The only adequate response and the only adequate memorial to October 7 will be the declaration of Israeli sovereignty over Gaza, Judea and Samaria and the population of these areas by Jews en masse, many of whom will come from North America. As for the "Palestinians" in these areas they will be locked down for fifty years, free to leave whenever they want.
You captured so much of what is going on in our heads and in our lives these days, those of us in N. America, and you did it with both personal humility and respect for the victims. I have avoided watching any footage of what happened on Oct. 7 because I am a wimp. Just reading about it robs me of sleep and threatens my mental stability, so I admire your courage to face the carnage and to wrestle with your own reaction to October 7th and everything that has happened since. I had the same surreal reaction at Auschwitz-Birkenau. There was an obscenity about its having become a tourist attraction, an exercise to stimulate the Polish economy. I am still not sure whether my presence there was a desecration or not. When you describe our attempts to ‘signal’ our support of the hostages with our attendance at rallies and events, our dogtags and yellow ribbons, I am reminded of the signaling of the other side with their encampments, flags and kefiyahs. Having taken an abrupt political right turn at the ripe old age of 77, I find so many of my Jewish friends still face more to the left. My otherwise revered and adored Toronto friend, the late Tony Wallis, used to embarrass us with his rightwing attitudes about Israel’s security. I am glad he didn’t live long enough to see how right he was, and I am sad that I rolled my eyes in such complete naiveté.
Not only in US or Canadian schools, especially in countries like Ireland, Belgium, Norway, Spain, The Netherlands, France, in all Europe, in Asia. Everywhere.
I have to say that I agree with everything that you’ve written. Back in November 2023 I was already questioning this “macabre “ new tourism, visiting the Gaza envelope and the Nova Festival site. Everyone was going, is still going and I can’t understand why. The same goes with the October 8 film. We don’t need thousands of Jews going to see this, we need everyone else. This must not become some kind of fundraising event, it has to be shown in theatres and at political events. Everything has changed, we all know that. What tools are you giving us to combat this prejudice? Why haven’t there been Krav Maga classes offered to every university student? That’s where the money must go, not for public relations anymore.
I don’t think you can appreciate what happened on 10/7 and have any real sense of empathy until and unless you have seen what Hamas attempted to do in the Gaza Envelope
Krav maga is a good start but I’d prefer to see our young people educated in all aspects of self defense and adopt Jabotinsky’s teachings for that simply he said “Jews learn to shoot”. He also said “it is better to have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have it”.
We took a special birthday trip to Israel during Chanukah and we took a tour of the Gaza Envelope and our hearts and minds were seared by what we saw and then we read a must read of a book entitled One Day in October . All of that was on top of the Tzedaka we gave and pro Israel and IDF events we attended in our community .Don’t wait for a mission-go and see what Hamas attempted to do the Jewish People
Saw it yesterday in the theater. Excellent, but for anyone keeping up on the issues they will know everything in it already (they should still buy a ticket). I thought throughout the film this is something people who are not already Israel-supporters need to see.
I cant bear to see it. Its too much for me to take. I am immersed in the nightmare every day through media etc but I just cant bring myself to watch the actual footage. But I don't need to. The horrible deluded people who are complaining about Israel's response (but aren't the actual pro Hamas monsters) need to see it.
Gut gesagt. Really well said, and your conclusion is spot on. I live in Israel and my part-time job in journalism through the breaking news of October 7 tested every aspect of me to the point that I signed up to join groups for disconnecting from the news and even a group for a social-worker-led session to decompress - only to be taught a simple breathing exercise. We were all local, though it had been open to foreign press as well. So much for that.|
I am curious whether anyone who is not in the echo chamber really wants to know. Would they come? Why aren't church groups and rotary clubs sponsoring outings I wonder?
Yes, the terror tourism stymied me from the start. In those early days of missions, you could still sense the presence of the residents.
I think, as second gen to my Auschwitz-surviving mother, what neighbors would seek to walk through empty homes, but for to loot. them? I go dark quickly.
