Days of awe and repentance: Where are the commemorations for Oct. 6 and Oct. 8? | Opinion

This week, Jewish people all over the world are observing the Days of Awe, a stretch of 10 days between Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, a fast day, and the holiest day of the year. During these 10 days, time is suspended as we reflect on the past year in order to do better in the coming one.

This year, 5785 on the Jewish calendar, is particularly painful as it marks a year of disaster, a second Nakba in which the state of Israel has displaced 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, razed cities, killed over 42,000 people, ramped up the violent occupation of the West Bank and courted war with Lebanon, Syria, Iran, and Yemen.

This stage of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people began on Oct. 8 of last year, in response to the deadly attack on Oct. 7, when Palestinian fighters broke through the separation fence that surrounds the Gaza Strip, killed nearly 1,200 Israelis including children and people at a concert, and took over 250 hostages.

We believe that it is possible to mourn this immense cycle of violence, to feel grief and anger and frustration for murdered Israelis and Palestinians alike, and also to hold the greater context in our heads at the same time: the absolute injustice of Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and lives.

While Oct. 7 is a date forever marked in our collective history, we implore you to deeply consider the conditions in Palestine that existed on Oct. 6 and also the terrifying violence that Israel has perpetrated in the 365-plus days since Oct. 7.

This complex geopolitical struggle is actually very simple. During this somber time, we must continue to prioritize truth, peace and justice, lest this horror continue unabated. We cannot afford to feel paralyzed when our voices are desperately needed to get the US to stop sending arms to Israel.

We have much work to do and for some, these Days of Awe 5785 may be a starting point.

We must put Oct. 7 in its proper historical context. This war started not on October 7, but closer to 76 years ago, when the State of Israel was created and hundreds of thousands of Palestinans were expelled from their homeland. Since then, millions of Palestinians have lived as displaced people, under occupation while Israel, with billions of dollars in US funding, has built a high-tech, sometimes invisible apartheid system dressed up in the guise of security.

We must acknowledge as Americans that Israel has been laying the social and cultural groundwork for genocide against Palestinians since at least 1948 and the systematic destruction of Gaza bears all of the historical hallmarks of genocide. This past year has made it clear that the Israeli government and military is willing to kill and harm indiscriminately, to dehumanize, to displace entire communities, and to use collective punishment and disinformation — all tools of genocide.

We must shut down Israel’s co-opting of the definition of antisemitism. Despite what many would have you believe, it is not antisemitic to criticize Israel or challenge Zionism. As proud Jews living in Idaho, we know what antisemitism is and saying this war must stop or that Israel is a colonial state is not it. Our safety as Jews is wholly intertwined with freedom and justice for Palestine.

We must use our power to demand an arms embargo on Israel and that our lawmakers direct that money to things like recovery from Hurricanes Helene and Milton. We know it feels like there is nothing we can do from thousands of miles away, but the US spends billions of dollars a year to send massive amounts of arms to Israel. If we can stop that, this war will end. You do have a voice and we do not have to be complicit in this genocide.

This year, during these High Holy Days, which are also a time of repentance, we take responsibility for our imperfect solidarity with the Palestinian movement for freedom, for our moments of silence during this heightened period of violence and for our complicity in this genocide as American taxpayers and as Jewish Americans who benefit from our privileged status. We mourn the tens of thousands of lives lost — Palestinian, Israeli and now Lebanese — and we fear for the many more that will likely die in the weeks and months to come.

The liturgy of this season instructs us to choose life. In the coming year let’s commit to stopping this genocide and fighting for a future where everyone is free, equal, and safe. In Judaism we say that every life is a universe and to save even one life is to save a world. Let’s mourn the dead and fight for the living.

This story was originally published October 11, 2024 at 4:00 AM.