By MANDY ALLEN
How do you commemorate a catastrophe that is still ongoing? The way we always have – by uniting to honour the memories of those taken from us. But also, by doing what we must – moving forward with an amplified sense of resilience, Jewish pride and hope.
We have barely been able to catch our breath, yet here we are… One year, twelve months, 365 days, 8 760 hours, 525 600 minutes since October 7th. How does one mark such a day? What do we focus on, when there is just so much? Too many lives lost. The well-documented horrors that echo a violence we know all too well. Israeli communities shattered. Homes destroyed. The ordeal of the hostages.
The anguish of their families and loved ones. The concern for our soldiers, bravely defeating a diabolical enemy.
The alarming rise in antisemitism. The reality (and with it, a sense of isolation and a breach of trust) that there are elements within society – in our personal and professional circles – who don’t seem to care. Worse, that there are those who justify, intellectualise, normalise and support the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust while glorifying the perpetrators.
There will be many emotions on this day, when the Jewish world comes together to honour the memory of 1 200 precious Israeli souls and the hundreds more we have lost since then. Rather than lose ourselves in the darkness, however, let us remember the words of the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: “There are always two ways to live in a world that is often dark and full of tears. We can curse the darkness or we can light a light. And a little light drives out much darkness.”
It is in our DNA to live by the tenets of zachor (‘to remember’) and lo tishkach, (‘do not forget’). Also in our DNA, deeply embedded, is tikvah – hope. In Judaism, tikvah is more than a verb. It is the anthem of our nation and describes the act of combining a multiplicity of strands, and coiling those into a single, much stronger cable. October the 7th was a devastation, but it was also an awakening of Jewish pride and a reminder of our resilience and unity. May the memory of those we have lost be a blessing. Am Y’Israel Chai.
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