And don't start me on seeing "influencers" showing up to take a photo-op with a Press vest on.
Your line: "I thought: Why must I live the burdened life of a Jew, saddled with the heartache of this moment, while my fellow citizens spend a Sunday evening at the movies, laughing, enjoying their snacks?" stirs my memory of being in public school in southern Maryland and being taunted for my non-blond and prominent nosed visage from elementary school onward, and incorporating that this DNA was my inheritance and all that came with it. Nose jobs and hair dye were not soloution, it was my burden and had been to all my ancestors for thounsands of years.
I feel a gulf very often between my compatriots in Israel and in the land of my birth, hell, all Jews abroad. We are sent to shelters during missile fire, our sons and relations are in uniform swallowing the dust of Gaza and elsewhere for sometimes hundreds of days each, their wives carrying on the unfair share of childcare, work, and so much I can't list, all with pride and commitment and even smiles to motivate each other, It has been an enormous privilege to witness Am Yisrael in these times.
I realize you are confused abroad that this war is testing your sense of entitlement. You don't really blend in so well. It is brave to put out a lawn sign, wear outward signs of solidarity, But really truly, I am more than a little prickly on this subject.
I did do some minimal volunteer hot-house harvesting in the Otef communities and we were taken to the areas where the shocking horrors took place. It stunk of war. it is not like viewing a movie, There were not yet organized memorials and I could see artillery smoke a few kilometers away. I will not easily forget that experience.
I, too, am confused, but I have gotten to see what our future looks like, These young people give me hope. I am grateful to have witnessed this.
I saw the Oct. 8th documentary with a non Jewish self described secular Zionist friend. Because I'm pretty effing old, I met non Jewish kids years ago on my first venture alone overseas, from Wales and England who were not Jews and convinced me to work on a kibbutz. I did. It was directly post YK War. My good American friend was a non Jewish Irish American girl from Connecticut...studying to speak Hebrew like myself and the Soviet refugee kids. She impressed my WWII vet Kibbutz worker....touched his heart he told me in our common language, Hebrew, that a gentile girl was studying Hebrew. I wonder where are these people today and have they now donned keffiyahs and chant river to sea.....or maybe they influence their grandkids to have love and respect for Israel as they did.
You are absolutely right about needing to get outside of our echo chambers. Good luck to anyone who actually manages to make that happen. You can get it out there, but as they say, "you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink". You cannot make people watch this. Sadly, I think it is preaching to the choir.
Although I don't expect it, THIS is the documentary that ought to win an Oscar. This is all horribly real, unlike the manufactured incidents from the makers of the fake pallywood propaganda "documentary" No Other Land, a title which itself was appropriated from Jews referring to Israel as the Jewish homeland.
I watched the original videos. Will never get those horrible awful images scrubbed from my brain. Hamas must be eliminated-there’s no other answer to this kind of hatred & violence.
Just seeing the photo, within this humble essay, of dear Shiri and her babies turned my stomach. We all will never be the same. No one in the nations care.
The discomfort the author is feeling from the movie screening may be due to the dissonance between the tragedy of the events and the trivialization thrill seeking viewers turn the event into.
The carnival atmosphere created by too many tourists to Auschwitz is another example of taking something horrifically tragic and turning it into a spectacle for one's amusement
I believe that it is pertinent for people to go and be witnesses to the atrocities committed at the massacre sites. As we have learned there will always be people who deny the Holocaust and minimize numbers, evil, policy. And the same will happen with October 7. The more witnesses and evidence that exist to rebut future antisemitic denials, the more protection of the memory of victims. You call it tourism (and I sincerely hope not) and I call it duty.
If enough people go to watch October 8 it would make commercial sense for movie theaters to keep screening and even extend the screenings outside of North America. And who knows, maybe even onto streaming services. My final comment is that dishing out popcorn to fress while watching is bizarre.
The only adequate response and the only adequate memorial to October 7 will be the declaration of Israeli sovereignty over Gaza, Judea and Samaria and the population of these areas by Jews en masse, many of whom will come from North America. As for the "Palestinians" in these areas they will be locked down for fifty years, free to leave whenever they want.
