanders are marking the first anniversary of the Hamas Oct. 7 attack in Israel, the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust.
Across Long Island, services are being held throughout the day and into the evening, marking the killing of about 1,200 people, including 46 U.S. citizens, by Hamas-led militants in the Oct. 7 attack last year, and the taking of about 250 hostages. A year later, it is believed that 101 people, including several Americans and a Long Islander, Omer Neutra, remain in captivity, as U.S.-led efforts to negotiate a cease-fire and hostage release deal have sputtered out.
Services on Long Island are being attended by community members, affiliates of Jewish and interfaith organizations as well as elected officials at the local, state and federal level from across the political spectrum to show support. Synagogues are holding commemorations and prayers for peace, while at Eisenhower Park, a remembrance ceremony will be hosted by Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman. The ceremony will include Nova Music Festival survivor Tomer Meir, IDF soldiers, elected officials and representatives from about 100 community groups.
Earlier on Monday, more than 600 people gathered at the Suffolk Y JCC in Commack where a survivor from the Kibbutz Kfar Aza spoke, said Eric Post, regional director of American Jewish Committee on Long Island.
“While it is a difficult time, we are reflecting on how we have come together as a community this past year to show support for Israel,” Post told LIBN. That effort includes “dozens of rallies, packing duffel bags to send to Israel, supporting charitable organizations, and forming the Long Island Jewish Coalition, a group of over 20 organizations working together to support the Jewish community on Long Island.”
Post pointed out that there is still “a lot of work to do supporting Israel in getting the hostages home and creating a future that is free from existential threats. Foremost in our mind is Plainview resident Omer Neutra whose second birthday in captivity is coming soon.”
Alan Mindel, chair of the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County, described Oct. 7, 2023, as “the darkest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust. It was not only a tragedy in Israel where more Jews were murdered in one day than in any other day since the Holocaust, but it involved a level of depravity that the world had seldom ever seen.”
Yet, what “made the tragedy even worse was that some in America treated these barbaric acts as a victory, as if actions against civilians were somehow acceptable because Jews deserved it,” he said.
“Media reports no longer seemed equitable as the information from terrorist groups and propaganda services were taken as fact with little journalistic review,” he added. “Israel was no longer permitted to prosecute a war and Jews in America no longer felt comfortable in our homeland.”
Mindel went on to say that “[w]e came to understand the areas within our education system and media that demand reform. We focus our mission now to make sure that facts rule the day and not propaganda.”
The Oct. 7 attack sparked a deadly war in Gaza, as Israel moved to root out Hamas’ control over the territory and try to return those taken captive. Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, which does not distinguish between militants and civilians.
Another Iran-backed group, Hezbollah, has fired thousands of rockets at Israeli territory in the same period from Lebanon, and Israel last month expanded a campaign of sabotage and assassination and launched a ground incursion into Lebanon to combat the threat from the group.
Iran, meanwhile, has fired large missile salvos at Israel, most recently a week ago, as the U.S. maintains troops and weaponry in the region to help Israel shoot them down.
This is an environment where businesses may not be speaking out – a report by Gravity Research showed that 61% of 200 communications leaders at Fortune 1000 companies had no plans to commemorate the Oct. 7 attacks.
Yet a new landscape may unfold in the November election, even at a local level on Long Island.
“In a post Oct. 7 world, Jewish voters in particular are paying attention more than ever,” said Josh Lafazan, the former Nassau County legislator who ran for U.S. Congress in New York’s third district, and has more than 500,000 followers on social media where he speaks out against antisemitism.
“What’s different now is that the Jewish community is expecting our representatives to be more vocal not just for support for Israel but stopping the rise in antisemitism at home and so Jewish students on our campuses are protected, and making sure that our police have the resources to fully prosecute and apprehend people who commit hate crimes. With so much of the increase in hateful rhetoric in a post Oct. 7 world, Jews continue to be the most targeted minority in the country.
“In the Jewish community, we’re not just looking words,” he said. “We’re looking for action.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
