The anniversary of October 7 weighs heavily as Jews enter the High Holy Days

On a table outside Rabbi Zachary Zysman’s office at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, six portraits of hostages killed by Hamas are weighted by a small stone placed there as an act of remembrance.

Nearby, a stack of pamphlets for the Krav Maga self-defense class sit on a stack of paper on which people can write prayers, eventually being tucked into the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

Zysman, chaplain of Jewish life at Loyola Marymount, has carefully prepared for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, which begins at sundown Wednesday, and Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, later this month. In the midst of the Jewish High Holy Days comes the anniversary of October 7, the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust.

The one-year anniversary would be difficult no matter when it happens, but Zysman said it’s especially poignant “at a time when we’re thinking about repentance, renewal and hope.”

His flock is small but close-knit. Loyola Marymount is a Jesuit university with approximately 10,000 students, 375 of whom are Jewish.

“One of the messages I repeat over and over to my students is: What is our responsibility to each other?”

‘Who will live?’ It sounds different after October 7

Along with other chaplains on campus, Zysman has hosted speaker series, workshops and roundtables on anti-Semitism and Islamophobia over the past year, but the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur will be less about education and more about personal and communal religious devotion. for students.

The motif of death is common in High Holy Day liturgies, and Zysman said: “Who will live? and ‘Who will die?’ Resonate deeper this year.

According to the Israeli government, more than 1,200 Israelis, all non-Jewish, died in the Hamas attacks on October 7, and 100 Israelis are still being held hostage by Hamas. More than 41,500 people were killed in Gaza during the ensuing Israeli bombardment, according to Palestinian health officials.

Loyola Marymount senior Maya Golban says many people have been thinking about her life and death since Oct. 7.

“I personally cannot change the politics of the Middle East, but what I can do is honor the people who lost their lives.”

Golban said he became much more active in Jewish groups on campus in the past year, sometimes feeling defensive and having to justify his beliefs over and over again.

As we enter the High Holy Days, he said, he continues to “pray for the peace and security of all in the region—Israeli, Palestinian, and Bedouin.”

Students focus on intense spiritual preparation

In the weeks leading up to the High Holy Days, Rabbi Jocee Hudson was teaching a luncheon lecture on the campus of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He is the rabbi of the Hillel Jewish Center just across the street.

“Welcome everyone. Let’s keep our feet on the ground,” said Hudson, as students finished vegan enchiladas from Hillel, while others snuck in at the last minute. “From what we gathered, today’s question is ‘What’s in your heart?'”

Hudson opened the class by leading the group of about ten students through a centering exercise.

“We root ourselves in presence.” He said, “We are putting down roots here right now. While chanting the blessings of Torah study.”

Together, the class recited the Hebrew prayer, which translates as: “Blessed are you, O our God, King of the Universe, who has blessed us and commanded us to study the words of the Torah.”

Among those taking this course is senior Dylan Julia Cooper.

“Right after October 7th,” he said, “we held a beautiful memorial service on campus. And it was also really hard because people came to protest. And it was really hard because of my pain to hold my crying friends in my arms and know that people were protesting 20 feet away.

Cooper, who majored in anthropology and theater, said this has been a year of perseverance and that Oct. 7 falling in the middle of the High Holy Days “is a reminder of how much we can endure as a community, as a universe.”

Cooper said he used the weeks before Rosh Hashanah to figure out how to get over his frustration with the protests.

“My Jewish friends, my Muslim friends, my Palestinian friends, my Israeli friends,” Cooper says, “I want them all to feel supported and loved by me. And I don’t think holding in my anger or grudges is a good way to do that.”

Sitting next to Cooper in the classroom was USC junior Matan Marder Friedgood. He described the past year as a tense one.

“I have a friend who is not Jewish and is taking a Jewish studies course,” he said. ”He says, ‘Oh, Matan, you’re a Jew!’ And I feel nervous. I was like, ‘What is this going to be about? What will happen?

But in this story, it turns out that he was more worried than he should have been.

“’What is the Sabbath morning service?’ he asks. “This is the most benign question,” he said. “In short, it was that year: ‘You are Jewish.’ “Uh oh.”

But for Marder Friedgood, this intensity meant the discovery of something about himself that he found surprising.

“My connection to Judaism has become stronger because of the pressure that has been put on it,” he said. Because of the oppression, my bond with other Jews grew stronger. And I’m much more willing to publicly embrace that.

Students seek opportunities for ‘Jewish joy’

Marder Friedgood asks himself how he and his community can put aside the fear and anxiety of the past year and welcome the Jewish New Year with sweetness.

“How can we bring back Jewish Joy?” he wondered. “How do we reconnect all the positive things—what it means to be Jewish, all the wonderful things, all the reasons why we love it—and hold the sadness and grief at the same time?”

These are questions many Jews are asking themselves ahead of both the High Holy Days and the October 7th anniversary. These are questions that cannot be answered easily.

“It was only through very real experiences of grief that I realized the capacity for true joy,” said Hillel Rabbi Jocee Hudson. “This comes in the context of time after October 7, when we all experienced deep anguish in the Jewish community.”

“Our pain continues as we see tens of thousands of Palestinians also killed,” he said. “And there are students who have deep reactions to this, deep moral outrage.”

This anger is why preparations for this year’s High Holy Days are so intense.

“When our hearts are torn by grief, there are two possibilities: One is to retreat. The other is to reach out. And that is spiritual work,” said Hudson.

This is a spiritual work that many 19, 20 or 21 year olds ask about. But what college student Matan Marder Friedgood wants to help his community do together, even on October 7, is spiritual work. He and a roommate are planning a vigil on the University of Southern California campus that day.

“We’re both musicians, and so we’re trying to liven up the space by creating an atmosphere that has all the sadness and all the grief – I think we have a 10-piece band that will be playing Israeli and Jewish music. and all the anger. And we look to the future.”

This is a new year, a future marked by hope for peace rather than the carnage of war. Marder Friedgood plans to end the vigil by teaching those gathered to say a Hebrew prayer for peace.

The closing sentence of the medieval prayer known as the Kaddish. One translation reads: “May he who makes peace in heaven bring peace to us and to all the people of Israel. Let’s say ‘Amen’.”