You captured so much of what is going on in our heads and in our lives these days, those of us in N. America, and you did it with both personal humility and respect for the victims. I have avoided watching any footage of what happened on Oct. 7 because I am a wimp. Just reading about it robs me of sleep and threatens my mental stability, so I admire your courage to face the carnage and to wrestle with your own reaction to October 7th and everything that has happened since. I had the same surreal reaction at Auschwitz-Birkenau. There was an obscenity about its having become a tourist attraction, an exercise to stimulate the Polish economy. I am still not sure whether my presence there was a desecration or not. When you describe our attempts to ‘signal’ our support of the hostages with our attendance at rallies and events, our dogtags and yellow ribbons, I am reminded of the signaling of the other side with their encampments, flags and kefiyahs. Having taken an abrupt political right turn at the ripe old age of 77, I find so many of my Jewish friends still face more to the left. My otherwise revered and adored Toronto friend, the late Tony Wallis, used to embarrass us with his rightwing attitudes about Israel’s security. I am glad he didn’t live long enough to see how right he was, and I am sad that I rolled my eyes in such complete naiveté.
Getting mugged by reality tends to drive us towards conservatism. Me too.
Great article. Preaching to the choir is pointless. Getting this movie into High Schools and colleges in the US and Canada must be mandatory viewing.
Not only in US or Canadian schools, especially in countries like Ireland, Belgium, Norway, Spain, The Netherlands, France, in all Europe, in Asia. Everywhere.
I have to say that I agree with everything that you’ve written. Back in November 2023 I was already questioning this “macabre “ new tourism, visiting the Gaza envelope and the Nova Festival site. Everyone was going, is still going and I can’t understand why. The same goes with the October 8 film. We don’t need thousands of Jews going to see this, we need everyone else. This must not become some kind of fundraising event, it has to be shown in theatres and at political events. Everything has changed, we all know that. What tools are you giving us to combat this prejudice? Why haven’t there been Krav Maga classes offered to every university student? That’s where the money must go, not for public relations anymore.
I don’t think you can appreciate what happened on 10/7 and have any real sense of empathy until and unless you have seen what Hamas attempted to do in the Gaza Envelope
Krav maga is a good start but I’d prefer to see our young people educated in all aspects of self defense and adopt Jabotinsky’s teachings for that simply he said “Jews learn to shoot”. He also said “it is better to have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have it”.
We took a special birthday trip to Israel during Chanukah and we took a tour of the Gaza Envelope and our hearts and minds were seared by what we saw and then we read a must read of a book entitled One Day in October . All of that was on top of the Tzedaka we gave and pro Israel and IDF events we attended in our community .Don’t wait for a mission-go and see what Hamas attempted to do the Jewish People
Saw it yesterday in the theater. Excellent, but for anyone keeping up on the issues they will know everything in it already (they should still buy a ticket). I thought throughout the film this is something people who are not already Israel-supporters need to see.
I cant bear to see it. Its too much for me to take. I am immersed in the nightmare every day through media etc but I just cant bring myself to watch the actual footage. But I don't need to. The horrible deluded people who are complaining about Israel's response (but aren't the actual pro Hamas monsters) need to see it.
And sadly, tragically, too many of those deluded people who need to see it are our fellow Jews.
Gut gesagt. Really well said, and your conclusion is spot on. I live in Israel and my part-time job in journalism through the breaking news of October 7 tested every aspect of me to the point that I signed up to join groups for disconnecting from the news and even a group for a social-worker-led session to decompress - only to be taught a simple breathing exercise. We were all local, though it had been open to foreign press as well. So much for that.|
I am curious whether anyone who is not in the echo chamber really wants to know. Would they come? Why aren't church groups and rotary clubs sponsoring outings I wonder?
Yes, the terror tourism stymied me from the start. In those early days of missions, you could still sense the presence of the residents.
I think, as second gen to my Auschwitz-surviving mother, what neighbors would seek to walk through empty homes, but for to loot. them? I go dark quickly.
And don't start me on seeing "influencers" showing up to take a photo-op with a Press vest on.
Your line: "I thought: Why must I live the burdened life of a Jew, saddled with the heartache of this moment, while my fellow citizens spend a Sunday evening at the movies, laughing, enjoying their snacks?" stirs my memory of being in public school in southern Maryland and being taunted for my non-blond and prominent nosed visage from elementary school onward, and incorporating that this DNA was my inheritance and all that came with it. Nose jobs and hair dye were not soloution, it was my burden and had been to all my ancestors for thounsands of years.
I feel a gulf very often between my compatriots in Israel and in the land of my birth, hell, all Jews abroad. We are sent to shelters during missile fire, our sons and relations are in uniform swallowing the dust of Gaza and elsewhere for sometimes hundreds of days each, their wives carrying on the unfair share of childcare, work, and so much I can't list, all with pride and commitment and even smiles to motivate each other, It has been an enormous privilege to witness Am Yisrael in these times.
I realize you are confused abroad that this war is testing your sense of entitlement. You don't really blend in so well. It is brave to put out a lawn sign, wear outward signs of solidarity, But really truly, I am more than a little prickly on this subject.
I did do some minimal volunteer hot-house harvesting in the Otef communities and we were taken to the areas where the shocking horrors took place. It stunk of war. it is not like viewing a movie, There were not yet organized memorials and I could see artillery smoke a few kilometers away. I will not easily forget that experience.
I, too, am confused, but I have gotten to see what our future looks like, These young people give me hope. I am grateful to have witnessed this.
I saw the Oct. 8th documentary with a non Jewish self described secular Zionist friend. Because I'm pretty effing old, I met non Jewish kids years ago on my first venture alone overseas, from Wales and England who were not Jews and convinced me to work on a kibbutz. I did. It was directly post YK War. My good American friend was a non Jewish Irish American girl from Connecticut...studying to speak Hebrew like myself and the Soviet refugee kids. She impressed my WWII vet Kibbutz worker....touched his heart he told me in our common language, Hebrew, that a gentile girl was studying Hebrew. I wonder where are these people today and have they now donned keffiyahs and chant river to sea.....or maybe they influence their grandkids to have love and respect for Israel as they did.
You are absolutely right about needing to get outside of our echo chambers. Good luck to anyone who actually manages to make that happen. You can get it out there, but as they say, "you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink". You cannot make people watch this. Sadly, I think it is preaching to the choir.
Although I don't expect it, THIS is the documentary that ought to win an Oscar. This is all horribly real, unlike the manufactured incidents from the makers of the fake pallywood propaganda "documentary" No Other Land, a title which itself was appropriated from Jews referring to Israel as the Jewish homeland.
I watched the original videos. Will never get those horrible awful images scrubbed from my brain. Hamas must be eliminated-there’s no other answer to this kind of hatred & violence.
Just seeing the photo, within this humble essay, of dear Shiri and her babies turned my stomach. We all will never be the same. No one in the nations care.
I just found the movie showing near me and want to go.
The discomfort the author is feeling from the movie screening may be due to the dissonance between the tragedy of the events and the trivialization thrill seeking viewers turn the event into.
The carnival atmosphere created by too many tourists to Auschwitz is another example of taking something horrifically tragic and turning it into a spectacle for one's amusement
I believe that it is pertinent for people to go and be witnesses to the atrocities committed at the massacre sites. As we have learned there will always be people who deny the Holocaust and minimize numbers, evil, policy. And the same will happen with October 7. The more witnesses and evidence that exist to rebut future antisemitic denials, the more protection of the memory of victims. You call it tourism (and I sincerely hope not) and I call it duty.
If enough people go to watch October 8 it would make commercial sense for movie theaters to keep screening and even extend the screenings outside of North America. And who knows, maybe even onto streaming services. My final comment is that dishing out popcorn to fress while watching is bizarre.